Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Day 11 - Big Horns

Wow!  Okay, I said it again, but Wow is really a great description for the day.  First, I got to ride all but the steep 18 miles of the ride.  I got in a total of 100.2 miles for the day when I really thought I would only get 50.  Plus, the ride on the bike and in the car were both extremely enjoyable.

The Big Horns are a pretty big mountain range.  The part we were going over climbed for 22 miles.  We then road along a meadow at the top of the range before decending about 8 miles and then climbing again for 5 and descending again for 11 or so. The range is beautiful. 

The mountains are not the pretty purple ones with snow on top, but more the jagged brown ones.  There were a lot of aspen trees on the climb and some flowers.  You could see many different shades of brown in the rock.  As we crested the mountain and entered the meadow, beauty abounded.  The grass was green and there were a ton of yellow and purple flowers.  The most amazing thing was smelling the flowers as I cycled by.  It was a cleaner fragrance than any "meadow flower" room deoderizer I have ever smelled.  There was also snow on the upper parts of the meadow.  It was all so beautiful. The two descents were not too complicated but they still were somewhat scary.  Since you never know the road conditions or what is around the corner I kept my speed below 40 mph.

So, I knew there would be 6 daysof climbing that I was really concerned about on this ride and three of them are now in the books!  I am very pleased that I have been able to ride as much as I have thus far - 1049 miles in 11 days - Wow!


Sunrise over the Big Horns - we started 30 minutes earlier today


Foot of the Big Horns


Driving up the lower portion of the Big Horns


Sunlight on the Big Horns


Vista from the Big Horns


Shadow of a bike off of the roof of the lunch van


Switchbacks!


Meadowland on the Big Horns


Red line shows our progress so far

Thanks again for reading.  I sure am having fun and appreciate all yalls support!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yo Michelle,

Toot of the horn for your Big Horn adventure.

One of your friends posts a "word" of the day. The one word for my thoughts that keeps popping up is "envious". BIG time. You're living one of me bike dreams.

Ride Long and Prosper.

Slo Joe

Unknown said...

Joe gave the PERFECT word of the day!!! "ENVIOUS" As I did drills on the trainer, I was imagining myself on the road with you. You are living Diane's quote from your blog.....Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, whoopee pie in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOO HOO what a ride!"

Unknown said...

FROG HAY TO U! MOM AN I ARE REALLY LOVIN' ALLL THIS. I CK'ED YOUR ROUTE ALL THE WAYN TO WEST VA.
YOU GUYS ARE GONA GO REAL FAST THRU IOWA ,ILLINI,& INDY...HANG TOUGH FOR WEST VER'GINNY.......
LOVE DIDDY AN MUMMA......