Ah, Angel Fire! We were here almost 20 years ago, but I don’t remember much of it, not sure why. The air is VERY thin, and I had a lot of trouble with that yesterday, even fearing I’d have to leave for lower altitude. Fortunately, when I woke up this morning, I was breathing ok. Actually, much better than I ever did at Crested Butte last year. I never felt like I had my breath at CB last year, and it’s within 400 feet of here, and here I really feel fine today, so life is good!

Decided to ride some trails in town, just the local greenbelt, to kind of get a handle on how we’re going to handle this thin air. We left from the campground on the bikes, as town is only about a mile and a half away, and that’s where the greenbelt trails begin. Of course, I forgot to take any pictures (it’s SO hard to get good help!), so instead, here’s a small map from the trails brochure, so you can see what I’m talking about:

So, we rode to town, then I figured “let’s not start on the moderate Deer trail, but let’s got to Elk, then we can come back to the trailhead on Deer, that way we get the easy trail in first. Sounded like a good idea, and indeed, it was the best way to do it. The downside is that Elk is pretty wide open, no trees close to the trail for about 50 feet on either side, and we were fighting a headwind, along with a slight upgrade. But, from looking at the map, I figured we’d get payback, and we did! Elk was fairly easy (I mean, other than not being able to breathe!), and then Deer had a semi-short climb (maybe a quarter of a mile) that was kinda steep, but after that – all downhill! In the trees, some rocky spots, but we blasted all the way down. Lots of fun!

We decided best not to over-do it, so we just headed back to camp, ending up just a bit shy of seven miles – yeah, nothing distance-wise, but really the worse thing you can do is over-do, so we’re being careful. I really hurt at CB last year, and don’t want to do that here. We’ll ride more tomorrow, and further. Hopefully a LOT further.

Anyway, had lunch, a shower, then drove back into town, to check out The Pub. Clever name, that one! Anyway, a couple of brews, and to a bike shop for a map, and then Lowe’s for some ’tillas. No, no, not the home improvement store, the food store. In this neck of the woods, Lowe’s is a grocery chain.

So, back home, some dinner, some TV, and off to bed. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

Oh, yeah, another thing today brought – STORMS! A nice mellow rain, and later a wicked-strong-wind-rock-the-hell-out-of-the-trailer storm. Lightning, thunder, the whole enchilada. NOT fun. But we made it ok. Hope tomorrow doesn’t bring another one of those.