After getting in a ride with a lot of elevation for early season, we chose what we thought would be a leisurely ride along the river. There were several options, but it seemed like a good day after and had the added appeal of a lunch location and a winery along the way. It ended up being a lot more climbing than we anticipated.
We had expected that the weather would be cooler since we left a little earlier, but the wind hadn’t picked up by our hotel yet. So no jackets or long sleeved jersey were needed. We headed out along the same path, but instead crossed the river and headed left. The path was longer than Brian had expected and then we were out on the road. We saw a bike path again and got excited that we might have a night river rambling ride, but instead it turned out to be access to a campsite area. We ended up having to circle back a bit and drag the bike up a tiny incline. The area along the river is called Castle Valley. At the top of the canyons it has really cool rock formations that look like castles and Brian and I even debated the geology and made guesses to how they had formed. On the way out we were mostly into the wind and going slow and steady uphill. By the time we got to the winery area, we were tired enough that we took a brief break with a snack and then headed to the lunch destination. Lunch was planned to be at the Sorrel River Ranch, but the restaurant was kind of dead and very fancy. The place was a very fancy spa. As a pair of dirty cyclists, I felt better about sitting on the deck with a glass of sparkling along the river than sitting in their fancy dining area. We didn’t stay long before we headed back to the winery at the Red Cliff Lodge called Castle Creek Winery. The wine wasn’t that great, but the tasting was super cheap at $1 for 3 small tastings. It was a nice old fashioned stop though which some great sights to take in along the river.
Luckily for us though, the ride from there was pretty much downhill. We still added some feet to our total elevation gain, but we got into a great cadence and got some good speed. We had asked for a 2PM checkout, but ended up calling and extending that. It was time to hurry home, and pack up to head back to Denver. We had some tasty charcuterie style snacks with us, so after packing up we had a nice lunch on the patio. We hit the road and had a nice drive home. We stopped in Glenwood Springs on the way back and enjoyed different tasty dishes this time. I tried one of their fancy cocktails which was quite tasty, and we took the guy up on his suggestions of the gnocchi salad, short rib tacos and red curry mussels. We also managed to get suckered into a great dessert as well. Guess I won’t be losing weight from all that biking! It was a great meal though to end our really fun weekend biking.