Day 49: Grand Lake to Estes Park, CO!!

Ride time: 3:58

Average:   7.2 mph

Distance:  28.96 mi

Woohoo!  We made it to Eagle Rock School!! We began our day riding through the gates of RMNP.  There wasn't a whole lot of traffic, and the roads had a nice shoulder.  Today is a big day--we have to ride up and over Trail Ridge Road.  This road runs through the park and its highest point is just over 12,000 feet high, way above the tree line, making it pretty scary in the afternoon when the thunderstorms begin.

We climbed, climbed, and climbed our way to Milner pass, our 19th and final divide crossing.  The pass is at 10, 758 feet, and it took us a lot of effort to get up there.  The road was all paved, but we began the morning at about 8,500 feet.  The temperature was nice for a such a grueling morning ride.

#19!

Grinding up Trail Ridge Road after the pass

Not looking forward to the ride down to Estes

Even though we crossed the divide, we still had to climb another 1,200 feet to get to the highest point on the road before we could begin descending into Estes Park.  We stopped at the Alpine Visitor Center (around 11,000 feet) to take a break and devise a plan for the rest of the day.  And here's the plan we came up with...we needed to find someone with a pickup truck that would be willing to throw our bikes in the back and give us a ride down to Estes!  First I asked a group of people, but they were headed towards Granby, so that didn't work.  Then it began to rain, so the parking lot was clearing out fast.  I went into the visitor center, and Nate had duty first.  He came back about five minutes later and said, "Come here and meet these super nice people that are going to give us a ride as soon as they finish their lunch."  George and Theresa are from Lincoln, Nebraska (how funny that our 4th of July experience was in Lincoln, MT), and they were on vacation.  We rode down in the safety of their truck as it rained outside.  If you've ever been on Trail Ridge Road, the drop offs are SUPER scary and there's no guardrail either.  I was quite glad that we decided to do this instead of riding down in the rain.

View from 12,000 feet

We ended up taking this wonderful couple out to lunch at Nepal's restaurant in Estes Park, which is Nate's favorite.  Then they were kind enough to drop us off at Eagle Rock, where we arrived just in time for the all-star softball game. 

Happy to be off the bike and on the Field of Dreams!