Last Rites (er, I mean Rides)

Before I get into the pics n such, just a quick mention of those two tiny bike races. The Tour of Calif wrapped up today, and I wasn't there. Z-man wasn't able to hold on to the top spot...someday Dave...someday. Still a great performance!

And as for the Giro..how about Ryder? He lost the pink today, but he's still in the hunt in 2nd place. With his awesome Garmin squad I think he can do it. And speaking of Ryder, anybody remember when Sara Best interviewed him (via  phone if I recall) so long ago on the ORIGINAL home of the Asylum (My First 100 miles)? She had great things to say about him, and he sure is living up to that. (We miss you Sara!)

OK..on to the topic of today's post (my LAST from here in Colorado Springs). I have a bunch of  pics from my last 2 rides here in the Springs. I fly home on Tuesday (HOORAY!!!!) and can hardly wait! Just have to survive one last work day. The bike goes to work and will end up back in box for it's trip home. The weather once again was less than optimal, which is just amazing as it was in the 70's and 80's all last week, and the news just said that today (Monday) will most likely be a record high. All I know is that it rained on me Saturday and was quite chilly. Sunday was SUPPOSED to be much nicer, but alas it was not.

On Saturday I ended up diverting from the high mountains (due to the nasty weather predicted) and finally rode the Falcon Trail located on the Air Force Academy. It was a pretty amazing trail (13 mile loop) that was rarely flat...either climbing or descending, and LOTS of work.

 Here's a panorama of the mountains. You can see the low-level clouds, I estimate them to be at about 8000' (the high point of today's ride is about 7500').

 This is where the cadets live, and is off limits to visitors. Pretty fancy diggs!

A bit over half-way around the loop is a trail offshoot that takes you to the North Gate where there is a B52 on display. WOW! I've seen a lot of aircraft in my life, but this is the first B52...how impressive!

 What an amazing plane...the plaque said it's bomb payload is 60,000 pounds. That's a LOT of bombs! The B52 was the backbone of our Strategic Air Command (SAC) for decades!

On the trail was this cabin. 

The Beverly Hillbillies...NOT! Pretty tiny....I guess they didn't entertain much.

You can see my GPS track (in red on the left) and how close I came to Falcon Stadium. This shot is a Microsoft satellite photo taken from my Garmin track.

An A10 Warthog. This is a tank-killer...it's a HUGE Gatling gun with an aircraft built around it.

And finally a T38 (thanks Pez for the correction, I mistakenly called it an F16),  wearing the clothes of the Thunderbird's. This model was used between 1974 and 1982 (after the disastrous training exercise when 4 of then slammed into the ground).  And the local news just said that the Thunderbird's will be performing today at the Air Force Academy graduation
(credit Wikipedia for this info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Air_Force_Thunderbirds)

Sundays ride was heading up HIGH towards the summit of Mt Baldy. The storm that came thru on Saturday dumped new snow up high, lucky me. But it was go for broke or don't...it's my LAST ride.

This is my objective. Stupid storm, there was almost NO snow as of yesterday. You can see the road slanting across that I eventually climbed.
Note: this picture was taken thru my windshield, which is why it's such a sad and out of focus shot. Also of note: no animals were injured or killed during the taking of this photo...did I mention that I was driving at the time?)

 Gold Camp Rd, still quite low (about 7800'). Down here it's not too shabby!

 Target in sight, dead ahead. There's my road again!

 

Above 10,000 there was a LOT of this. Slush and melting snow. My bike is now a mess btw.

Nearing the summit. This side of the mountain is facing the sun so the snow is already melted. (this is the road you can see from town).

 

Looking at the actual summit of Mt Baldy. I didn't do the final road as it was still snowbound, and I was out of gas. The altitude here is about 11,900' and I was gasping for air as I climbed. On the right is a survival barrel in case a storm moves in while you are up here. I did the summit road 3 years ago when it was much warmer (the current temp is about 42F as I took this shot).

The view looking back over Colo Springs. 

 

 And my final shot...a pan of Stratten Reservoir (or lack of a reservoir...3 years ago there was a fair amount of water in here). Pikes Peak is just to the right of this photo but not quite visible.

And that wraps up my rides, and my trip. I'll be home for just 2 days, then Jeannie and I fly to Virginia to spend a TOASTY WARM Memorial Day weekend with her brother on the farm. I'm racking up some Frequent Flyer miles this year, that's for sure.

OK..have a great week everybody!

Oh....also after posting I checked, and now something is obviously messed up in my design page as there is ' once again text' intruding into my pictures. I have NO IDEA how to fix it, but I will be looking at it when time permits).