taylorj
04-14-2008, 01:08 PM
Heaven on Earth. Monitor opened up last weekend! It was 74 degrees with not a cloud in the sky---or any wind for that matter! Amazing. Saw more bikes than cars and motorcycles combined! Shorts and Short sleeve jerseys for sure. The climb up Monitor was epic in that the bottom has zero snow, it was hot (especially the bottom grinder part). Hot and dry. We hid a bunch of food and extra water-bottles at the bottom. About half way up though the cuts in the snow were an upwards of 12 feet or more. I have never seen that much snow on Monitor! I got real excited after seeing that much snow to go and climb (still closed to cars) Ebbetts.
Ebbetts is closed at the first gate still! I was surprised to not see more snow though. There were big snow-plowing contraptions every mile or so...but maybe 4 foot cuts in the snow as opposed to the epic 12+feet. After I passed the 7'000 foot mark, where the road gets twisty I fell in love with life. The smells, the 11,000 foot surrounding peaks, the birds, the lack of people and traffic and being by myself and able to absorb it all. I got out of the saddle and just climbed and climbed and it was fabulous.
Then the road just ended--a few miles from the top. No way around. They must have pushed all the snow up or something. It is a sandbox and so the descent would have been tricky. But the joy of having the whole road was priceless! It was a G_d-like day for sure.
Sunday I rode another 5 hours up the local climbs. The wind didn't pick up until the afternoon and it was 80 degrees with 11% humidity. Gotta love the desert at times like these!
I bet Ebbetts will be open this weekend. (all the photo's are of my husband...)
Ebbetts is closed at the first gate still! I was surprised to not see more snow though. There were big snow-plowing contraptions every mile or so...but maybe 4 foot cuts in the snow as opposed to the epic 12+feet. After I passed the 7'000 foot mark, where the road gets twisty I fell in love with life. The smells, the 11,000 foot surrounding peaks, the birds, the lack of people and traffic and being by myself and able to absorb it all. I got out of the saddle and just climbed and climbed and it was fabulous.
Then the road just ended--a few miles from the top. No way around. They must have pushed all the snow up or something. It is a sandbox and so the descent would have been tricky. But the joy of having the whole road was priceless! It was a G_d-like day for sure.
Sunday I rode another 5 hours up the local climbs. The wind didn't pick up until the afternoon and it was 80 degrees with 11% humidity. Gotta love the desert at times like these!
I bet Ebbetts will be open this weekend. (all the photo's are of my husband...)