Mt Evans

I had been thinking of this ride for a while. The road closes after labor day and with a ideal weather forecast, I decided to give it a go. I parked at the clear creek middle school. There's lots of parking and it's right off 70, so you're not losing any climbing.

From the school it's just shy of 28 miles to the summit, with 6.6K of climbing. It's a gentle grade, averaging 4%, with only a few areas of steeper grade, but nothing steep.

The Chicago Creek and Squaw Pass roads are in excellent condition, but once you get onto Mt Evans road things go to shit pretty fast and you got to pay attention. There are plenty of pot-holes, road anomalies and tons of annoying water bars/channels.

Above the tree-line the wind started to gust and things got demoralizing at times, but it was nice when it pushed you along in a few sections.

I underestimated how cold it would be. The forecast for Idaho Springs was off about 10 degrees. It was 43F when I started at 7:45AM (late August). I have no idea what the temp was at the top but probably not more than 50F and felt colder with the wind.

I wore a short sleeve jersey with arm warmers on the ascent and while initially it was a bit chilly, it was fine once I warmed up. For the descent I brought along windstopper gloves, a wool hat, leg warmers and a wind breaker. This was just about right in terms of comfort. I can't even imagine what it'd be like if it rained or snowed.

The descent was unnerving for me in a few places since you need to deal with speed, questionable road condition, terrifying drop-offs in places and drivers, who may not be accustomed to or considerate of cyclists. But for the most part the descent is fine, although bumpy. Once you get to Squaw Pass road it gets super smooth but you can collect a lot of speed and gotta watch it with cars.

Overall it was a great experience and I plan to ride it again next year.