Originally Posted by
squatchy
I just rode Pikes Peak last weekend. Yes the road is paved to the top and has been for a few years now. The pavement is very nice and smooth. Better plan on nasty weather even if it's hot at the bottom. Last week was windbreaker weather but a few weeks ago doing Mnt Evans it snowed on us. It was 22 degrees on top with 40 mile winds. It's way better to be over prepared than to freeze.
Lastly there is a nice Bed and breakfast just on the far end of town in Brekenridge. The web site says they have a minimum stay of days but if you call them you can just stay overnight if that's all you want.
http://www.allairetimbers.com/
I also rode The Death Ride in June and in my limited experience I know of no better bike route to ride in Colorado.
Thanks for the tips, Squatchman. I'm no stranger to Pike's bitter July & August snows.
One time my Army roommate Joe and I hiked up Barr Trail on the 4th of July. He was kind of a funny-looking guy who shouldn't have cut his hair that short, but he was determined he wasn't going to turn back and allow me to tell everyone else in the barracks that he didn't make it. We were in shorts & T-shirts and it DUMPED nearly a foot of snow. The wind was howling, and the trail was buried in snow, but we made it to the summit, and were surprised to find there was a car race going up the other side of the mountain, and the summit was naturally chaos.
We were waiting in line to get cog-railway tickets, when a nice woman tapped Joe on the shoulder and said, "
You better hurry... your groups getting on the train..." and she gestured to a group of special-needs kids who'd come up to see the car race that day.
Instead of getting indignant, Joe just gave her his usual gap-toothed-grin and hopped aboard the train.
Turns out the trains were all booked, so I had to buy a sweatshirt in the gift shop and make my way back down the slushy, snowy Barr Trail. My old frostbite spots were killing me, but I made it down to warmth, and found Joe with the empty Triscuit box sitting in my truck: "Hey man, don't tell nobody about this..."
And I already booked a room at the Village Hotel in B'ridge, because I needed to have an address to UPS my bike, which went out yesterday. Gonna be big fun in them mountains next week!