Avoiding the heat

Summer has come to the Front Range in a hurry. We've been hit with a hot and dry weather pattern that has had our temps in the mid 90s for the last week or so. So when the temps get hot, we head for the high country. Saturday I was desperate for a mountain bike ride, so Jill and I rolled up Highway 7 to hit up some Sourdough action.

As we pulled up to the parking area Jill, the constant multitasker, decided to start getting ready with the sunscreen. I'm pretty sure that no matter how long we live at altitude, Jill will never remember that pressure changes considerably when you go from 5000 feet to 9500 feet. As she opened the cap to the sunscreen, which was pointed in my direction, a huge burst exploded across the car splattering everything to Jill's left. There was splatter all over my chest, seatbelt, window....just about everything that wasn't Jill. Wait a minute...

Sourdough is a loose, rocky and technical ride that runs along near the Continental Divide paralleling the Peak to Peak Highway. We did a pretty good loop, although we had to deal with a group of about 30 horse riders that um....decorated the trail about every 50 feet. Tough to avoid horse crap on tight singletrack. For some reason I didn't take a camera or my helmet cam, so no footage.

The real excitement came as we left the parking lot. We got about 1/4 mile down the road when a group of road bikers began waving us down frantically. We pulled over to see what was going on. They had a woman who had severely overheated on the long (15 miles or so) climb from Lyons under the hot sun. She was cooked and was a long way from home, and cell phones just don't work up there. We loaded her bike up and she hopped in with us. Turns out she was a product designer for Descent Athletics in Boulder. We did a quick detour to Boulder to get her to her car, and then headed home. We're getting to be regulars at this help and rescue stuff.