Greetings from Denver, Colorado!!! Yesterday was probably the best day of the tour yet. As for the rest of the past week I'll try a quick recap, it will be spotty as is my memory of the past week. Trust me, when you have a head cold and are stuffed up and biking 140km+ daily you wouldn't remember it all either. But here we go. On Wednesday we left Craig, CO for Kremmling, CO but to get there we climbed what I think was our hardest mountain pass of the tour, Rabbit Ears Pass (elev. 9412 ft). Named for two pieces of rock that are visible on top of a nearby mountain. On the way down the mountain we hit top speeds again and encountered a flock of sheep taking up half the road. Very strange, but funny at the same time. Thursday was our shortest ride of the tour at 55km to Snow Mountain Ranch YMCA at the Rockies (just 10 miles west of Winter Park, CO) the highest resting point of the tour at 8750 ft. Friday we had a farewell service for the 13 people who will be leaving us today from Denver as this is the end of the first stage of the tour. Everyone who is finishing said a little something and someone else also said something about that person. The whole thing was very nice, and after we had Communion. I will miss 4 of them especially as we have rode together on numerous occasions. But we also are having 13 people joining us for the second section (Denver to Grand Rapids).
Yesterday as I said was the best ride yet. The scenery was amazing, the people I rode with were a lot of fun and we got to Denver, finishing our 4th week on the road. We started the day biking through Winter Park on our way to Berthoud Pass, the highest pass we have gone and are going through at 11,307 ft. The altitude over the past week from Salt Lake to Denver has affected a handful of people with altitude sickness unfortunately. Thankfully I didn't feel any affects of the thinner air other than being short of breath once and a while. The way down the pass was one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life. There is nothing like flying done switchbacks, back and forth, squeezing the tight turns faster than the cars could and letting her rip at 85.5km/hr (Mom I'm completely ok. If it makes you feel better we are out of the mountains and I won't have the chance to even reach anywhere near that speed again). We stopped at the bottom of the pass in the town of Empire, CO at a coffee shop to let our heart rates and adrenaline return to normal levels. We then continued (most of the day was downhill, as we nearly dropped a full mile in altitude from the top of Berthoud Pass to Denver). After another 2 hours or so of biking we stopped in the tourist town of Evergreen, CO very nice. Pretty much immediately out of Evergreen was a tight downhill canyon road pretty much to the outside of Denver (well, technically Lakewood, a suburb of Denver). This canyon was intense!! Tight turns, shifting winds, narrow shoulders, and no room for error. I would seriously consider moving there just for this stretch of road. There is not much that is more exciting than flying down a foot wide shoulder, with cars just passing, traffic coming against, and a rocky cliff edge or plunge into the rapids a few metres over the railing. Not to mention an average speed of 45-50km/hr at the same time. But that was just the riding day.
When we got to Denver Christian School we were greeted with cheerleaders, music, shouting, and clapping. Along with cookies and water and anything you could imagine. We've never had a welcome like this yet. That night me and two friends, Shawn and Brent, decided to go watch a movie. A local had graciously offered to drive us to the theatre. The movie was really good, but ended at 12:30. We had told Paul (the guy who dropped us off) not to pick us up is it would be too late, we didn't even tell him when it was ending. He however came and picked us up anyway. But that's not the end of our night, errrr morning? Anyway, he happens to work at a bakery, but not a small family shop bakery, an industrial sized, loaves of bread on conveyors through the air over our heads bakery. After the tour of the place, which was pretty big and very impressive he decided to give us a downtown tour of Denver at 1:15am. Which was awesome as we are going down there in a few minutes to go downtown and spend the day. So, the shuttle downtown is now leaving. So I must end this. Thankyou everyone again for your support!!!
Peace&GodBless
Matt
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