Mel & Trinity

Last Friday (31 July) I crossed from Utah into Colorado. Colorado is equally as beautiful as Utah, which you know I loved, albeit very different landscape. It certainly is a lot wetter! It was raining when I arrived in Gunnison and it intermittently rained until I left Aspen on Tuesday.

The weather, it appears, was reflective of my emotions. It was a tough week for me and I needed a little ‘me’ time. I’ve spent my life preparing my heart to fall in love. I never prepared it for falling out of love. I have no idea how to do that! I’m trying to figure it out.

My apologies to everyone that I scared by going quiet for a few days but thank you for checking in on me. I appreciate your concern for my happiness and wellbeing!

It’s certainly not all been doom and gloom so let’s go back to my travels over the last week. I will however deal with my time in Denver in a separate post.

On Bill’s recommendation (who I stayed with in Grand Junction), I booked an extreme zip lining and river rafting day at the Royal Gorge. What an amazing experience!

The zip lining cause was in the morning and the 11 zip lines increased in length and speed as we moved through the course. The 10th line was over a 1,000 ft long and it’s claimed to reach up to 60 mph. It didn’t feel that fast to me but what a great ride. The final line ends at a 70 ft tower and involves a race between two participants. What fun! The grand finale was stepping off the tower. This is basically like a bungee jump. You free fall for around 30 ft and then the rope engages and drops you down to the floor. All I’ll say is ‘damn that was scary’ but I’m glad I did it.

The afternoon was dedicated to river rafting though the Royal Gorge, which varied from Class 2-4 rapids. It was loads of fun and absolutely beautiful crossing under the Royal Gorge suspension bridge. It was built in the 1920’s and was the longest suspension bridge in the world until recently. Sadly all my footage for the day is on my GoPro so I don’t have any photos to post.

As I was about to head off to Aspen a massive rainstorm hit the area and I decided to delay heading off by 1.5 hours. As a result I hit Independence Pass (Highway 82) at night, and in the rain and mist. My nerves were shot by the time I arrived at my accommodation in Aspen. I didn’t even unpack the bike that evening. I just got my room; had a bite to eat (very kindly provided by two fellow guests); had a long hot shower and climbed into bed.

It was wonderful to wake up the following morning to a bunch of friendly faces and breakfast that ‘M’ prepared for us (she helps run the lodge). The other guests included Paul and Mary from Kansas, who were so sweet, and two lovely guys whose names I cannot remember but I do know they were both classical musicians.

Following my slightly traumatic ride into town the night before, I extended my stay in Aspen by a night. I thus had time to walk around the town centre; get some washing done; and go up Aspen Mountain to do a short hike.

Aspen is beautiful as you will see from the below photos.

My day was of course made when I saw a South African flag flying in Aspen. We really do get everywhere!

On Tuesday the weather in Aspen was pretty good. I made sure that I saw the Maroon bells before I headed back over Independence Pass. This is what the Bells look like. They are stunning, as is Independence Pass when you rise it during the day. What a contrast from my arrival.