alpine loop

Yesterday I went on a bike ride.

But it wasn't just any bike ride.

This is what I'd term an epic bike ride.

I texted my friend, Jeff, last week to see if he wanted to ride one last time before school swallows me whole (next week!). He called me a few days later and said he wanted to do "a really hard ride." I'd never heard him sound so serious about riding. I mean, we race sometimes, and generally do rides that aren't super easy, but I didn't know what to expect considering his seriousness.

So Thursday afternoon rolled around and I prepared not just one water bottle, but two; I had no idea where our pedaling legs would take us. We met up, and Jeff proposed his two ideas:

1. Ride up Squaw Peak road AND then ride all the way up South Fork.
2. Ride up Hobble Creek.

I wasn't really in the mood for the first because those are the rides I usually do and Hobble Creek just didn't appeal for whatever reason.

Then Jeff said, well, there's always the Alpine Loop. I don't know why, but I said, alright. Let's do it.

Mentally I was thinking I'd be lucky enough just to make it up the grade to Sundance. But somehow we just kept spinning up the mountain. We were out of water by the time we reached Aspen Grove because of the hot blazing sun and the steep road. But we filled up at the lodge's water fountain, hopped back on our bikes and continued.

Most of the fun for me stemmed from the fact that we really didn't know how far away we were from the summit. My legs finally stopped burning after Aspen Grove and we got into a nice rhythm. We reached the summit in about two hours (from Will's Pit Stop...on University). It took us about 22 minutes to zoom down to the mouth of AF canyon.

Pure exhiliration.

I'm not sure of the exact mileage, but it took us just over three hours, roundtrip. The only thing that would have made it a bit better was some fuel other than water. Next time I'll be sure to pack an energy bar.

But other than that, epic.

Feeling ready to race next Saturday: Jordanelle, here I come.