Saturday, July 12, 2008

let the flats begin

It seems like forever since we last wrote, and we have many new events to report - we are in a new time zone, we are in a new state, and we are in the Great Plains!

Let's start where we left off, it was Monday night and we stayed at the very generous Waterwheel Inn just outside of Gunnison, Colorado. We had an excellent dinner of Mexican food supplied by Russ' friends Dana and Louise who reside in Crested Butte, Colorado. For the first time, Alex had trouble finishing his burito. It may have been attributed to the pre-dinner meal he had, but that is not a true excuse for not finishing a burito. As we crept into bed for the night, we took in some words of wisdom from the great classic Star Wars movie on TV, Return of the Jedi.


Tuesday's adventure took us out of the green Gunnison valley and in the direction of what would be our last Rocky Mountain climb. On our way, we ran into three bikers heading West, two of which were from Indiana University bring about a great deal of excitement for Alex. After a quick conversation with our fellow cyclists, we learned the following. There are many stories circulating the biking routes surrounding Monarch Pass. Some fear it, some laugh at it, and others (such oursevles) do not know what to think of it. In any case, our approach to the pass seemed harmless as we traversed a relatively flat terrain. As we approached the final climb, however, the road becamse abruptly steeper and we were forced to pedal a bit harder. After a fairly short approach, we saw the green sign that would change our lives forever... 7 Miles to Summit. Of course, a seven mile climb is no match for cyclists with our climbing history, or so we thought. We had done many climbs longer than this, and the Rocky Moutains, thus far, had not impressed us too much relatively to other moutains we have climbed. From the start, Sarah took the lead and managed to stay ahead of the group all the way to the summit. To this day, nobody is sure of what may have motivated her to sprint up the moutain, but our best guess is that ice cream was being sold at the top. Dan, on the other hand, led from the back making sure that no indivdual or Clif Bar was left behind. The climb turned out to be quite challenging, having a steep and constant uphill grade. At very few points, if any, did the moutain allow us to break and replenish the strengh in our leg muscles. Monarch Pass as we discovered was not a joking matter and made us respect the Rocky Moutains once again. Along our ascent, we saw many scenic views along the moutain road. As the seemingly endless road curved and twisted along the moutain range, we saw picturesque views of the valleys and the peaks of the moutains above. Sarah, Jen, and Alex were the first to set eyes on the Continental Divide marker atop of the pass boasting its elevation of 11,312 ft. As Russ and Dan made their final push up the moutain, the remaining three got into formation to make a ceremonial tunnel for the others to ride through as they reached the top. Although short in length, the tunnel served its celebratory purpose and both Russ and Dan were rewarded with an additional pat on their sore behinds.



Having reached the top, the group settled into the Monarch Pass Food/Gift shop to eat lunch. As usual, the group was waiting on Daniel to deliver the PB and J sandwiches which were tucked away in his pannier, but he had struck up a conversation with Joel and his two sons who had come to the Rockies from St. Louis for a boy scout trip. Sarah had also met a Texan family atop of Monarch pass only to discover that the one of the parents worked with her Uncle. It IS a small world afterall (at least when you're off the bike). As always, anything and everything tasted good after a strenuous climb through a pass. As lunch concluded and we began to get ready for the descent, we suddenly became aware that the weather had turned on us. Dark clowds approaching, and it seemed that rain might hit us at any moment. After several moments of indicision insde the gift shop, a unanimous push was made to begin the descent before the rain truly set in. It would be a ten mile descent, and the weather was getting cool atop of the pass. In addition, the downhill always makes it seem a lot cooler than it is. Everyone bundled up in rain jacket, gloves, fleeces, and long pants. Almost everyone that is. Alex simply threw on his long sleaved UnderArmour shirt (we think he is unofficially sponsored or owns substantial number of UnderArmour shares, his portfolio is "strong, to quite strong") and his rain jacket. It is noteable that several people stopped on the downhill to put on more layers. Alex stopped too but only to inform everyone that he it wasn't actually that cold (his self diagnosis was that either he had alreadly lost all sensory feeling in his legs by that point or that he was Swiss). The downhill brought us closer to Salida, our final destination. There were several portions of the downhill that exposed us to wet roads and some light rain. As the descent came to an end, however, and we hit the flat stretches we really got hit hard by the downpour. Our first time really getting hit hard by rain! Some people would be upset, we thought it was pretty great because it felt quite refreshing (and for those of us who hadn't showered in a while it didn't just feel refreshing it in fact was clensing). Dan claims that he was separated from the group on the last stretch into Salida. We can't verify this because we were too far ahead of him.



As we reached Salida, we decided it would be best to stop at a local bike store we had heard about and wait out the weather before possibly pushing on an additional 30 miles or so. At the bike store, we became involved in a major conversation with employees about which route would be best to take to Pueblo the next day. It seemed that everyone had some input but nobody had an actual idea. Having spent too much time at the bike store, the group felt that it would be best to stick to our original plan and stay in Solida for the night. Being a fairly large town, we figured we could surely find a hotel to stay for the evening. We learned not to figure that afternoon, because it turns out all hotels turned us down. At the last hotel, Daniel once again delivered one of his finest speeches to the owner only to be rejected one more time leaving us roomless. Luckily for us, however, Alyse was behind us in line waiting to speak to the motel owner about some flyers she was handing out. Without hesitation, Alyse offered us her house and hot tub if we wanted. After we began talking with Alyse, we discovered that she had taken part in Walt Diseny marathon walk benefiting Leukemia and Lymphoma. We were very excited to hear her offer us her home and were set on going. Soon, thereafter, we discovered that it was 7 miles back in the direction we had just came from. Our hearts sunk a little since it had been a long day and a 7 mile trek backward (adding on additonal miles to our 100+ day to follow) seemed to be the last thing on our minds. We decided to go for it though, and we are extremely glad that we did. Before we able to settle in for the evening, however, Dan and his bike decided to have a flat tire on the short 7 mile stretch back. It was Dan's first flat of the trip, and since he had just gotten a detailed tutorial from Russell about how to change a flat, was eager to put his new skills to work. He began slowly taking the tire off the wheel, and after a few minutes of this slow, tedious work, Russ stepped in to get the job moving quicker. A team effort.



Alyse and her husband Jim owned a beautiful home in Poncha Springs, CO that faced the Rocky Moutains and Monarch Pass that we had just descended earlier that day. Their home contained many windows to observe the beautiful views that surrounded their property. Jim was smoking a chicken on his special grill as we arrived and their courtyard contained many more grills, firepits, and a nice hot tub (which we were unfortunately too tired to use). Alyse, on her way home, stopped by a mexican restaurant to pick up especially for us some delicious salsa and chips. Alyse also made a nice pasta dinner for us that evening to which we were only prepared enough to contribute some pasta sauce and garlic break that we had just baught in town. We learned that Jim was a retired Urologist who trained in California and praticed for the majority of his career Canyon City, CO. After retiring from the field, he and his wife moved to Poncho Springs and their home has become their hobby. They are continually remodeling and adding on to their house. It looks great! Jim also told us about his hobby of riding his Jeep through treacherous terrains in Moab. Let's just say Dan's Toyota would not make it on those paths. We were extremely grateful for Alyse and Jim's hospitality, and they were extremely generous to us. They even got up early with us in the morning, and Alyse fixed us up an incredible breakfast that included everything from fruit salad to back to nuts for our cereal. In short, it was the best (and only) 7 miles that we have ridden West all trip.

Our ride on Wednesday was unbelievable, as Dan would say. We began with our very familiar 7 mile stretch back into Salida. After all of the discussion surrounding our route to Pueblo, we decided to deviate from the suggested Adventure cycling route, which would have taken us over another mountain pass, and take the more direct, hopefully flatter route on Highway 50. It turned out to be a wise decision, but we did encounter a lot of traffic. The group rode close together for the first half of the day, which was a beautiful ride through the canyons and followed the downstream flow of the Arkansas River. We saw some brave whitewater rafters on the river who were navigating the strong rapids. After a quick pit stop, Alex pointed up to the sky and Dan looked up and up trying to see what he was pointing to - a longhorn deer! Perched on the side of the mountain cliff! Unbelievable.

On this ride, Russ also had another flat tire - this time it was his little bob tire that gave out. He has successfully gotten flats in all 3 of his tires - way to go Russ!

As usual, when we arrived at the town of Canon City (by the way there is an accent over the n which makes it sound like canyon) we showed up to the park where there was some excitement going on. The farmer's market was in town, and we assembled quite a gourmet feast. Asiago bread, fresh goat cheese, fresh tomatoes, and fresh basil ("leaves") were eaten. As I mentioned before, we took the "flat" route to Pueblo, which was not flat. Let's just say there was a 30 mile, steady, slow, uphill, boring climb into a town which consists of miles and miles of commercial strip malls. Okay, it was pretty exciting to ride alongside those 70-mph semis rolling by, with only a few rumble strips separating us from them. But we were happy when we arrived in Pueblo, and were greeted by Russ' aunt Mary and his cousin Ashley. They were so kind to us. They had bought us drinks and snacks that we still have not finished. They put us up in the high quality Quality Inn in Pueblo, and they took us out to the fanciest restaurant we have ever been to, and probably ever will, wearing shorts and t-shirts (yes, mom, most of us don't wear underwear on this trip). Dessert followed at the high class Dairy queen establishment near the hotel. We had trouble falling asleep due the size of our bellies.

Thursday we set out for Eads, Colorado. Haven't heard of it? Don't worry, no one we talked to had. There's not much to speak of about our ride to Eads. It was flat, long, hot, and long - did we say it was long? I can't tell you how many times at the breaks we said to each other - are we in Kansas? No, we were still in eastern Colorado, but it was sure hard to tell.

When we arrived in Eads, we were exhausted. It was around 6 pm, and unfortunately the sole grocery store in town had already closed! Great, so we had pasta for dinner, but no pasta sauce. Luckily, Alex and Dan met some local Eads residents - Leroy and Shy (no she wasn't shy) - at the still open gas station in town. They offered up a number of wild ideas, but eventually offered us some sauce. We also met another important character, a through cyclist by the name of Steve. He asked where the park to camp was, and then told us he was off to get a beer. We didn't see him until the morning - must of been a good night.

On the 3-block ride back from the gas station, just past the railroad tracks, Alex turns to Daniel and says, you hear that? Another flat tire. Luckily, good old Chuck came to the rescue. Together, the three of us changed the flat and we made our way back to the town park, where dinner was cooking. We could go on and on about Eads, but let's just say, that in the words of Leroy, "we will never forget Eads."

Friday morning we left after our sub-par breakfast of cream of wheat (let's just say that when you've been spoiled in hotels and people's homes for a week, warmed up wheat just doesn't cut it). Again, not another exciting day. Flat, hot, and of course, long. A few key points:

-we crossed into Kansas (finally)




-we entered central time zone





-Alex and Dan successfully named all of the U.S. state capitals (in Jeopardy form) and all of the countries that we know in the World

- we passed through Leoti, Kansas, home of the NFL player Steve Tasker

- we arrived in Scott City, Kansas, named for Lt. Gen. Winfield Scott, our home for the night

After a dinner of tacos and extremely spicy salsa in the Scott City town park, we entered our tents prepared (sort of) for another day of riding the next day. But when the alarm went off at 4:30 this morning, the wind was blowing strong outside (in the wrong direction if course). In our state of exhuastion, we quickly decided to take our day off sooner rather than later. At this point, it seems like it may have been the right move. The winds have not let up and we certainly have enjoyed the break after having ridden for 100+ miles the last 3 days. So we are writing today from the great Scott City library, and we are happy to be here.







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