Independence Pass

I woke up at 4:45am and hit snooze. Brian asked the night before if anyone would be down for a polar plunge in one of the twin lakes first thing in the morning. It sounded like a great idea at the time, but it was like 40 degrees outside and I was tired. Fifteen minutes later, I wake up to a Miley Cyrus song:

Today we climbed Independence Pass. In my opinion, the climb was built up a lot and some people were nervous about the 3,000+ foot climb. Maybe since I hiked Pike's Peak last week, I was feeling more acclimated to the altitude. To get the team psyched up, we had a dance party at breakfast. I rolled out with Eliza, Mel, and Emma.

So Independence Pass is a pass over a mountain range, and while it wasn't the most strenuous climb (hills are shorter in distance, but steeper - mountains are long yet gradual) it was still challenging. The first 17 miles were climbing uphill. While sometimes I could cruise, I told myself that during the steeper switchbacks approaching the summit that I just had to keep moving above 6 mph. Nyx and Brian joined our slow pace line. However, every few miles we saw written on the road in chalk "Mel ->" and there would be a note on a sign post. These were romantic clues to who would be proposing to her at lunch!

Slow and steady was the only way to the summit of Independence Pass. The views were amazing. In chalk were the lyrics, "If you want to view paradise, simply look around and view it." One really cool thing was that there was red spray paint on the road - words of encouragement from the 2011 SC2SC route! This year is the fifth year of the SC2SC route, which means only about 120 other people had biked this route IN THE WORLD.

The last few hundred feet of the climb were tough. I wanted to stop to catch my breath, but I knew Brian didn't want to stop so close to the top, and we could hear the other riders cheering and waving us on. For the last 100 feet of the climb Brian and I held hands (he was probably pulling me) while riders stood on both sides of the road to whip their jerseys around and give us high fives. This team rules. Everyone waited for every rider to approach the top - we even made a tunnel of hands for sweep to bike through! When everyone arrived we had a dance party in a chalked part of the parking lot: "Dance Zone / Sorry for Partying." This is the highest elevation we climb all summer.

The descent was incredible, and I hardly had to pedal for 15 miles. We made a pit stop at the Devil's Punchbowl, a local swimming spot. Emma and Eliza cliff jumped while I swam in the cold mountain water in my chamois. Back on the mountain descent, the turns were sharp and the road was narrow. I took the whole lane so that cars behind me could not pass me. I was cruising at 35mph, so I wasn't holding the cars back too much, and moved over as soon as I thought it was safe for a car to pass me.

So we descended into Aspen, Colorado. This is a wealthy ski resort town, where my grilled cheese and fries was a lunch special for $8. I saw a dog being walked in a dog stroller - just to give you an idea of how ritzy this area is. I then walked to the park with Marcus, Mel, Emma, and Eliza to nap. However, the sprinklers kept turning on wherever we laid down and we had to run away from them four times before we finally fell asleep.

And I really love Sarah...okay glad I got that out. And Hawa beasted Independence Pass like no other.