Today Ken Malone (RedBird) and I took a ride into the mountains! It was the first time in 2021 that I've been anywhere except east onto the Colorado Plains (which are a lot like the Kansas Plains. We had our Cardo Pack Talks installed but we didn't think to bring the "cheat sheet" and we never got "meshed" with each other. So, we never talked. We met in Loveland at the junction of US-34 and US-287. I ate lunch and then we took US-34 west about 20 miles to Estes Park. From there we took CO-7 south between the Twin Sisters on the east and Long's Peak on the west, past St. Catherine's Chapel on the Rock.
The chapel is close to hiway 7, just east of Camp Malo. Back in '93, when Pope John Paul II held a World Youth Day in Denver, he came to Camp Malo for two days before the event. The Camp had a picture that had been taken of John Paul before he was elected Pope. While he was there a little boy saw him and took a look at the picture. Then he went to Pope and said, "Mister, you sure do look like that guy in the picture there." The Pope went over and bent down and looked at the picture for a minute. And then he turned back to the little boy and said, "I sure do. I think I am that man!"
After we rode by the chapel and Allen's Park, we came to the turn where the Peak to Peak Highway (CO-71) heads south to Netherland. I had told Ken that I was going to stay on 7 and ride down South St. Vrain Canyon to Lyons partly because I didn't want to ride through Boulder's rush hour traffic. I was 1/4 mile or so ahead of Ken when I turned east on 7. When he got there, he pulled into the turn lane and we couldn't talk with our Cardo PackTalks! I went on down through Lyons, crossed I-25 and turned north on US-85 at Platteville. Turned out that Ken had turned around and followed me to Lyons, but I was already through. He waited for me somewhere else before heading to his place in Berthoud. It had been three months since I had lasted ridden and I'm leaving here to ride to Provo, so I hope I can get some more riding in before then.
If you want to see the Spotwalla track of the ride, go here: https://new.spotwalla.com/trip/9fe2-a47b6e6-7f4e/view?homeActive=1&showAll=1&allHistory=0&numDays=7
The chapel is close to hiway 7, just east of Camp Malo. Back in '93, when Pope John Paul II held a World Youth Day in Denver, he came to Camp Malo for two days before the event. The Camp had a picture that had been taken of John Paul before he was elected Pope. While he was there a little boy saw him and took a look at the picture. Then he went to Pope and said, "Mister, you sure do look like that guy in the picture there." The Pope went over and bent down and looked at the picture for a minute. And then he turned back to the little boy and said, "I sure do. I think I am that man!"
After we rode by the chapel and Allen's Park, we came to the turn where the Peak to Peak Highway (CO-71) heads south to Netherland. I had told Ken that I was going to stay on 7 and ride down South St. Vrain Canyon to Lyons partly because I didn't want to ride through Boulder's rush hour traffic. I was 1/4 mile or so ahead of Ken when I turned east on 7. When he got there, he pulled into the turn lane and we couldn't talk with our Cardo PackTalks! I went on down through Lyons, crossed I-25 and turned north on US-85 at Platteville. Turned out that Ken had turned around and followed me to Lyons, but I was already through. He waited for me somewhere else before heading to his place in Berthoud. It had been three months since I had lasted ridden and I'm leaving here to ride to Provo, so I hope I can get some more riding in before then.
If you want to see the Spotwalla track of the ride, go here: https://new.spotwalla.com/trip/9fe2-a47b6e6-7f4e/view?homeActive=1&showAll=1&allHistory=0&numDays=7
