Our first full day in Colorado, and I could not be more excited to experience biking my first mountain pass. I was still not feeling too well from the altitude, but adrenaline and excitement played enough of a counter-part.
Our morning became a very educational start to our trip. We woke up to two flat tires in the garage-Elizabeth and myself.
Elizabeth noticed her flat first, and she and I worked together to quickly change her tube so that we could pack up and get on the road. But when we finished up her tube change, I went to check the pressure in my tires, and discovered a front flat myself! At this point, Elizabeth had some additional time to have Cindy teach her how to patch her old tube.
So, I began changing my front tube as well, and once it was changed, began looking for the hole in my old tube. As I was pumping up the old tube, a huge "POP" made us all jump. My front tube was flat again!
Last Saturday I ran over something on the highway that slashed both my tire and tube. I had splinted it from the inside with a dollar bill and some duct tape (they were new tires! only a month old! I was not yet ready to buy another one!) Yet, the splint was not holding well enough, and the tube began to poke through and punctured the tube.
How frustrating!
After patching a few tires, and reinforcing my tire splint with some flexible cardboard, we were finally on our way to Copper, CO. We rode from Copper to Vail (up, up, and then an awesome desent down!), and enjoyed a nice lunch at a German resturant in Vail.
The ride back up from teh Vail side of the mountain was certainly more of a challenge, but I loved every second of it. The slow steady grind up the large grade was wonderful, and really my strength, and I certainly did not mind the ease and the speed of the descent down the mountain!
After that, it was back to the house for another nice dinner on the deck and planning for Trail Ridge Road tomorrow (the ride I was most looking forward to!) |