Scorched Earth (and legs)
Today was a rough one. I was up early and headed over to Lafayette for the Quaker Oatmeal Breakfast festival. I figured it would be a great and fun way to fuel up for the ride. Fueling up was the fun part. 200 odd toppings for oatmeal, plus oatmeal pancakes! Can’t beat that (even with a stick).
Since the breakfast ran late and I missed the Gateway ride, I decided (dumbly) that I would climb Left Hand Canyon up to Ward today and then take the Peak to Peak to St. Vrain and back down. Well, I felt fine and dandy heading out on the ride, and started to get into a groove climbing, but it slowly fell apart. The bolts came loose and the tires fell off the bus. I struggled, much more-so than I should. Only thing I can think is the poor sleep. The dog had some tummy issues and was up about every hour asking to go out. I always have the shittiest legs when I don’t sleep well and it shows in the power file below
I almost made it to Ward. I made it to the water spring filled my bottles and turned around. The wind was blowing so freakin hard I couldn’t go forward, let alone uphill. The descent was as brutal as the climb. I had to stop a few times to warm my hands up cause they were numb and I couldn’t even use the brakes. Yes, I resorted to doing jumping jacks on the side of the road to keep warm.
Once I got back out onto 36, I slowly started to warm up and with that came the firehands fun. I ended up passing FasCat Frank, and we joined up and headed over to Olde Stage Road to check out the fire damage. Oddly enough, I slammed my bottles and got some food in me, now that I was warm and could function and started to feel good. (Why I didn’t feel good climbing after eating a HUGE breakfast, I’ll never know).
I snapped a few pics of the damage
Every home owner on Olde Stage owes a humongous debt to the firefighters. I can’t believe they saved those houses. The yards were burned right up to the sides of the houses and yet no damages…….Great Job and Huge thanks to the Firefighters.
Now, if my hands warm up and I get a good sleep, I’ll get in a good ride tomorrow
