Did the Mineral Belt Trail in Leadville! The first loop takes you through mining areas on a nice paved path. Very pretty. Most of the downhills had good sight lines. After returning through Leadville, you take roads around Turquoise Lake. I keep thinking a ride around a lake means you are riding near the waterline and relatively flat. WRONG! Lots of climbing! Kudos to my son (Wally 4) who was riding a heavy, full suspension mountain bike with big knobby tires. Nice and fairly light by MTB standards; but it sure isn’t a TDF climbing bike. Lots of stopping since we separated quickly and would ideally be within line of sight; but that was impossible with all the twists and turns in the road (climbing & descending). STIFF winds! Just reconfirms that Illinois wind starts in the mountains and then maintains or gains in intensity across the plains. Leadville is at 10,000 ft and we maxed out just below 10,694ft. ) Forgot to bring the oxygen tanks.)
Top speed was 44mph; but I was still scrubbing speed to be conservative and not end up being a statistic. If you were a local and knew the roads you could really blast it. Although the results of a mistake are huge. Seemed like near vertical drop-offs to this flatlander.
Came home from work on the night before we left and our refrigerator gave up the ghost. Kind of threw a wrench in my last minute packing (which I always hate). Planned on swapping out a bigger cassette; but that didn’t happen. 34-25 was doable (IRMV). Overall a great adventure!