Once completed I-70 at the foot of Floyd Hill will take a flyover through what used to be a hillside in order to smooth out a sharp turn. You can see where the pillars will be built for the westbound lanes. The pillars for the eastbound lanes are already in place.
It has been so blazing hot for so long that I just haven’t been interested in getting out on the bike. Sure, it’s cooler once you get up in the hills but that long slog across town coming home has just been killer. Guess what? It finally cooled off. I went riding.
Heading west across town in the morning was cool and comfortable. I got to Morrison and headed on up Bear Creek Canyon and immediately found myself behind someone in a U-Haul truck. A professional trucker might have pushed that thing around the tight turns at a good clip but this guy was no pro. And there’s almost no place to pass.
This was the slowest trip up the canyon ever. But that wasn’t all bad because the reason things have cooled off is that we have had torrential rains–and we have really needed rain. But with rain comes sand and gravel washing down onto the road. Back in June there were torrential rains up here and this whole road got washed out in several places. This time, however, while there was some sand and gravel, the worst was where unpaved driveways come down to the road. Some were pretty bad but you could see it coming and adjust.
Fortunately I was only going as far as Kittredge. At Kittredge I turned off onto the road up Kerr Gulch. Kerr Gulch Road was much cleaner and there’s never more than minimal traffic so that was great. I got up to Evergreen Parkway and headed north the short distance to where I turned onto old US 40 running up Mount Vernon Canyon and then down the steep decline over Floyd Hill to where US 40 meets US 6.
This is a real point of interest these days. I-70 is right alongside US 40 coming down Floyd Hill and, uncharacteristic of most interstates, at the bottom of the hill you need to slow way down for a sharp left-hand turn into Clear Creek Canyon. Well, it is uncharacteristic of interstates to have such a turn and after all these years they are doing something about it. They have cut off the hilltop and are erecting tall pillars to carry the interstate on a more gently curving arc high above the existing roadbed. It’s a pretty impressive sight. I stopped and shot a couple pictures.
Then I headed down into Clear Creek Canyon to pick up the Peak-to-Peak Highway over toward Black Hawk. So far the sky had been clear and blue but now storm clouds were starting to form. At Black Hawk it looked like it could rain at any time but just a few miles further and the sky was clear again. Weather in Colorado is very localized.
The Peak-to-Peak was clean and clear and up high like this things were very nicely cool. I was planning to head down through Golden Gate Canyon, however, and the last time I was on that road it was lousy with sand and gravel. Odd, because none of the other roads were–just Golden Gate. What would it be like this time?
Clean and clear. Nice. But now the clouds were forming again and looking threatening. It could be a race down the canyon to see if I could get ahead of them. I won the race.
Now south toward Morrison again and then east across town. Yeah, it was a good bit warmer–a bit too warm, I’d say–but nothing like the furnace it has been. Nice to finally get out for a ride.
Biker Quote for Today
You might be a Yuppie biker if you think that’s actually a *suntan* that makes real bikers so dark-skinned.
