Carl and Rita, who both ride motorcycles, are letting us stay with them at their house this week in Broomfield, Colorado. Although we know of each other through a motorcycle message board we have not met in real life up until now.
Broomfield is a really nice suburb located north of Denver, Even though I’ve only been here two days I really like it. Not sure what happened yesterday, but I was not feeling good. I woke up with a headache and my stomach decided to reject my morning cup of coffee. I‘ve had elevation sickness before but that was arriving from the flat lands and stopping for the night at 10,000 feet in elevation. Broomfield is only half of that. I’m feeling great today and while Mike is working (he can work from anywhere, just needs his laptop and phone) Rita and I went for a day ride.
At 10:30AM it was already a very pleasant day, the temperature in the 80’s. We left Broomfield and headed for the mountains. 20 minutes later we were climbing in elevation. Rita had a nice route picked out for us which was 110 miles long. Once we got out into the mountains we turned on 72 north. The tightest section of the road is located in between Wondervu to Pinecliffe, this is where you can find the hair pin turns.
Heading for the mountains on 93
Rididng 72 with snow covered peaks in the distance
10 mile an hour curves on 72
Lots of sweepers on 72 as well
Rain clouds in the distance on 72
We arrived in Nederland. Located at 8236 feet above sea level, Nederland is a small tourist town that is not too touristy. Rita and I locked up the bikes and went walking through town. There is a cute pedestrian covered bridge in town that sits over the creek.
Nederland, Colorado
It was lunch time so we stopped in New Moon Bakery and ordered some quiche. I had the mushroom with goat cheese and it was delicious. As we ate a storm was moving in. We were hopping to outrun it but just as we got to the bikes the rain started to fall. we went to hide from the rain under the overhanging roof of the visitor center but the lady inside told us to come in saying that just last week someone got stuck by lightening outside the visitor center. The storm moved quickly and 45 minutes later we were pulling out of Nederland and continuing North on 72.
New Moon Bakery in Nederland
New Moon Bakery quiche for lunch
Big rain falling in Nederland just as we were getting our bikes ready to leave
Since riding n the mountains you never go in a straight line, we got rained on again further down the road. By the time we turned on 7 and headed toward Boulder, the rain was almost behind us. 72 has some great mountain views, 7 had immaculate pavement and really nice rock formation along the way and runs along some creek or river. 7 is more my type of a road, with 30-40MPH curves.
Rain soaked 72
On 7 heading east towards Lyons
By the time we rode in to Boulder, the clouds were threatening rain again and the winds really picked up. To avoid getting rained on we rode over to the Celestial Seasonings tea company located in Boulder. This is where the plant is located and they do plant tours here. We just went to check out the store.
A dress made out of tea bags
A tea pot covered in tea box mosaic
Lots of stuff to buy here at the Celestial Seasonings store, I liked these black kitty tea sets
Once the clouds moved away, we rode back to Broomfield, the rush hour traffic was starting to pick up. Some great roads around here.
Our 110 mile route
Nice ride! I've done some driving in that area even up to Estes Park, but haven't been there on the bike yet. Looks heavenly.
ReplyDelete