2013_10_26 "On The Road With Brent Moody": Fort Collins, CO

Colorado 2 times in 1 year! This is the first cycling on my vagabond adventure. I met up with some of my buddies in Ft. Collins, Co that i originally met at BRAN (Bike Ride Across Nebraska). Since mid, couple of buddies were happy to play hooky from work, as temps were forecast at sunny and 65 degrees! 4 of us, Jim, Jack Wendy and myself were able to group together and took off out of Ft. Collins, heading south to Loveland along the foothills to meet up with 2 more buddies, Anita and Greg. What a beautiful day, specially in October! After meeting up in Loveland, we cut across some roads to climb onto Hwy 34, which is the main highway to Estes Park, CO. This is the Big Thompson Canyon, where all the severe floods took place in September of this year. The destruction caused by the water was truly mind boggling; the amount of silt, movement of trees and rocks is hard to imagine. We rode about 6 or so miles up Hwy 34 to The Dam Store, which the road was closed at that point. Was hoping to cut through some of the back roads, but all the bridges were washed out. We decided to take a ride up thru Horsetooth Reservoir, following the route taken on the Pro Tour this year. My buddies were laughing as they wanted to get my opinion on the "rolling hills" that Phil Ligget commented on. The route along the dam, breathtaking and for sure, I didn't think they were rolling hills, as I was huffing and puffing up those. I'm a little out of shape from this summer, and maybe try to blame it on the altitude as well. :) Once we arrived at the reservoir, we had headed in different directions. I was staying north of town and Wendy was kind enough to escort me home so I didn't get lost. Beautiful Ride, 60 miles in and I believe about 4000 ft climbing in. My Garmin ended up not saving the ride, so didn't get to log the route in. Will for sure coming back in Spring to ride some more along Ft. Collins and Boulder.

Waterfall where River Blew above Longmont, CO