Shout Out

I'd like to give a big shout out to the incompetence of our federal government for closing the road up to the Maroon Bells to vehicular traffic due to the shutdown.  While I'm sure there are some bad things coming about because of the government shutdown, cycling up to the Bells and enjoying Maroon Lake without traffic and throngs of tourists ain't one of them.  Normally this road is one of the safest in the county as about a dozen years ago they made it a pay road and encourage people to take the bus to the lake.  So, although there was no vehicular traffic today, it was probably a little less safe than usual as there were people walking the road.  But since the lake is 6 miles beyond the gate you couldn't drive past, most of them didn't walk very far up.   Therefore, almost nobody was up there.  Sweet!  And as a bonus, there were no forest rangers, or whatever they're called,  so I could ride my bike around to places normally I'm not allowed to go ... like along the lake, where I took the cheesy selfie below.  THANKS GOV.!!!

They shut the road down on the peak foliage week