The good, the bad, and the riding in Boulder

Boulder, CO
Friday, August 04, 2006

I did an epic 5 and a half hour ride today. I knew I had a long one to do and that I’d need to have a lot of climbing in it so I went on Google to find a good route. I decided that I’d go up Flagstaff, take highway 72 to highway 7, and then turn right on highway 36 and finish with the old stage climb into Boulder. Google didn’t mention that between Flagstaff and 72 there’s a bad dirt road called gross dam drive. It’s steep, pretty rugged and covered with woop-de-doos. Aside from that the route was endless climbing. I was pretty much either descending or ascending for the entire 5.5 hours. So it turned out to be really good. I got to see some of the towns that the rest of the guys are always talking about and experience the exquisite Boulder riding. It’s quite good really. Not to mention that I probably ended up climbing somewhere in the range of 10,000 feet at above 5500 feet...
I was amazed that people live (& are allowed to live) out in the middle of nowhere though. Even when I was on the dirt “connecting road” there were houses all over the place. No wonder Colorado’s got so many ski areas, in Washington they won’t allow you to come within an inch of the forest. A different bunch I guess eh?
By the way, that picture was taken with my mad camera skills at the last second. I saw the sign and whipped the phone out of my pocket and barely managed to get the shot off... all this without slowing at all, 'cause deviating from the pace is the same as hubris for me...