Day 2

On Saturday morning we slept in and didn't get up until 730! haha....that is sleeping in for us. This day we decided to do the Lunch Loops area of trails in Grand Junction. The trail head was only 3 miles from the hotel so it was really easy to get to. When we got to the trail head we realized it was also an off leash area for dogs. This made it a little interesting in the beginning of the trail.

We headed up Pet-e-keys for the climb. This climb was a lot different than the night before. It was pretty steep and we realized this area was a lot more technical. There were lots of rocks, so lots of steps up and down throughout the trails. From Pet-e-keys we headed to high noon, raven ridge, coyote ridge and over to Miramonte Rim. This was a fun loop out around the rim of a small mesa. It was fun. This was also pretty exposed. We did the whole loop, counter clockwise and then headed back by Miramonte and Leftover Lane. Leftover had a STEEP climb but that took us out to Curt's Lane which was a fun down. We finished the trail by doing the Kid's Meal loop. We didn't realize it prior, but this little loop was actually for kids. They had signs posted teaching techniques for biking. There were different areas where you could take the green circle or black diamond option. It was a cute little training run. The whole loop that we did was 7 1/2 miles. This one took us longer than the night before because it was a lot more technical. I really enjoyed the trail and was able to challenge myself and do some technical things that were new to me. I did get off my bike quite a bit though.

Paul riding the ridge of Miramonte


After the ride, we headed back to the hotel for showers and then went out for a round of golf. We golfed at Lincoln Park course. We picked this one because it was on the way to the wineries we planned to visit afterwards. It wasn't a very nice course. It was nice in that it was very open and we didn't have to worry about losing many balls. However, it was on busy streets with industrial areas around it. Some of the holes circled the driving range which wasn't fenced in. There were dogs barking at us from houses around the course. I notice that I am getting a little better but have a long way to go.

After 9 holes of golf, we went wine tasting. We drove a town over to Palisades where there are 19 wineries that do wine tasting. We went to three. The first one was Talon/Katherine's, then there was Grand Valley and lastly Plum Creek. They all had free tastings. We bought wine at each.