It was great to see and ride with old friends and make some new lifetime friends! Sheri and I got home yesterday afternoon...we had to drop the bike off at the dealer as it appears besides the speedo/odometer trouble the water pump may have also gone out.

Here is some information on our ride that will be fun to absorb as you think back on this past week.

We rode over 26 mountain passes and 2 divides (classified as a divide between basins by USGS and not necessarily a mountain pass). We also drove our bikes to the tops of 2 mountains over 14,000'. In all we rode 30 peaks, passes or divides this week!!!

Altitude gain: I calculated the elevation gain from the lowest point the group started on our way to the top of each peak/pass/divide. On some passes (like Coal Bank and Molas) I only added the difference between the low point on the saddle between them to not double on the elevation gain (ex: As from Silverton) to try to remain as accurate as possible. In some cases, some of us didn't ride all of the passes and some rode passes that others didn't (ex: AZ group crossed Raton Pass on the way home; and my small group crossed Hardscrabble on the way to Bloomfield, NM...but I didn't go over Cumbres/La Manga as many others did. I believe the average is very similar for everyone though).

So, elevation gains for some of us was slightly higher or slightly lower than for others. Bottom line is we did a lot!!

Total elevation gain (Monday thru Saturday): 88,961 feet.

Here is the list of peaks climbed and/or passes/divides crossed and their elevations:

Mount Evans 14,160
Pikes Peak 14, 115
Trail Ridge 12,183
Independence 12,095
Hoosier 11,541
Slumgullion 11,530
Monarch 11,312
Eisenhower Tun. 11,158
Juniper 11,020
Red Mountain 11,018
Molas 10,910
Spring Creek 10,901
Wolf Creek 10,850
Milner 10,759
Vail 10,666
Coal Bank 10,640
Tennessee 10,424
Cameron 10,276
La Manga 10,230
Lizard Head 10,222
Cumbres 10,222
Red Hill 10,051
Kenosha 10,001
Wilkerson 9,507
Ute 9,165
Hardscrabble 9,065
Poncha 9,010
Dallas Divide 8,970
Muddy 8,772

I believe this ride qualifies as EPIC!!

 

No ****!!

I really wish I could have made that ride..

 

Got back home early Sunday morning. Tucson group all agreed trip was indeed Epic ! Enjoyed by all.

 

We regret that we had to head home early but the half of the ride that we did participate in was awesome. A great group of people and incredible scenery. We would certainly like to be a part of the next ride.

Dale & Reathal

 

Dale: It was a pleasure to meet you both and I hope you can make it out this way again. The 14er's weren't that bad on the bike.