Day 24: Shadow Mountain Lodge, CO to Denver, CO

These are some pictures from last night. There was free roller skating so Matt Z and Brian and I went and took over the floor. After attempting to get on our skates that is.
Brian and I swinging. He didn't think this was cool and tried to do jumps instead.
That's Matt Z and me. We were pretty good actually. Matt has better pics that I will upload later. I can't believe we were the only ones who wanted in on free roller skating!

Actual Kms: 142 kms

Overkill Kms: 0 kms...lots of directions but we didn't get lost once!

Road Things: three individual gloves, a few small dead birds and nothing else. Weird.

Money Spent: $0 for my Danish and coffee in Empire (town) because someone paid for me. And I didn't buy ice cream in Evergreen. Strange. Maybe I'm feeling guilty for last night. I bought SPF lip stuff, a book by R.C Sproul, postcards galore, ice cream, and a ring for Jesi ....$40.

Wipeouts: 0

Most Interesting Person: Matt Rekman. He biked with Team Sweet today and at one point I was behind and got stopped at a stop light in Evergreen and he waited for me. He said, "I didn't want you to be left behind." Smile.

Quote: Me, "I've got 37 emails in one day", Matt in the computer lab, "All from your boyfriend?"

Favourite Part of the Day: The twisted downhill after Evergreen. We were on a very narrow road, with lots of cars, five members of Team Sweet and it was a good 50 km/h speed and lots of turns. The best was when (as Hans put it) "you can peddle in the corners and feel the G-force pulling you into the curve." It was awesome.

Worst Part of the Day: (Really Funniest part of the day) 10 kms from Denver, we were at a Reformed Church enjoying gatorade and chips. After about 10 minutes I said "Come on guys, let's get going." Matt Z replied "Hurry up, slow down...man Miss Terpstra". Matt R, "Yah Miss Terpstra, take a chill pill," and Brian, "You need to learn to relax Miss Terpstra." I think they tease me just because they can't keep up with me. :) Anyhow, the nickname is back. I think I preferred Turpentine. :)

Today I biked to Denver. This, I feel is an accomplishment. I will let the pictures do the talking. Here is Laura (it was her last day today as she is finishing in Denver, Hans, and Brian). This was last nights supper. Which was delicious as usual. Here is Team Sweet, reunited and on the road by 7...close to 6:45 :).

Here is the view after about 35 kms, 5 kms up the big climb on Pass Bertha. It wasn't as bad as everyone made it out to be.

Here is most of Team Sweet about 2 kms from the top. We stopped for a picture and the altitude had it's wear on me (it is about 11,000 feet). I was definitely breathing harder than normal and found it difficult to drink enough water.

Since there was no summit sign, we took a picture of this sign at the top of the climb.

Here is a bunch of bikers all coming in at the top. The CRC's of Denver had watermelon and drinks for us.

YEAH! I am amazing biker woman who has climbed the rockies!

The boys thought they would lift me and that's as far as they got. :) Must be those weighty drafthorse legs.

Here I am, with my sort of matching outfit. You can see the road we climbed behind. There was snow at the top of the mountain still.

This is Aubrey. She is a french (Quebec) cyclist we met a few days ago who is biking by herself (she is 19) from San Francisco to Denver. She wanted to do this to learn English. You should see how heavy her gear on her bike is! She is amazing. We decided to invite her to join us and the gear truck even carried her bags.

This is our first stop in Empire. Danishes all around! Someone even paid for me....I don't know who yet.

Part of our ride today was by the Fraser River (the one we saw in B.C Mom and Dad) and the Colorado River. I'm not sure which one this was, but we got to ride along a nice bike path for about 5 km.

Taking pictures while riding.

Team Sweet (mostly Matt Z) being silly on the road. Sometimes we like to do stretches on our bikes.

And sometimes Matt R likes to show off.

In Evergreen there was a nice stretch of shops, including a great Art Gallery with live music, beautiful sculptures and paintings. Also, there was a jazz festival going on but we didn't want to pay the $65 to get in. I liked the hanging boots outside of the cowboy shop.

There were even Percheons Dad!

Here is Team Sweep at our favourite part of the ride today, it was a narrow, twisting ride, with a good wind that pushed and pulled you. Some daughters of a cyclist were handing out freezes today. Yum! We take all food offered.

The welcome when we got to Denver Christian High was outrageous. They had people cheering, whistling, cheerleaders handing out water, goodie bags, free postcards/postage, all kinds of food, haircuts, and a dj! We have hit CRC land!

There were lots of signs, volunteers, and welcoming faces.

They even let us sleep in your high school gym Jesi! I'm setting up my tent in the gym because I'll sleep there on Sunday night to get an early start on Monday. You can see my white baskets because on Saturdays, we have to take out our baskets and clean out the gear truck. Tonight I'm sleeping at the Zoeteway's, a friend from college and tomorrow I'm hoping to explore downtown Denver. All the cyclists agree that today was definitely the best ride, a big climb early on, lots of downhill, amazing views, exciting roads and a great welcome into camp. We like Denver!