The last training ride.: Bring it on!

I started at the intersection of Hwy 65 and Road 45 1/2 - two miles before the town of Mesa. That two miles has 850 feet of climbing, so it’s a very real climb to get to Mesa town. There’s no warm up. When I did this ride in April, I parked in DeBeque and added that 12 miles. It’s a nice ride with lots of ups and downs to get in the mood to climb. I’m glad I did not do that today. There’s a significant construction zone (maybe a mile?) that was all mud. It wouldn’t have been fun on the bike. I didn’t start in DeBeque today because I was afraid I wouldn’t have the legs to do the hills on the return . . . that worked out big time for me since I missed the construction zone and I would have been riding in a downpour. Luckily today I stayed on the edges of the rain and I was mostly just a little wet and a lot cold. Fenders are mighty fine.

As a side note, at 10,000 feet where some of the lakes had melted, but there was still plenty of snow around, there were frogs singing like crazy. Why are they not freezing in the ice water?

There were also lots and lots of wild strawberries blooming on the edges of the snow. I was going to take a photo of them on the return, but it was raining then, so I didn’t.

I was very happy with my legs. It felt like just another tough ride. I've been trying to do plenty of tough rides this spring as it's going to be a tough tour. Hmm, I just used the word tough three times in a row. Fitting! Riding Grand Mesa is something I avoid because it's too hard. I really had to force myself out the door this morning. I equated it to taking castor oil, it's good for me, even if I don't want to do it.

End result is feeling very good. Confident in my legs and my breathing. The ride was a real moral booster. Just what I needed before the trip. I estimated riding at 3 mph with a 21 mile climb (7 hours on the bike). I had a 4.2 mph average at the top. I did very well. Yay for me!

I believe I'm good to go. Let's do this!

So far, so good. The rain is holding off. The mountain is Grand Mesa, where I am heading.

The first big overlook. I have several photos at this spot over the years. This one with less blue sky. But still no rain.

I rode my bike from way down there. No wonder I am sweating!

It's getting serious now. There's not much room for the road and there's still snow!

Grand Mesa is the largest flat topped mountain in the world. It also has 10,000 lakes. I don't know who did the counting. It was blissfully traffic free today. I think not enough snow for winter sports and too much snow/ice for fishing and summer sports.

I'm high enough in elevation here that the aspen do not have leaves. I am happy to say there are plenty of aspen and they look healthy.

Does the smile look forced? 10,861 feet. I was SO ready to be there. I no more than took the photo than it started to rain and continued raining for the entire descent. Timing is everything.

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