Introduction

This tour is an 18-day loop starting and finishing in Rifle, Colorado. All motels, with advance reservations because some areas are very touristy and other areas have limited lodging options.

Most of my bike tours have been solo. This was my first time to have tour partners since 2010. Fortunately for me it was a very loosely structured group. I had touring partners to meet for breakfast and dinner, but seldom saw them during the day.

I was solo for the first 4 days, from Rifle to Rangely.

About to start in Rifle, Colorado. Photo by Kelly Iniguez.

Day 5 in Rangely I was joined by Kelly and Jacinto Iniguez. Kelly created a live journal during the tour. This journal was created after the tour.

Wayne, Jacinto, and Kelly at Victory Hotel in Maybell, Colorado. Photo by Kelly.

Days 8-12 we were joined by Tom Swanson and Ken Paulsen. Tom and Ken diverted from the route in Hot Sulfur Springs and we ended the tour as a loose group of 3 cyclists.

Ken, Wayne, Jacinto, Tom, and Kelly in Baggs, Wyoming. Ages 52 to 81. Photo by Kelly.

I don't have a photo of the 5 of us posing with our bikes. I'm not kidding that I seldom saw them except at breakfast and dinner.

Kelly and I ride short wheelbase recumbent bikes. The others ride upright road touring bikes. I was the slowest of the group. 81 year old Tom was faster than 57 year old Wayne!

The route was conceived by Kelly Iniguez but we emailed extensively to tweak the route and decide the overnight locations. Kelly found a great back roads route to keep us off of busy highway 9. The original plan was to do a longer loop in the high mountains. But a storm and fatigue caused us to shorten the route a bit. We still managed to go through Leadville, the highest city in North America.

The northwest half of the route is mostly high desert sagebrush country. That area is not popular with touring cyclists or tourists of any kind. Towns are small and largely based on ranching or oil and gas production.

The southeast half of the route is higher, more forested. It has more traffic because it's close to Denver. The towns are larger, wealthier, and resort-like. Popular with tourists of all kinds, including cyclists who use the extensive network of bike trails.

I seldom seek out bike trails but the route includes several excellent bike trails. The Colorado river corridor has frequent bike trails including the famous Glenwood Canyon trail. Most of the 18 mile loop around Dillon reservoir is on bike trails and I pedaled a trail from Frisco to Copper Mountain.

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I think it's very instructive to click the button in the upper right of the map and select Terrain view.

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