Day 3 of biking in Colorado

Sunday was our actual anniversary. So much for sleeping in while we didn't have the kids....we were both up at 630 and couldn't get back to sleep. We got up and around and headed out for our next ride. Our choice for today was a ride that about every local we talked to recommended. The ride was part of the Kokopelli loops and called Horsethief Bench.

It was a great ride. We were so glad to have had this recommendation. We headed out on Mary's loop. This was a steep climb off the bat. We were both on very tired legs so it was a tough start. Once we got warmed up it wasn't too bad though. There was a big "hike a bike" section to get down into Horsethief. We were sufficiently warned about this area. The girl at OTE bike shop told us not to think we were supposed to be able to ride it, everyone hikes a bike at this area. (although you can find youtube videos of people flying down it that make us feel like awful riders) It was really steep with huge steps in the rocks. Paul made it down a couple of sections but there was no way he was going to make it all the way through.

We also had to climb back up that same section on the way back. This is Paul climbing up

Horsethief was a great ride. It was the perfect combination of climb for a workout, fast riding, technical and views. We headed back through Mary's to Wrangler's. When we got back to the car we didn't feel ready to be done so we added in Rustler. This was a steep climb up but then just a fun fast ride with beautiful views. Our total ride was 12 miles and just about 3 hours.

It was nice that we had some clouds this day, it kept it a little cooler.

A raft WAY down in the river

A video of the views


We almost made it through the whole trip without a tire change. Hopefully Paul fixed the real problem and we won't be doing this every ride

The only injury from the trip(Paul got attacked by a tree)