Pikes via bike

On July 4 some friends and I decided to ride over to the one year anniversary party at Red Leg Brewing.  But we wanted to take the difficult way, by way of the Pikes Peak Highway up to the top of the mountain and back down.  It's a straight shot five miles from my house to the brewery.  The route we decided on would give us 60 for the day.

I'll tell you this - it's a fucking hard ride!  Well, the first half is, anyways.  Here's the garmin data.  Took me just shy of six hours to get up from the house (the time included three long breaks - first at the entrance to the highway, and then at the two gift shops on the highway).

Here's the group.  Liz in the yellow jersey as she was first up the mountain.  Unfortunately, Marc and Liz would be unable to complete the entire ride, as they both arrived at Red Leg in a car.  Quitters.

Proof I hauled my bike up there:

One of the reasons I was a bit slower was that I was working on my project to piss off JMock by finding Bigfoot before he does.  I'm sooooo close!

I don't think I pedaled from the summit all the way down to the Garden.  But I was super thirsty so I had no issues pounding a few extra miles to get to Red Leg.