How tacky

Today Paul and I went for a sunday morning bike ride. We drove a few miles to a bike path, to shorten the ride and get us closer to Golden, Colorado (our destination). Our goal was to ride up Lookout Mountain, which is quite a fun little mountain. Anyway, on our way there the bike path was closed so we had to take a detour, which took us on a road right next to (and practically through) the Coors brewing company. We went through a short, dark tunnel, and I immediately heard my front tire start clicking. Upon further investigation, I had three tacks in my front tire. Luckily, my back tire and both of Paul's were free of tacks. Paul went back and checked the road and found hundreds of tacks. Every biker (and there were many) had a flat who road through that road. After we changed the tube and went to the nearest bike shop to pick up a few more tubes (just in case), and it turns out this happens every weekend. How infuriating! Even though most Coloradans are bikers or are biker-friendly, there are still some people that are haters. It's a mixed bag. The rest of our ride was great, though. Once we got into Golden, we went up to Lookout mountain, here's the stats:

Elevation gain: 1260 ft
Length of climb: 5 miles
Ratio of bikers to cars on the road: 2:1 (we rule this road)

Here's some pictures from the top. Easy to tell which was taken by me...


It was a great test of lungs! Paul made it most of the way up, his lungs and his legs were hurting pretty good. He had also been rock climbing the previous day for 2 hours, and was already generally sore. He had a good time though! He claims he still likes cycling, and that he still likes me after I picked out the route for this ride. Total distance: 25 miles of awesomeness.

So our ride took longer than expected, and Paul consumed more calories than we expected, and he was a little woozy after so long without food. Next time, we will bring more supplies, and take a different route to Golden. And we will always think poorly of Coors Brewing company.

Otherwise, things are going pretty well!! My mom and Jerry are in town, so we have a full week ahead spending time with them, which I am so excited about!!! Tomorrow we're going up to Estes park, and I'm thrilled that I only have to work 2 days this week. August, though, I hopefully will get more days of work. It's going to be an interesting couple of months...

(BTW: I'm totally hooked on mountain biking again!!!)