September 18, 2021
The Answer to Life, the Universe and Everything
Rio Grande Trail, Miracle Cream, Fire!
Our original plan was to ride to Carbondale and back tomorrow before the drive to Eagle, since the Glenwood Cyn trail is closed. However we had this extra day in Glenwood, the weather is forecast to be iffy tonight and tomorrow but beautiful today, so we decided to ride today. And since there is no time crunch, rather than ride just to Carbondale and back, a distance of about 30 miles, we decided to extend it further to ride our current favorite distance, 42 miles.
Neither of us was too hungry, so we wandered over to check out the motel breakfast. The room was quite full of, you guessed it, unmasked tourists, and it was hot and stuffy (read: crap ventilation.) There was a waffle-maker in heavy use, various pastries, bagels, cereals and eggs available. We quickly grabbed some bagels and cream cheese and high-tailed it back to our room to eat.
After packing some leftover 1/2 sandwiches, we took off on the Rio Grande trail that runs from Glenwood all the way to Aspen. It was crispy-cool and sunny- really nice.
The trail follows both Hwy 82 and the Roaring Fork river. It is essentially flat-climbing about 600 ft in the 21 miles we rode up it. Lots of folks out, cycling, walking, running, roller-blading. Carbondale was about 13 miles in; we kept going and turned around at mile 21. We enjoyed our leftovers sitting on a bench right by the river-life is sweet!
On the way back we met a couple roller-blading the trail. They caught an early AM bus from Glenwood to Aspen and were returning to Glenwood-a 40 mile roll. Props to them, I was impressed!
As we rode into our motel parking lot, our odometers turned over exactly 42 miles.
After cleaning up we walked into town for ice cream, a nice indulgence. We then went to a cannabis dispensary so Genny could purchase some analgesic cream. She has an old hand injury that has evolved into a chronic, painful problem. CBD cream has been helpful, more so than Voltaren cream. A fellow cyclist recently told her that cannabis cream containing both CBD and THC was a “miracle” for his leg pain. So we’ll see if it helps.
As we were approaching the bridge over the river adjacent to downtown, sirens began blaring and multiple fire engines, ambulances and police vehicles headed east along the river and from the bridge we watched as a house basically burned down. Over the course of an hour, the firemen did a great job controlling things as the house next door and adjacent trees began burning and spot fires started on the hill above the burning house.
We are now waiting for Kelly to bring over the van. I think we will be packing it up in the AM and heading to Eagle and then Kelly will come with Jacinto for dinner later in the day. The plan has changed several times so this may change again.
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Today's ride: 42 miles (68 km)
Total: 61 miles (98 km)
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