Abort, Abort, Abort...Fort Collins to Colorado Springs

The plan for this section of the ride home was to take the Peak-to-Peak highway south out of Estes Park. But the traffic started backing up on the ride out of Loveland to Estes Park. Then clouds started building up and I worried I get into heavy weather in the mountains. It was bad enough the previous day on the Interstate Highway. I did not want to deal with this kind of weather when I could end up going off the side of a mountain. So I turned around and headed back to Loveland and I-25, then south through Denver and finally my motel in Colorado Springs.

This shot from my motel winder of Pike's Peak shows the weather I rode through even to get to Colorado Springs.

This weather eventually turned into the huge floods Colorado suffered from in August 2013. Here is a picture of the damage to the road I was riding up to Estes Park before I decided to turn around.

Another catastrophe averted because I kept an eye on the sky. Next year I'll try this again. But my ride through Owl Creek on the way north served as a warning to me. Riding in the rain is another level of hazard. Don't take on more than once hazard at a time.