Brought to you by the letter 'E'

E is for elevation.  A little last minute CTR training prep at Elevation up in Rocky Mountain National Park today. If you can get up there early enough to beat tourist traffic, it is a fantastic place to get in to some ride time at 11,000-13,000 ft. With Trail Ridge Rd under construction, I opted to ride up Old Fall River Rd.

As a dirt road that sees a bit of traffic, it was pretty much as smooth as the freshly paved Trail Ridge Road. The climbing is pretty mellow and gives a lot of switchbacks to get you up to the treeline pretty quick.  My legs felt good...I wanted to drill it....but that was not in the plan for the day.


About to top out at the Alpine Visitor Center...Elevation 11,796



I descended down to Milner Pass (10,758 ft)....


Then turned around and climbed back up to 12,000+ feet.



Back up on the top of Trail Ridge Rd....that is where the fun was at!  That is until the road construction got going into full effect.  FYI, if you plan on driving or riding up from Estes Park over Trail Ridge Rd...wait times are 30-45 minutes due to one lane traffic.  Worst part is, you have to wait 2 different times.  If you are on a bike, the wait is less.  I was lucky....only waited 15 minutes all day.


Quick pit stop to take a picture of an Elk. Highlight of the ride....when a lady from TX said: "Awwwww, hey kids, come over here at look at the moose." Seriously! I set her straight....told her is was a reindeer.  Ha!



Continuing on...with tourist season in full effect!  Beep!  Beep!  I wanted to blow by this guy.....but I was under-geared with my 39T SRAM XX crankset.