Our group for Saturday grew a bit compared to the first day, but it was still manageable and had the same riders included from the day before.  The intended goal was Mount Evans, the highest paved road in the US.

Forgive me, but I completely forget any of the names of where we went other than Mount Evans.  I'll get real names and stuff when I download the GPS tracks. Note: Updates are in italics.

Anyway, we went up towards Mount Evans on Squaw Pass Rd and highway 103 and stopped at a little 'general store' at the bottom of mountain near Echo Lake.  There was another crew of riders that had passed us on the way up and we chatted with them for a bit.  There was one girl who was on a Honda Hawk that the wife thought was kind of cool.  I really loved the sound of that little twin.  :) 

We headed up Mount Evans itself, after paying the three dollar park fee.  The ranger told us to be careful, as there were some major frost heaves in the road and she didn't want any of us "launched".  She was right to warn us...  The road could severely damage any vehicle that wasn't prepared for it.  It was kind of fun though. :)  The rest of the road was awesome.  Not quite the same kind of speeds we hit on the roads from Friday, but still really neat.  Lots of hairpins, most of which had a 1000 foot drop if you missed anything.  Traffic was fine and passing areas were easily found. 

At the top of the road, there's a parking area and restrooms.  Then you have quite a hike up to get to the actual peak.  I was told by many that I really need to hike it up and check it out.  Unfortunately, I knew I wasn't up for it.  The air was so thin up there (14,200 feet) that I could barely move.  Just walking across the parking lot made me feel high as a kite.  Not bad or sick, just weird.  I knew that I wouldn't be able to put up the effort to hike up unless someone was going to carry me back. 

The wife went up and enjoyed the hike, but I just hung out at the parking area and the little observation post.  I was quite happy to do so and it's a nice spot.  It was cool just to chill and watch people, bikes and scenery.

Anyway, we headed back down and all was good as soon as I dropped 200 feet.  Weird how that works.  The drive down was a bit more fun than the ride up, mainly because I had an idea of how the road was since I'd just done it the opposite direction. ;)  To give you an idea, the map above shows the peak area.  Altitude at the top of the map was 13000 ft.  Altitude at the turnaround and parking area was 14200 feet.  Nice road! :)

We made it down and then followed Phil (our defacto "leader" local rider) on some other roads that I also can't remember.  Faster, harder turns, fun. ;)  But, we hit some pretty severe traffic down in a valley on the way home and some higher temperatures.  The wife and I were cooked.  We headed back to the hotel while Jim and a couple others headed up to Lookout Hill.

At the hotel, we cleaned up, took the group picture, ordered frosty beverages, ate and then went up and started the packing, as we were checking out in the morning.  G'night!