Yesterday was Leon's last day in Boulder as he had to cut his US season short to return to Melbourne, Australia due to a family emergency. So, we went all out and road five hours out past Carter Lake, up through Estes Park, and back down Hwy 36 back into Boulder. Our ride was an eventful one even though we tried leaving the house early enough -6:45AM- so we could have the roads to ourselves.
The fun started on the roads out by Carter Lake where we were riding single file when a suburban came up from behind, honked, and ran us into the ditch. Leon provided enough finger jesters for the both of us -- which was good because I was wearing Craft lobster finger gloves and could not relay an effective F-U. For being 8AM on a Saturday, the driver of this car must have serious self-esteem issues to bother two harmless cyclists. I hope karma is a bitch for you, whoever you are...
Next stop was Estes Park where I was looking forward to a hot vanilla latte. I had spent the previous two hours staring at Leon's wheel - I can provide you all the details; Continental Duraskin tire, Shimano wheel, etc, since I got to know that wheel intimately following it for so long. We severely underestimated the dedication of folks of Scottish heritage. When we rolled into Estes Park, which plays host to one of the largest Scottish festivals in the US. There were traffic jams everywhere and the main street in downtown was blocked to make way for thousands of marching kilt wearing, bagpipe blowing, parade marchers.
Since we couldn't get to Kind Coffee (my motivation to make it up the 20-miles of climbing) we resorted to our backup plan of the Phillips gas station. In honor of Craig "Mad Dog" McKenzie, I scarfed down two bags (2 for $1.00) of Blue Gummi Sharks. Once back on our bikes, we faced a four mile climb back out of Estes before the long 22-mile downhill into Lyons.
While we were passing by the Estes Lake, the kilted Scots moved onto their next game - Shooting live cannon balls at inflatable Lochness Monsters!! Talk about getting our heart rate and blood flowing again - we laughed about getting chased out of town by cannon ball fire!
An uneventful downhill got us into Lyons and back onto Hwy 36 for the 14 miles back into Boulder. While we were moving back at snails pace on one of the uphills (36 is a deceitful route to return to town after a long ride) we saw an amazing horned elk sprinting (in the form of bounding) from the opposite side of the highway. He leaped over one barbed wire fence, through the ditch, over the road - thankfully no cars or bikes got in his way, passed 10 meters in front of us, down through the ditch, over another fence, and sprinted 400 meters straight up into the foothills. What an amazing creature!
We said goodbye to Leon for the summer but look out for this guy to start rocking the Ironman circuit when he steps foot on the Western Australia course this December. But, he'll have to battle it out with our other Aussie housemate, Gavin Scott, who should be coming into good form about that time.
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