andy reagan only the interesting stuff

Granby and Kremmling, Colorado

Yesterday we battled massive headwind (30-50mph? at 12K ft), freezing temperatures, cars, rough roads, and the mountain itself over Trail Ridge Road.  Our reward: conquering the highest paved road in the United States and experiencing the beauty and wilderness of the Rocky Mountains in a way that can only be felt.

The ride! What it doesn't show is when the road turned to gravel, and the winds approached 50MPH at the top haha. The descent we also had a strong headwind, which kept our speed down a lot (probably good!)

Last night we partook in the tradition that is Bike and Build Prom, by decorating the gym of our elementary school host not unlike many of our high school proms.  We were still at 8,000 feet so we did our best to stay hydrated, and it was a lot of fun.  I'm pretty sure because of the day's ride, everyone was out by 11PM still.  My date for the prom was Raleigh, and everyone was looking pretty ridiculous, see the pictures below haha.

Today we slept in before our ride (for the first time ever!) and left at noon for our shortest day yet: 27 miles.  I joked about going for the "hour challenge," to get to our host in less than an hour, until we got out on the road and were nailed with a 20mph (gusting over 40mph) headwind.  Pedaling just as hard, it took us 90 minutes to get here, and I think everyone made it in two hours somehow.  I got an excellent shake and buffalo burger in town here in Kremmling, and we're excited to see the fireworks tonight for the FOURTH OF JULY! Yeah 'Merica!!

Looks super easy, but wind is equally as a hard as hills and so it was a harder, but very short still, ride!

Pictures

The internet here, which I'm glad we got, is slow so I'm going to try to be a little more picky haha.  First are going to be of Trail Ridge, then prom, and then a few from today!

The first scenic overlook

Love the rockies

Woo! You can see where we started at the far edge of the green, the meandering stream and the road we took up!

Kazane loves it too

Above 11K feet, it's a different world. Check out the Elk on the Alpine Tundra, what the ecosystem is called up there

Snow?

After the big part of the descent!

The view back down on the bottom

Awesome lake on the way to Granby

After I got in, I got to talk to Lauren which was really nice since I haven't been able to in so long, and then came prom!

Heather looked awesome haha, I had purple in the mohawk, black slacks and a white coat!

We all looked great

Prom princesses: Emily, Sarah, and Lindsey!

And today:

And Bike and Build camps!! No other pictures from the day, because I didn't clip out once haha we were cruisin!

Maybe more pictures when it takes less than a minute per to upload, but yeah going to see fireworks soon for the fourth of July, and heading to Steamboat Springs tomorrow where there should be a Verizon store so I can get a phone!

Thanks for reading!