September 28, 2021
Gentle Finale
Redstone to Glenwood Springs
The final day of our tour is here and it’s also the easiest day-a mild downhill coast back to Glenwood, where we began 10 days ago. Kelly is driving the luggage and plans to park the van and ride up Glenwood Cyn to the closure at Shoshone while Jim and I make the cruise to Glenwood. The weather is changing-while we have been blessed with one sunny day after another this trip, today there is a significant chance of showers and thunderstorms. Can we make it in without being rained upon? We shall see.
We ate leftovers and snacks in the cabin and I made 2 mini-pots of coffee and drank them prior to leaving Redstone. My legs were a bit stiff after yesterday’s fairly extreme exertion, but, all and all, better than I expected.
As we left Redstone we felt a very few raindrops “spitting” on us. This quickly subsided as we coasted down the road, following the Crystal River towards Carbondale.
As we arrived down into the valley below, we caught the bike path about 5 miles outside of Carbondale. We pedaled slowly, savoring the early morning air, the clouds above us, the lack of traffic and the countryside views around us. We quickly navigated through Carbondale to the Rio Grande bike path and continued down it at a very leisurely pace.
At some point we got an update from Kelly that she was only able to ride 4 miles up Glenwood Cyn before the path was gated closed-only half as far as we were able to ride 10 days ago. She decided to start up the Rio Grande trail towards us.
Sure enough, we did meet Kelly about 3 miles above Glenwood Springs. She planned to ride up to Carbondale and back. We resolved to meet later today to say our goodbyes.
We made it back to Glenwood without being rained upon, although the sky was threatening. Since it was too early to check in, we moved the luggage from the van to our vehicle and took the fenders off the bikes so they could be put on our bike rack. Then we locked the bikes on the rack and walked up the street for brunch.
By the time we finished eating, Kelly had finished her ride. So far, no rain.
Flash forward about 2 hours- it is raining in Glenwood Springs. We flipped on the news and it is snowing on most of the passes we just came over and in some of the higher elevation towns we stayed in. The forecast is for off and on precipitation for the next few days.
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All in all this has been a good tour. We all were able to ride as many days as we liked, the weather was unbelievably good and we caught the Fall colors perfectly. The days were fairly short mileage-wise, but intense in terms of elevation gain and riding conditions, and so provided a reasonable challenge that didn’t detract from the beauty we rode through. Neither Jim nor I, both native Californians, had ever seen high mountain Fall color and we loved it.
This was the first trip we have made since the beginning of the pandemic. It has been great to get away from home for a bit. However, I have been surprised at the disregard for common sense public health measures that we have seen while traveling. It is not at all surprising that the the virus is circulating strongly in many of these areas. This has made travel feel quite risky.
We will now drive north to Montana for a short visit with family. From there we will then head home next week.
Today's ride: 29 miles (47 km)
Total: 385 miles (620 km)
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3 years ago