Monday, June 25, 2012

Day 1: Cross country ride to Lost Lake

After a good night's rest, we woke up to intense sunshine here in Vail.  Mid morning we loaded up the bikes and drove a couple of miles to a fire road.  We hit the uphill climb and felt the altitude indeed. For the first 6 miles we had a gradual climbed that took about an hour.

Heading up the fire road. 

At the top of the climb we were at a little over 10,000 ft.



From there it was about a mile of trail to Lost Lake.  Lots of downed trees to cross.





This is 4 year old Christopher.  He was practicing his casting with only a cork.  Cool kid.


After lunch and rest at the lake, we headed for the section of single track.
 


In the distance you can see Vail mountain and the ski runs.






The last of our 16.5 mile trip was back down the fire road.  Got up to 34 mph, a little scary on dirt!






We had one mechanical problem which Andrew rigged with thick paper and string.

The boys showing off their lovely tan lines (I was on my way to try my hand at fly fishing when I took this.)  I was on the river for a couple of hours, no fish, but good for the soul.  I saw a mule deer grazing and a humming bird. 

This is the garage of our host, Mike.  Needless to say we are good to go with equipment.



After a great first day on the mountain, we headed into Vail village for pizza.  Later on I went by a local coffee shop and met a couple who both graduated from Baylor (they knew one of my good friends Meredith Ripley.)  The girl's brother went to ACU.  Small world.

2 comments:

sage moose said...

Awesome sis!
From Mati and Zeke: cool pics, Aunt B!

Enjoy that sweet mountain air and catch some air for us! (but land it, not body-over-bike, like I do).

Brenda Andress said...

Hey guys! Katie I was bragging on you to one of the kids while we were headed up the dirt road. (No suspension, no padding, never mountain biked...and you made it on a tough trail at altitude!) Crashes don't mean you're a bad rider, but that you're getting better by pushing your limits (within reason, of course) Love ya!