Every morning I wake up and see this:
By “every morning” I mean for the past 42 years since I’ve been coming to Snowmass, AND I mean, this particular week. Roy Halladay pitched a perfect game the other day, but God is pitching a perfect week here in the Valley of the Roaring Fork. While most years, the mornings looks just like this – clear blue sky – by noon or so, the mountains often generate their own clouds and incipient thunderstorms, making afternoon outdoor activities, especially up in those mountains, a little iffy.
Not this week. Every day, it’s 65-75, no clouds. Maybe a little windy, but not anything that a bush or rock can’t hide. Leigh is here this week, as well, an we both agree that THIS is the weather that one should have 6 days a week (the seventh would be rainy, so the grass and trees would stay green.)
Yesterday, I rode down to Glenwood and back on a combination of the Rio Grande Trail and local roads. Again, the weather was phenomenal. Calm wind in the morning, then a tail wind as I rode back uphill from the confluence of the Roaring Fork and the Colorado rivers. This ride is about as “flat” as anything gets around here, meaning it’s downhill from 8400’ to 5700’ over 43 miles, then back up again. Most of the way is on old rail grade, 1-2%, and on these sections, I was flying: 24 mph down, 20-22 up. I may have been pushing a bit too hard, as my power meter was not cooperating, because the last 1/2 hour, the 6 miles from Woody Creek back home, when the trail tilts up from 7300 to 8400 in a stair step of climbs from 10-20%, was just a slog fest for me – I was done, and had to skip my planned 30 minute run.
The route follows the Roaring Fork, often running right over or within the confines of the river channel or the side of its canyon. I took some movies, but still don’t know how to embed the video within the blog post, so can only provide links to YouTube pages where I parked them. I also don’t know how to edit out the bad parts, so it’s total potluck here.