Biking Down Pike's Peak

Me and Miss Daisy (and hubby) recently began a day long adventure with a group of 25 thrill seekers to Pike's Peak, Colorado.  Pike's Peak Mountain Bike Tours drove us  to the summit where we admired the view that inspired Katharine Lee Bates to write the lyrics to "America the Beautiful."

Can you spy Miss Daisy?

After acclimating to the thinner air by drinking lots of water, and exercising Daisy to drain her excess energy, we began our 20-mile descent.  There were scheduled and unscheduled stops every two or three miles to  regroup, let traffic pass, take pictures, shed layers of clothes... and to drink more water.  We rode all the way into Manitou Springs.  Our trip took 2-1/2 - 3 hours that included a couple of uphill parts.  Can you say, "Walk?"  A guide said that 40% of us would walk one uphill stretch.  He sure knew his percentages.

"For purple mountain majesties...."

Ok, it was scary.  I have never gripped handlebars so tightly.  I had to make myself look at the scenery around me so I wouldn't just concentrate on the road ahead.  Yes, the aspens were beautiful, and the leaves reminded me of  dried money plant seed pods waving in the wind.  Miss Daisy was more comfortable in her backpack on my back than Hubby's.  She got so settled that I barely felt her move the whole way down the mountain.  She barked once that whole day, and it was the moment she was lifted out of the back pack as if to say, "Hey, I made it too!"

About to go another stretch

Bedtime was 7:30 p.m. until 7:00 a.m. the next morning for all three of us.