Sunday Morning Climb

I had 3 hours on my schedule for climbing in the mountains this morning.  I drove all the way out to the trailhead on Lefthand Canyon, about a 25 minute drive from my house.  When I got there and unloaded my bike I realized that I left my water bottles at home.  There was no way I was going to do a 3 hour ride without water, so I had to drive all the way home.
Yes, I checked to see if the local bike shop was open, but at 9 am on a Sunday it was still closed.

I drove all the way home, grabbed my bottles and left on my bike for a different ride.  From Erie it’s 40 minutes down Baseline to the foot of Flagstaff mountain.  This is a great warm up for a very steep 7 mile climb.

I love this climb because it’s very steep to start, then gets steeper then mellows out a bit.  By mile 8 I’m cooked and there’s still another mile left and it’s the steepest part of the ride.

If you only have an hour to climb this is the one to do.  For as painful as this ride is there is never a shortage of other cyclists going up.

The descent is fast and technical with very sharp hairpin turns and the occasional sightseeing tourist driving very slowly.  The payoff of this climb (aside from finishing it), is the view on the descent.  You can see all the way to the eastern plains on a clear day.

Need a place to fill up your bottle for the ride home?  The Starbucks on Broadway and Baseline is nice and cool inside and the baristas will fill your bottle for free, and they’re actually nice about it.