Denver accommodations?

[Kathi]

Kathi - I will be out there in July for about 2 weeks. The following is a quote from an email from my son & I'm wondering if you have done this ride, and if so, what's it like (besides LOTS of climbing!): "We can ride from here to the top of Juniper & back one day if you want - much longer & better climb!

Out to Golden, up lookout, across to Evergreen, up Juniper, back down to Evergreen, down Bear Creek to Morrison, then home."

"here" & "home" meaning Denver. He lives downtown near Coors Stadium.

Your thoughts?

Believe it or not I have not ridden Lookout Mtn of Juniper Pass but I can help with some of the ride. From downtown I expect that he will take Clear Creek trail to Golden, it's flat so that won't be a big deal, Lookout Mtn is 4.5 miles of climbing with a 3 mile downhill. We drove up to Echo Lake (Juniper Pass) a few weeks ago and it didn't seem to bad, just long. Once you turn around it's pretty much all downhill and flat, except for Mt. Carbon in the Bear Creek park. There's 2 ways to come up Mt. Carbon, the left side is easier. Once you get over Mt. Carbon the ride is flat down the Bear Creek Trail and along the Platte River trail back to Denver.

How many miles did he say it is? I can ride from my house to Golden, down the Clear Creek trail to the Platte River trail to the Bear Creek trail to home and it is 54 miles. I live 1.2 miles from the Bear Creek.

I'm planning on doing these passes as training for RTR (if we get accepted)and if I do I'll let you know how they are.