Jason and I set out on Father's Day morning for a Father's Day riding adventure. The kids were delighted to be having breakfast with Pappy and Jason was excited to get a bike ride in after spending all day Saturday having "special boy time." I was thinking that we were going for a little climb up Lee Hill Road and back down Lefthand Canyon and home over Old Stage Road. But when we got to Lefthand Canyon, Jason was up for a little more climbing. We ate our little snack and headed up Lee Hill toward Ward. I figured we would go just a couple miles up and turn around for home. It was warm and beautiful and several colorful butterflies kept following Jason and trying to land on his Sierra Nevada bike jersey. It was lovely.
Then at mile 14.5 I couldn't believe my eyes. Just about 100 feet up the road, a big brown animal ran across the road. What could it be - I thought for a second and then quickly realized - A Bear! Oh my goodness. Unfortunately, Jason was a little behind me and he couldn't see it from his perspective. Needless to say, I pedaled a little faster to make sure Smoky didn't come back out onto the road.
We made it to the top in about 2.5 hours. Since we hadn't planned on riding that far, Jason didn't have enough to eat and he bonked about 1 mile from the top. Being the "man" that he is, he powered his way to the top anyway and we rested for awhile at the top.
One final comment. Ward has to be the funkiest place in Colorado. There is some weird old truck, old shoe trash sculpture at the top across from the General Store where about 20+ bikers hang out every weekend replenishing their strength. And I wonder why the owner of the store hasn't figured out that he could make a fortune if he sold a few more nutritious "athletic" snacks for the hungry cyclists!
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