Some Favorites From My Bike Trip
 

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Here's a shot of me biking past Long's Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park.

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This is my favorite shot from the trip. Taking a break on Trail Ridge Road, 20 miles of uphill with 4000 ft of elevation gain. Long day, but going down the other side was well worth the effort.

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Highway 40 heading west out of Hot Sulphur Springs. Met a couple cycling from Washington D.C. to Seattle that we cycled with that day.

now that's cool... what an amazing trip... :D

Very nice pics. What kind of camera were they shot with?

It's so wide open there and the mountains are simply gorgeous. Great shots.

The sky and the mountains are incredible! Great shots kurty! :)

Thanks everyone, it was definitely a blast, and I'm hoping to continue doing bike trips like this as often as possible (it's great soaking in the world on bit at a time).

Photos were taken with my Nikon Coolpix 200-some-odd model. It's a few years old, but still does the trick.

those aren't mountians...those are hils...........and very pretty ones too !

amazing amount of gear on those bikes....weight???

xoxoxoo

Ahhh...to ride out on the open road in the Rockies and have the fitness to get up the mountains. A dream of mine.

Very cool. I want to do that one of these days. Did you ride with anybody else (besides the other couple that one day)? How were the roads, were the shoulders pretty good for the entire trip? And where did you start from and finish?

I didn't have that kind of lung capacity BEFORE I started smoking....
The shots are gorgeous. You can't go wrong taking pix in the Rockies.

Fantastic shots! I love the first one. The colors are just amazing.

My bike without any gear on it weighed in just below 25 pounds. I'm assuming the panniers fully loaded added another 50 pounds (I usually take 35-40 pounds backpacking, so with stuff for bike repairs and extra water I just guessed on that one). You could certainly feel every extra ounce going up mountain passes (hardly took any food to the top of Rocky Mountain National Park, but carried dinner and breakfast to the top of Rabbit Ears Pass and there was a huge difference just with an extra 2-3 pounds). Over the two weeks I spent on the bike, I lost 12 pounds, and my pace along relatively flat roads went from 8mph to 13-15mph, it still takes me forever to climb hills.

I started in Colorado Springs, rode to south Denver, then got a ride to Boulder, and continued on to Steamboat. After that my goal was to head to Calgary, and then across to Vancouver. I cut my trip short in Rawlins, Wyoming to accept a job offer I couldn't resist. I'm planning to continue the trip next summer from Jackson Hole and make it to Missoula, Montana.

From Boulder to Steamboat my friend joined me for the ride. After Steamboat I was on my own, but met a few other people and would usually ride with them for half days or full days.

As far as the roads... Rocky Mountain National Park was great, no shoulder, but everyone is driving slow, and quite a few people are cheering you on. It was great when I was getting exhausted, and someone with a Massachussetts license plate drove by yelling "You're My Hero!!!" That gave me a nice boost of energy for a few more minutes. The worst stretch of road was Highway 40 from Kremmling to just before the climb up Rabbit Ears Pass. No shoulder, lots of semi's and county road maintanence vehicles driving past well over the speed limit and not always giving you any room. From what I saw in southern Wyoming the shoulders are large and roomy, people were extremely friendly, hardly any traffic, but the further I seemed to get into the state the blander the view became, and the harsher the headwinds were.

Incredible pictures - congrats on tackling such a daunting trip.

My idea of vacation has nothing to do with exercise... ;)

Those are freakin' sweet! I just got back from CO, and I might have a very sim. pic of Long's peak, well minus the bike. I'll have to look when I get home.

Thanks again,

absorbentishe, I'd love to see those pictures of Long's Peak (great mountain, one of the few on my shrinking list of 14ers to hike to the top of). When you were here where else did you go visit?

I was there July 23rd through 28th. We went to RMNP only once, and it was awesome, just wish I could have hiked more. It was a church mission trip to loveland, and it was awesome. I've never seen mountains before, so that was great by itself! I will dl my pix tonight to see what I have. We're also going to play the video of us driving through the mountains for our kids tonight. Not sure how good the quality is though.

Awesome, sounds like a blast. Never seen mountains before? I can't fathom that. After having visited the Himilayas the Rockies seem like foothills to me.

I just wanted to share, Adventure Cycling Association chose my photo for their Photo of the Week http://www.adventurecycling.org/weeklyphoto/index.cfm

I'm totally psyched, and can't help thinking about the next time I'll get to do another of these trips. As the other cyclists I met on the trip said "we all got the cycle touring bug".

The colour in those pics is fantastic - not to mention the scenery itself. I've done several similar rides in Australia and New Zealand but the pics just don't seem to come out with the same vibrance!
I use a Fuji Finepix but tend to leave the settings on automatic - do you set yours manually?

It depends on the terrain. The default "landscape" mode on my camera captures the contrast between green, rocky mountains and blue sky really well. I use the "bright light" mode on snowy terrain, but also take normal "landscape" shots and just pick the best. I have not found a mode on my camera that really captures desert shots very well.

I also adjust the Contrast and sometimes Levels of the photos in Photoshop. The only way to get a decent looking desert shot is to heavily adjust the Levels, and sometimes it ruins it.

One of these days I'm going to break down and buy a digital SLR.