Petals and Pedals

Petals
I think I first became interested in photography because of flowers.  And to capture them on film (I guess I am dating myself) and now in digital form, pixels on paper, I was looking for THE shot that everyone would want!  So I snap away in hopes of capturing what I think I see.  And with the luxury of not having to develop “film” to see what it was I actually saw, I can delete, delete, delete and try, try again, without paying, paying, paying!

Beth and I took a drive to Lower Cataract Lake and did a little hiking around it.  The sky was so deep blue, the mosquitoes were so thick (in places), and the flowers were beginning their spring display.  With my “good camera” at home, I snapped away with my what else… my cell phone camera.  And here are some of the ones that caught my eye…

Our island is just left of center...it is technically surrounded by water on all sides!

Half way around the lake we reached the water feeding the lake.  It is coming
from above the horizon of the picture above.  Left of center towards the top,
you can see a waterfall.

The view from our "island."

Pretty!

More pretty!

Two flowers...one in the foreground and one
in the background!

Love Columbine!

Wild Iris

?

Aspen against a blue sky...YUM!

Beth and I logged a few miles around the lake, had a snack on an “island.”  We had to walk on downed logs to reach it and they were shaky and sinking as we inched our way across them.  Lewis and Clark we are not!

Pedals  

A couple of years ago, Beth and I dropped my friend Greg off in Banff, Alberta (Canada) to partake in the Tour Divide (see postings from June 2016).  Well, here it is a couple of years later and he’s back at it.  Beginning June 9^th, the Grand Depart, turned loose a bunch of riders to fend for themselves, while attempting to travel about 2700 miles and hopefully cross (touch) the finish line at the Mexican border in Antelope Wells, New Mexico.  All this, while following relatively closely, the continental divide of the Rocky Mountains.  Right now Greg is somewhere around the Idaho/Montana border, closing in on Grant Teton National Park.

I enjoy riding my mountain bike too, but the Tour Divide bumps the intensity of riding not just up to the next level, but many levels.  Maybe levels that most of us don’t realize are there.  Kinda like how dogs can hear things people can’t.  Well, these bikers ride in many places where bikers normally wouldn’t or shouldn’t.  But there is this tickle in the back of whatever part of my brain thinks it would be awesome, to do this too.  That is until I think about Greg’s training, the lightweight gear to shelter him from the inevitable monsoonal rain, that will turn what looks like ordinary dirt to peanut butter, and then there is the diet of needed calories, usually fulfilled by convenience stores with an occasional restaurant thrown in.  Not to mention the alone time with your own mind for hours, if not days.  Did I mention bears?  The tickle in my brain hasn’t made me laugh hard enough to sign up just yet.  So the next best thing for me to do is what kids do when they see themselves making the winning touchdown in the Super Bowl or putting to win the Masters golf tournament.  Today I rode my mountain bike, to experience a miniscule piece of what it is like for the riders of the Tour Divide.

Beth agreed to drop me off just north of Breckenridge, on Boreas Pass Road (and be on standby in case something happened…like getting a mosquito bite or getting hungry).  Where the pavement ends and a gravely, hard packed road takes over, leading to Boreas Pass, I took my bike off the rack and set off…up hill.  This is actually part of the Tour Divide route and I was going to ride a whole 7 miles of it.  I’d actually driven it before during fall color time, but never biked it.

It only took me an hour and had little car traffic, so as to not stir up enough dust to create lung cookies, so my timing was good.  My thighs talked to me on occasion, but I did good.  After reaching the pass, I put on a jacket, had a snack, and turned around to come back down.  On the way down, I got to feel all the bumps I didn’t on the way up, due to gravity pulling me back down the mountain.  I forgot to time it, but I’m sure it must have taken half the time to go down as it did to go up.  With increased speed, comes increased bumpage on my buttocks.  At this point in time I reflected on a FB posting from Greg, describing the path they encountered, comprised of cobblestones the size of your head, not to mention the insane incline up they had to maneuver. The pictures couldn't even do it justice.  Back to my reality.  Yes, I sweated around my bike helmet going up (poor me) and I was happy to reach the top, but I am sure the magnification of what the Tour Dividers experience is exponential compared to my short foray into pretending to experience the real deal.

Goose Pasture Tarn...the lake below, just south of Breckenridge.

First snow encounter.

Made it!  Elevation 11,482 feet.

View to the north of the pass.

View to the south of the pass.

Old water storage tank for the trains that use to come up this way.

A narrow road cut, made for the trains back in the day.

Aspen lined path.  Incredible color in the fall.

After reaching the parking lot where Beth dropped me off, the surface soon turned to asphalt and with increasing speed and fewer bumps, I was back in Breckenridge in minutes, on the recreation path heading for home.  All in all, I covered 37 miles, which is about a third of what the TD riders do a day, unless you are in the lead and it dwindles to about one fifth of their day. 

As I was traveling north, I passed a guy on a bike going south, that sure looked like he was part of the TD.  After getting home and going to Trackleaders.com, I looked up a guy that was in Breck on the map that looked like the guy I passed…Ben from Belgium, currently in 4^th.

Bonus

This last part has nothing to do with petals or pedals, but an “adopted” niece.  Katya is the daughter of some good friends in North Carolina.  She recently graduated college and decided to begin her adultness in Denver.  She and a friend, that was traveling to do some summer work before going back to school in the fall, stayed with Beth and I as they convoyed to Colorado.  Now a few weeks later, she is interviewing and lining up her new life west of the Mississippi.  We arranged to meet and spend the day together and catch up.  Some highlights of our day…

Lunch in Leadville.

Main Street in Leadville.

Cool bridge in the background.  Oh, cool people in foreground!

Friday night Dillon concert.  Sunset was okay too!

My Zen from the Road:  When I was teaching elementary school, the boys wanted to grow up and play in the NFL.  They pretend at recess and play on little league teams and continue to dream.  You know how that plays out.  Today I pretended to some extent and even though there is a really good chance I will never attempt the Tour Divide, what I did today was pretty good for me.  I had an adventure, got sore muscles, and made it back home safely.  It was a good day!  Have an adventure, get sore, and make it home safely.

License plate from trip out.