Lisa and I had hoped to do a European bike trip this summer – we have our eyes on a 1,000 mile ride from St. Malo on the Brittany coast to Nice, via the Loire valley, the Dordogne, the Lot and Provence. But family responsibilities were more pressing and we decided to delay that adventure till next year, hopefully. So, we’ve been out on our bikes, but not on overnight trips. A few weeks ago, we rode in southwest Wisconsin, in the driftless region (hilly!) as we visited Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesen, and spent a lovely afternoon canoeing on the Wisconsin River.

Two weeks ago, we again loaded our bikes back on the car and threw the tent in the back and headed west to visit our friends Paul and Cindy, who we’ve biked with before (across New York state, the entire Mickelson Trail, and last summer, the Bike Around Minnesota ride.) They are both from Glenwood Springs, Colorado, and had wanted us to come out and see them and bike in the mountains.

We both love a road trip, especially to the west, and have driven out there often. This time, we left at noon on a Friday (Lisa had an important meeting that morning) and drove to Rapid City, South Dakota via Interstate 90. I love that drive, especially the moment when you approach the Missouri River at Chamberlain – coasting down the long hill to the river and then climbing up the west side. It is here where I’ve always thought the west begins: the green fields of southern Minnesota and eastern South Dakota giving way to semi arid prairie and vast spaces of treeless plains. It is near here that John Wesley Powell named the “100th” meridian as the point that divided the east from the west in 1878. The time zone changes from Central to Mountain just after driving by Murdo, and you can feel the elevation climbing as you speed west. The highest points in South Dakota are in the Black Hills, where Black Elk Peak (formerly Harney Peak) tops out at over 7,000 feet (compared to the average elevation in Minnesota of about 1,000 feet.)

Hours in the car gave us the opportunity to talk, listen to music and podcasts, read and gaze at the horizon, so flat and the highway so straight. You hardly turn the steering wheel at all for hundreds of miles, as the sun moves west, and eventually is shining right in your eyes as you pull into Rapid City.

The next morning we headed south, and drove through Edgemont, the town we’d stayed in last year when we started the Mickelson, and then into Wyoming, towards Laramie (briefly on the Lincoln Highway) and then up and over Rabbit Ears Pass (well over 9,000 feet) and into Steamboat. We’d made plans to camp two nights at Strawberry Hot Springs, up the mountain from Steamboat, where natural hot springs merge with a mountain creek, creating pools of differing temperatures. We loved the pools and moved around from hotter to cooler. Getting to our campsite, along the creek, meant climbing down the hillside trail with our gear, but once we were set up, right next to the creek, it was a lovely spot to sleep two nights. The hot springs and pools were busy, especially Saturday night and it was great to meet people and chat and feel the effect of warm water on our bodies.

We spent a few hours cycling along the Yampa River in Steamboat on a busy Sunday when, it seemed everyone in town was out on bikes, skates, canoes, tubes, kayaks and a few on paddleboards on the rapids of the Yampa. It was beautiful and our first experience biking at a pretty high elevation, and yes, we could feel it.

Then we drove to Glenwood Springs and checked into our lodging for the week – the Ponderosa Lodge, little individual cabins that looked like they dated back to the 1950’s, though ours was nicely updated on the inside. Each cabin was named after a character on the old TV show Bonanza – we stayed in Adam.

We stayed in Glenwood for the rest of the week, hosted so kindly by Paul, Cindy and Paul’s mother, Barb, who has lived there for fifty years in the same (beautiful) house. Each day, we took a bike ride. On the first day, we took a bus from Glenwood to Aspen and then rode our bikes back down the canyon, 45 miles into Glenwood along the Roaring Fork river.

Our friends certainly didn’t oversell the beauty of the Glenwood Canyon (formed by the Colorado River) and the surrounding area, including Aspen – it was our first time in that little town, after reading about it and hearing about it for decades. We were amazed, even as we stepped out of our humble little cabin and looked across the river at Red Mountain. The weather was terrific every day and we gradually got more used to exercising at elevation.

After five days in Glenwood, we drove over Vail Pass to Denver (another incredibly beautiful drive) where we’d booked Friday night in our favorite hotel (Hotel Teatro) – within an hour of checking in, we were discussing whether we should stay an additional night. The Avett Brothers were playing at Red Rocks the next night – we’ve ridden our bikes out to the amphitheater before, but had never seen a real show. Lisa hopped online and snagged tickets to the show and I called the front desk to book a second night. Our plan still included driving to Valentine, Nebraska on Sunday and camping by the Niobrara River at Smith Falls State Park, another favorite of ours.

The Red Rocks experience was a huge highlight – we studied up on the tips and hints and ended up having a little charcuterie by the car before going in and finding seats. We met several people, including the four in front of us who were from southeastern Minnesota!

The next morning, we loaded our bikes onto the car again and headed east towards Nebraska, and made it to Valentine by dinner time only to find that most of the restaurants were closed on Sunday. We grabbed some barbeque and went out to Smith Falls and set up our tent in a nearly empty park. We had time to hike over to the Falls and stand in the cold water.

OK, so I (Dan) wasn’t sure I’d even be able to make this trip, as I have scheduled a total knee replacement for my left knee. I was a serious runner for three decades, averaging 1,000 miles each year between age 30 and 60. I still remember a run on Summit Avenue when I realized that my knee was really wearing out. I had a couple procedures done, but it never recovered and my doctor said “you need to move to your second favorite sport” which I didn’t really have, but soon developed a love for biking which didn’t bother my knee at all. For the last 13 years, that has been my main activity, along with frequent long walks. Earlier this summer, the walking became really painful, and my knee kept buckling. I saw an orthopedic doc who xrayed both knees and said told me that it was basically over for my left (the right knee, wierdly, was ‘perfect’.) I decided that, given the knee isn’t going to get better, I should just get it fixed asap – so I can recover in the summer, be in reasonably good shape for the holidays, and for winter travel plans. So I go under the knife this coming Friday morning, and am then looking at the long recovery (I should be able to walk and bike in 8 – 10 weeks.) I hope I have another couple of healthy decades ahead of me, and I’m not going to waste any time!

I’m so glad we made this trip, as I think my outdoor biking season is probably over! I’ll be back as soon as I am able.