Best of Rides, part II

As I wrote a couple days earlier, on Sunday, six members of Club Hypoxia ("Oxygen or Altitude: Pick One") met at Zin's place in Wheat Ridge and headed west. We rode through residential neighborhoods and parks of Wheat Ridge and commercial strips of Lakewood, climbed up past Coors Brewery, through beautiful Golden and past the Colorado School of Mines campus built on steep slopes. At Highway 6, the serious climbing of Lookout Mountain Road began -- serious not so much because it was so steep, only a 6% uphill grade, but because it was relentlessly up, up, and up. No breaks at all for five and a half miles.

Deadhead and SombraGato have the reputations as the strongest climbers, so they took off ahead of everyone else. Howard made the attempt to keep up, following from 20 feet, then 50 feet, then 100 yards, then a quarter mile. But until we got into the trees about halfway up the climb, Howard kept them in sight. At the top, the two were waiting for Howard at the entrance to the Buffalo Bill Museum and lookout. Together the three of us rode in. Here's a picture of the victors Deadhead and SombraGato at the overlook (click on any picture to make it larger):

After a few more minutes, the other three riders joined us, and Howard was about to snap a picture when a nice woman offered to take one of all of us (from left to right: Howard, ZenLC, SombraGato, Statchem, Zin, Deadhead):

Also, here are two pictures of Golden and Denver from atop Lookout Mountain:



The ride down the mountain was fun. We all stayed together and cruised at about 30-35 mph. The traffic was light and polite, but there were lots of switchbacks and some gravel, so we never let 'er totally rip.

SombraGato had to head back home at the bottom of the mountain. So back in Golden, five of us stopped at Sixbucks, err, Starbucks Coffee, which has been named the Official Coffeeshop of Club Hypoxia (thank goodness there are so many of them so our trips won't be limited to Golden!) Again, Howard was about to take a picture when another nice woman offered to take a picture of all of us. Coloradans are the nicest most considerate people!


Sunday's ride was all kinds of fun for all kinds of reasons. But the greatest part was in meeting and riding with new friends. Tailwinds (or screaming fast descents... or both!)