The Ride to Castle Rock, CO. (Included our first, "Metric Century"!)

(May 26. 27, 28 2011). Wild and Woolly is a good word for our 2.5 day ride from Colorado Springs to Castle Rock and back. It was suppose to be a beautiful 3 days, well we started out in FOG, 30 degrees!! We were going to ride a "Metric Century" (62 miles/100 k in less than 12 hrs.), on the first day, (unofficial of course), so we followed a route set up by a friend. Well first of all, we found he doesn't know, "left from right" very well, had to figure out and change several times, arrugh!

Then we started getting a heavy wind, although it was a tailwind, it just made it colder. He had us zig-zaging thru lot's of HILLS, (I forgot he LOVES hills) all thru the northern section of Colorado Springs and El Paso county. Now for the really fun part, several MILES of "graded, hardpack sandy/muddy" county road construction, where the rear wheel's kept "sliding out"! Next up was a several mile detour so we couldn't follow the route anymore and had to ride down to CO. Hwy. 83, then head north. That was the BEST part of the ride as we had a EXCELLENT tailwind buy the time we got to Franktown, CO. , we finally found a place to get something to EAT at 4PM. Then 7 miles of killer uphill grades to the top of the "rock" and swift downhill into Castle Rock and stop at Dairy Queen. Found a dive motel and settled in!

The morning awoke sunny but windy, we headed out on Wolfsenburger Rd. to pick up CO. Hwy. 105 to return to the Springs, MORE HUGE HILLS, arrugh, finally got to Hwy. 105 and the WIND was roaring, they said it was a solid 40+ mph. and of course it was all "HEADWIND". Hwy. 105 had lot's of, yes you guess it, HILLS, so we did our best against the WIND and after 35 miles of it we were pooped and got a motel in Monument, CO. for the night.

Day 3, the sun is out, but it's COLD and WINDY, OH JOY!! Headed out on Hwy. 105 back to Hwy 83, the wind was a side/cross wind and we had to climb more big hills, it was tough. Finally made it back to hwy. 83 and got the FULL FORCE of the COLD headwind, like running into a wall!! Heading home, we had to put on both the polar fleece and nylon jackets, gloves, ear covers, etc. to keep from freezing! After many more HILLS we arrived at Powers Blvd. (CO 21) into the Springs. For many miles it was a good road and we now have the awful wind as a cross wind so it wasn't quite as bad. Then we found out that the older part of Powers Blvd. has almost "no shoulder" and 60 mph. 3 lane traffic, YIKES! LOL, we finally got to the "MUP" to take us home, with slightly shot nerves but in one piece. 132 miles total in 2.5 days! It was quite the "adventure"! :)


Here's some photo's:

Taking a break on Vollmer Rd. in northern El Paso County

Jo coming down a hill!!

The pond outside our motel room in Monument, CO.

CO. Hwy. 105 heading toward Monument, CO. WINDY!!

CO. Hwy. 83 S. heading into the Black Forest area, 45+ mph. head WINDS and COLD! Sure don't look that way does it!