Copper Triangle

Yesterday, Randy and I rode the Copper Triangle bike ride. It was an 82 mile ride over 3 mountain passes...Fremont Pass (elevation 11,318’), Tennessee Pass (elevation 10,424’) and Vail Pass (elevation 10,666’). We climbed over 6,000 feet and had some fast fun descending too (my max speed was 47mph!) You could start the ride between 5:30am and 8:00...by the time we arrived, got registered, and got our bikes and equipment ready it was 7:45. As we rolled out it was still freezing! The sun hadn't peaked over the mountains yet and the temperature was in the low 40's...brrrr! Right out of the parking lot it was a 45 min climb, so by the time we reached to top we had warmed up considerably and I was able to really start enjoying the ride. The day turned out to be absolutely beautiful! They had aid stations set up about every 20miles and it was great to stop and get some yummy food rather than the normal stuff ya carry with you. We had fruit, oreos, trail mix, bagels, cookies, and pretzels.

After the race, we headed to Salida for the night. On sunday, I got up and ran along the river in Salida and it was pretty warm out (mid 90s) with the sun beating down. Towards the end of my run I could see the storm rolling over the mountain and the thunder in the distance. I jumped in the truck with Randy and we headed towards our next destination, Nathrop. On the 15 min drive the temp dropped 40 degrees!!!! Rain was pouring down and it was super windy, pure craziness! The storm passed pretty quickly so we were able to enjoy the Hot Springs at Mt. Princton. These hot springs are really cool because not only are there hot springs pools but there are warm spots in the creek. It took us awhile to find a perfect spot and right when we did another storm started rolling in. We were able to sit in our small hot springs while the freezing water roared by and the thunder rolled. We got to watch quite the lightening storm, which was amazing. What a perfect afternoon :) and weekend!