Estes Park, Granby, Kremling, Steamboat Springs

Estes Park, Granby, Kremling, Steamboat Springs

As you can very well see, blogging has taken somewhat of a back burner
here in the Great state of Colorado. Everyday here has been absolutely
amazing. Currently blogging from a place called "coffee books friends"
definitely my kind if place.

The ride to Estes Park was hard, we had to climb some pretty steep
hills- but beautiful. The descent into the town itself was by far the
best downhill ride of the trip thus far. Perfect weather (well
everyday has been sunny, we are in the state where it's sunny 300 days
a year after all) and a gorgeous view while zooming down at 30 mph-
very satisfying after the tough morning climb. The place we stayed was
Eagle Rock school, which was this fantastic private school for
troubled youth funded completely by Honda. I encourage you to look it
up and check it out!

The day of Granby was the best day of the trip thus far- on so many
different levels! Every other day I feel like I say "today was the
best day ever" but really- this day was something special. The morning
began with homemade breakfast burritos, homemade granola, yogurt and
blueberries-all provided by Judy, a volunteer at her local Habitat who
has been providing the meals for the Bike and Build teams for the past
six years! She was so great, as well as her food (she made a delicious
dinner the night previous as well). As we were finishing breakfast,
Will P got everyone's attention and began to read a poem-to ask me out
to the Bike & Build Prom which was to occur that night. The very
eloquent and clever poem worked it's magic and I accepted the
invitation as well as the flowers he had picked. It was very sweet. On
to the ride. WOW, words cannot describe adaquately the beauty that is
Rocky Mtn Nat Park and Trail Ridge Road. The entire day I could not
keep the smile off my face. If you don't know, Trail Ridge road takes
you to an elevation of 12,183 feet up a mountain. I biked that! Little
Kristen biked up another mountain, a bigger mountain! Pictures cannot
even begin to do this beauteous creation and nature justice. There was
a Very strong headwind at the top of the mountains which almost
knocked several of us off our bikes! But we all made it. There was
snow at the top and I was able to utilize my arm and leg warmers.
Wildlife we saw: marmots, elk, moose, deer, prarie dogs, and lots of
birds. Another thing we saw was the 4k for Cancer bike group- who are
are also bikin across this country for a noble cause. The downhill was
nice, not quite as pretty as the ride up, but still beautiful. It was
almost easy biking up the mountain because there were so many
wonderful things to look at to destract me from the fact that I was
crawling slowly up at 3-4 mph in my lowest granny gear. Anywho...after
we arrived in Granby and a visit to thrift store for some last minute
prom acessories, preparation for prom began. This was a big deal- and
had been in the works for weeks. There was a prom comittee, photo
station, decorations, and voting for prom court and prom king and
queen. Soon everyone dressed in the best (or worst/wacky) outfit they
had put together after several visits to Goodwill or local trift
stores. My dress was green and I wore a sparkly gold jacket with
shoulder pads. It was absolutley fabulous, the only thing that could
have made it better was if we could have seen the fireworks- but after
waiting on the playground with Will and Jen for thirty minutes without
any luck, we headed back to the dance floor. Someone (Noah I think)
had the bright idea of turning on everyone's blinky bike head and tail
lights, so that made it seem much more like a real dance. We had so
much fun! The night ended perfectly with star gazing, seeing the milky
way and shooting stars, and sleeping outside surrounded by peace,
love, stars and mountains. What a perfect day.

The next morning we got to sleep in! For one, we had a late night with
prom, two it was the fourth of July, and three it was only a 26 mile
ride to Kremling-downhill!! So we didn't leave until after 12, some
time at a local coffee shop and Lots of cleaning. The ride proved to
be a little more difficult than expected, due to a very strong
headwind. We've experienced more wind in Colorado than Kansas! Our
arrival at the campsite was followed by unloading the trailer and
pitching tents. This was our first time camping! So much fun! Because
this week I am on dinner crew, we made some rice, beans and hot dogs
mixture with some salad. Still very windy and the temperature dropped
rapidly. I put many layers of clothes on and was still cold. We walked
to downtown Kremling to watch the 4th of July fireworks which they
shoot off the cliff. Slept wonderfully in a tent bundled up, but
waking up was Rough!

It was so cold this morning there was ice on the tents! Many more
layers were added and we were off biking, numb fingers and toes for
many miles. A couple thousand feet climb up Rabbit Ear pass, and then
a great descent for over 7 miles into Steamboat Springs. Now we are
here, ready to relax for our day off!!!!

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