The Start of my 11th Ride the Rockies

Well, it's another year and time for another ride through the rockies. We have our regular crew together--Janis and Susan and myself. This year it starts in Gunnison. We enjoyed the beautiful views as we made our way down 285. I picked up my registration packet and met up with the Adaptive crew. It's a big group this year with 3 handcyclists and a bunch of other new riders. We met up for dinner and a meeting at Pita's in Paradise. We got the low down on the coming week. My crew and I are pretty self sufficient--after 10 tours, we got it down pretty well. We got great accommodations in Crested Butte thanks to Robert who owns a condo. It's so beautiful up here--I'd love to live here. He renovated this condo and it is awesome with lots of accessibility and attention to detail. Tomorrow no passes but a 45 mile climb up past Blue Mesa. Once we get to the top--it's about 30 miles of nice downhill into Hotchkiss. The secret is to get out early. The winds will come up and haunt us the later we go in the day. I hate head winds!! So I hope we get riding by 6:00. That's the plan anyway--it's hard the first day out trying to get in the groove of loading and unloading. (well, for the sherpa's anyway) Got to try and get some sleep. I always have trouble sleeping the first night--but sheer exhaustion takes care of that. Can't wait to get that first day under my belt. See you tomorrow!!