# RR: Denver to Lookout Mountain and Back



## taralon (Sep 1, 2011)

So I decided to write up this report. I've done this ride before, but even the first time I challenged the mountain that was used in the final stage of USA Pro Cycling Challenge wasn't as tough as today. 

I started out my ride at 9:30 am at a Starbucks off of Illiff and Monaco which has easy access to the Highline Canal MUT, which feeds into the Cherry Creek Trail MUT. Yes, I use MUTs in part of just about every ride. As long as you don't go all "bikepathlete" they really aren't too bad, especially if you time things so you avoid the peak traffic times. 

The conditions were in a word, terrible. Not the worst I've ridden in, but still terrible. Temp was at 50 a nice 15 degrees less than I like to ride in, winds were out of the SSE at 22 and gusting to 30 (per the weather channel app on my phone) and it was mostly overcast. Still I decided I'd gotten all dressed up, and a bad day on the bike is still better than a good day at the office. Plus the wind would be mostly at my back until I reached Downtown Denver.

Probably because of the conditions the MUT was all but empty, and with the wind pushing me NNW towards downtown I basically coasted/soft pedaled my way to Confluence Park in downtown Denver. From Confluence I crossed the Platte to gain entrance to Water street which feeds/turns into 23rd AVE westbound. 

From Confluence Park you climb up a moderate hill towards/through the Highlands neighborhood. The Highland and further to the West Sloans lake neighborhoods are amoung the most "historic" in the Denver area. The housing architecture is the type I wish I could afford, but can't. The houses are mostly of "Queen Anne" architecture, with a smattering of the ever present Denver Square and a few newer built homes. The streets are lined with mature trees, but unfortunately the area which was once known as the "Garden of the Plains" has mostly given way to overgrown yards. The streets are also narrow, which means I don't get to spend nearly as much attention looking at what I'm riding by as I would like. On the plus side the area gets a lot of bike traffic, and most people (outside of rush hour) are fairly courteous. 23rd also has a marked bike path for most of its run to Sloans lake, but I had to detour north well before the lake due to road construction. In the interest of taking a direct route I moved north on Grove Street straight to 32nd Ave which in this area is not a designated bike route. I could have taken 26th, but I would have had to move north once again around Sheridan as 26th ends. Plus 26th the last time I rode on it was in rather poor condition with potholes and unsealed expansion cracks. 32nd despite not being marked as a bike route is much wider than either 26th or 28th with single lands of traffic in both directions, a center turning lane, and a wide parking shoulder until you hit basically Wadsworth to the west. There are also very few lights and no stop signs when you take this route, basically being only a stop light every 2 miles or so. It is also in much better shape than 29th, and given I was going westbound at about 10:00-11:00 am almost deserted. Strangely enough I was the only bike for I saw using this road as well. 

Crossing Kipling and heading west, 32nd turns into a designated bike route and widens slightly with a wide shoulder as you descend down into the Applewood area heading to cross under I-70. The descent, if you can take the time to look is quite senic as well. In front of you you can see the rise of the North and South Table mountains which are remnants of an ancient volcano. These were a "slow" seep volcano that unleashed layer after layer of basalt until they finally went extinct after building a summit several hundred feet higher than the surrounding land. Eventually Clear Creek cut a path headed east seperating them, but you can still see evidence of their past in the unique columns of basalt that make up their faces and which lead to a very real rockfall danger. 

Unfortunately as you hit I-70 and get close enough to South Table that it becomes hard to view the road narrows drastically again, and becomes much busier as you continue west. 32nd is one of only three access routes into Golden, and gets a lot of local traffic. Plus it is the only real bike route into Golden from the east and thus it carries almost all of the bike traffic into the city. People can get quite irrate in this area, and are prone to passing on blind corners which can lead to a lot of danger. Luckily for me this also meant that the crosswind which had been pushing me around rather horribly was finally mostly shielded. It gave a rather nice break.

As you near the Coors brewery 32nd winds along the north edge of South Table mountain with Clear Creek and the Brewery to your right along with a rather sharp dropoff. If you're unlucky enough to go off the road here, either the trees catch you, or a chain link fence will. This is also the area that you see the most traffic, and the most irate people. There's a lot of truck traffic that runs along this section of 32nd shuttling beer and kegs, and bottled beer from the main brewery to storage warehouses and shipping centers. Watch out for the trucks, because I can say some won't watch out for you, as a few drivers seem to think that the mile stretch of road from the Southeast entrance to the west end of the plant is a private road and all other traffic must yield. 

Entering Golden as 32nd turns into 13th street was somewhat nostalgic for me. I went to college at the Colorado School of Mines which occupies a good chunck of the centeral historic portion of the city. I continued up 13th street, past the gymnasium and took a left on Maple street, heading roughly SSE. Lovely, I hadn't thought that out as I was climbing into the teeth of the wind up a rather steep, if short hill. I had a moment to realize they moved the Museum from where I remembered it used to be and that they rather extensively expanded the student center as I huffed by. I rode by my old dorms, and the Frat house that was considered "barely liveable" because of basement flooding when I attended 16 odd years ago, surprised that both were still in use. Turned up 19th towards 6th ave and Lookout mountain. 

After crossing 6th I took a bit of a breather, and wolfed down half of a cliff bar. I'm still not able to eat anything when climbing this mountain as I tend to breath too heavily to chew, let along swallow while climbing it. I also ended my lap on the Garmin, wanting to to get the climb as a seperate leg. Total distance 24.4 miles, average speed: 16.8mph, time: 1hr 27min, total ascent/descent (per the garmin) 1583/1151, starting elevation 5201 ft, ending elevation 5903. 

So, onto the hill climb. I was beginning to realize that I hadn't paced my effort quite right. After crossing 6th ave, and a couple minutes for food and drink my hearrate was pushing 180 (low edge zone 4 for me) even though my average for the first leg was at 164 which is low zone 3. Plus the wind, while not nearly as bad as it had been in Denver was still pretty strong, and its a whole lot colder here than it was in Denver. Once again I decided to push on and started up the hill. 

Lookout, for anyone who hasn't ridden it, is quite challenging. It is rated as a Cat2 climb Starting at ~6000 feet, ending at ~7300 feet over 5.1-5.2 miles depending on your start/finish area. Myself, I've done it 3 times before, and I've always started from the Starbucks listed above. By the time I've made the long drag out to Golden I'm about ready to turn around and head back. Today I probably should have. I crawled, crawled up the hill at a whopping 8.2 mph average. Coming around the turn under the M into the wind almost killed me. I did make it, though I probably should have slowed down even more. I was soaked in sweat by the summit, in the nice balmy low 50s weather, and anticipating the freezing I was going to take running downhill at 20-25mph. 

I don't really remember much that was pleasant on the ride back. Most of the corners were fairly salted with rock and gravel which lowered my descent speed, and I was almost frozen when I reached Golden, and not really being warm again until I hit Confluence park. Traffic was almost nill up the mountain, back down, and back into the city, even less on the return than on the ride out there. Still despite feeling like a block of ice I managed the 25.1 miles of my return (I stopped at my apartment rather than return to starbucks to make a complete loop) 1hr 26 mins at an average of 17.5 mph.

Not a bad day at all. 5028 feet of ascent total per the garmin (still trying to figure out what to add to make it an even mile), 54.7 total miles, 3 hrs 31 minutes, 15.5 mph average. I'd like to get the average up another mile per hour or two, but I can live with that.


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