• Monday up and downs

    5 Hrs outside Boulder, CONo camera on the ride today for a few reasons. First, there was a very good chance of rain. Secondly, my pockets were stuffed with food, warm clothing, and a gore-tex jacket. My original plan today was to ride Mt Evans....but the weather forecast of highs near freezing and a chance of snow killed that idea before I even made the drive to that area of Colorado. So, around 10 AM I rolled west out of Boulder to ride as high as I could. Skies were cloudy.....temps in the high 40F's....and a little light drizzle falling. Not a huge deal as I climbed out of town. The further west I went the clouds began to break up. By the time I got half way up the Switzerland Trail climb, the skies began to clear....but only for a moment. Soon enough, the clouds built back up and the rain fell....for about 10 miutes. I pushed onto making my way to Ward....where I then kept going west up to Brainard Lakes Rec Area. Half way up the climb, the skies let loose forcing me to layer up in the gore-tex jacket. Once again, it only rained like 10 minutes. By the time I got to Brainard Lake (10,300 ft) the skies were blue bird. Brainard Lake was my turn around spot...as I headed back east and back down to Boulder. The further I dropped in altitude the more ominous the weather got. By the time I got back into Boulder....it was raining. Boo. Eitherway, the 5 hr ride was complete.