Hopkins 4K for Cancer

July 4, 2004

Grand Lake, CO
Finally the day that we had all been waiting for, the day we scale the Rockies to an elevation of 12,183 feet. We stayed at the YMCA of the Rockies at Estes Park which was a nice resort where we all had beds in the cabin. We were fortunate enough to have a huge buffet breakfast in the dining hall to fill our stomachs for the ride ahead of us. We started the ride just outside of Rocky Mountain National Park with one of our most emotional moments of silence of the trip.

As we rode into the park the 22-mile climb started immediately but we did not know it. The ride over the Rockies was going to be a very gradual climb, something that shocked us. Planning for the worst, I had imagined the climb to be very steep and extremely difficult but it was not. The low grade of the road made the climb bearable at first. As we began to climb into the sky, towards the snow-capped peaks, the landscape around us was simply amazing. The higher we climbed the more spectacular the view. Miles below us we could see the winding road up the mountainside that we just climbed. The ride and the views were so spectacular that we stopped numerous times along the way for photo opportunities. As we climbed past the 2-mile mark and around the viewpoint for Rainbow Valley the temperature in the air quickly dropped. At one of the viewpoints we stopped for the vans to catch us to give us our warm clothes. It was so cold that a group of us huddled together around all of the incoming cars, whose engines were still warm. Before long it began snowing on us, only for a brief moment, but we were in fact snowed on. When the van finally arrived we finished the climb to the top, finally climbing over the Rockies. It was all downhill from there as well. We enjoyed our accomplishments on top; above tree line, where snow was everywhere, in the lodge having hot coco and chili to warm us up. The ride down the other side was fun but very cold. Our metal brake levers were cold to the touch numbing our fingers. As the elevation quickly decreased we began to thaw out as we arrived in Grand Lake.

That evening we were witness to an amazing firework display over the large glacier lake. The day had been amazing; we had all accomplished something amazing, WE CLIMBED OVER THE ROCKIES!!! Granted, we still had a lot of hard riding left, but this was certainly a major accomplishment. The group was in very good spirits on this day and it made our day off in Grand Lake very nice and laid back.

- Peter Dewey