Telluride

Happy 4th of July!

Stop holding your breath - the suspense is over. We did continue on to Rico on the evening of the 3rd, making our total for the day 121 miles. The map showed an intimidating steady uphill from Dolores to Rico, and we were all pretty tired after our 80 miles in the morning. The best way to motivate a group of hungry, tired cyclists to bike 40 uphill miles at the end of the day is, of course, to offer free food and lodging to them. Christy Baer and her family provided that motivation and more - they graciously offered their floor space despite the fact that their entire extended family was in Rico for the long weekend. Topping it off, they passed us on the road with about 14 miles left and took all of our gear! As it turned out, the 40 miles were not steep at all, and the novelty of trees, shade, and a running river next to the road inspired us to push on and arrive before dark.

You all need to meet Glen Baer, whose house was our home base in Rico. Born and raised in the same home, he gave us an absorbing history of the town, including his grandfather's attempts to mine silver in the 1800s and his own time later spent at the sulfuric acid plant. Glen is also a freemason, and arranged for us to sleep on the plush carpeting of the Mason's lodge in town. There were a few highlights of our stay in Rico: meeting the Baers, who are wonderful; homemade biscuits and gravy for breakfast; and biking in the 4th of July parade in the morning.

With our daily caloric needs met by 10 AM, we sped off after the parade and made quick work of our first Rocky Mountain pass. We're not sure if it was the gravy, our fitness, or something else, but the pass was so easy that we are convinced it was downhill the whole way.

Everything was going in our favor until we arrived in Telluride. Being the 4th of July and a long weekend, you can imagine that this resort town is stuffed full of people. All of the campgrounds are full, all of the hotels are full, and all of the clandestine campgrounds ouside of town are occupied. Randy, Christa, and Emmitt raised our spirits right away. Overhearing our plight, this generous family (husband, wife, and dog) suggested a great restaurant AND offered to pick up the bill. To give you an idea of what great people they are, Christa even said, "and don't think you have to drink water - the margaritas are excellent!". And they were, Christa, they were. Thank you Randy and Christa!

We lounged around in the town park all afternoon and then eventually made our way to he restaurant, where we encountered Stuart and his dog Millie (everyone in Telluride either has a huge cute dog or a scarlett "A" (for animal hater) emblazoned on their shirt). Stuart is the next in the long line of amazing, kind people we have met so far. An ER doc working on a nearby Navajo reservation, he is up for the weekend and offered his floor to us for both our nights in town. He also acted as tour guide, taking us to the fireworks and then a brewery afterwards. This was exciting for three reasons. First, we got to see the town. Second, last night was the first night we have stayed awake past 10 PM. Finally, Stuart is a great guy and fun to chat with.

Today is our day off and we started it off right - fresh pastries until we couldn't take it anymore. Now the food coma and tired bodies are catching up to us, so it's off to bed for a nap. Everyone is great here. We hope you are all doing well too. Tomorrow we are off for Montrose, and we hear rumors of a hot springs along the way.

All the best,
Russ, Jen, Sarah, Dan, and Alex

Welcome to Colorful Colorado

Our last stop in the state of Utah was Blanding. We were joined by Dan's parents, Joel and Robin, and were spoiled for about 2 days by their company. During their visit/accompaniment we were well fed, hydrated, and for once clean (of course excluding our infamous night at NOT so recreational Hite Recreation Center).

One of the hardest things on this trip has been getting out of the Comfort Inn beds in Blanding, Utah. With the air condition running and our exhausted bodies resting on those amazing mattresses under soft covers, we found it near impossible to finally get ourselves to get out of bed at 4 AM (already a late start for us). We got ready in record time, however, and our biggest problem seemed to be that the yogurts we had bought the night before were slightly frozen. No problem, however, Jen claimed that she loved "a good frozen yogurt for breakfast."

It was to be a nice, easy flat ride of moderate length to Dolores, Colorado. There was a short uphill out of Blanding, and then flats the rest of the way. Wrong! Nothing seems to come too easy out West. Although it was relatively flat, there were ups and downs the entire way. The temperature was on our side with temperatures a little cooler, and the landscape became greener leaving Utah and coming into Colorado. About 40 miles into our ride, we crossed into Colorado. A group picture at the border can be seen above. We also briefly stopped at the border to snack in the parking lot of the Stateline Tavern, "Hunters Welcome!" the sign read. As you can imagine, we were all thrilled that this little tavern catered to our kind.

We made good time heading in the direction of Dolores. Climbing miles upon miles of rolling hills, we saw the Rocky Mountains for the first time. Seeing the snow covered peaks in the distance was quite the sight for us. As the day went on, we edged our way closer and closer to the foot of the Rockies. Quite beautiful we must say, but now we have to climb them. More on that to follow. In the words of Daniel, "It's all downhill from here." Sure it is Dan, except for 2 major mountain chains which still stand in our way. The group seems optimistic, however, and is considering a late afternoon climb into the Mountains to Rico. This would make it a 120 mile day for us but has the benefit of 2 easy days to follow (one day being our off day in Telluride). Check back soon to see if we made it to Rico or quit and turned back around down the mountain to Dolores.

Busy Bees

We're pretty sure Utah is the Beehive state, and we've been busy as bees since our last post.

We left off searching for a place to stay in Cedar City, and Russ really came through by getting the parks service to let us camp on their nice green lawns. We should have been suspicious of the fact that they had living grass, but were too tired to think about it until we were woken up at 2:30 AM by the sprinkler system. We should note that this happened to be the night that Russ and Jen went without a tent fly due to the heat. We moved our soaking tents to a dry area and shivered away the remaining two hours to our wakeup. The long climb up to Cedar Break National Monument took us five hours and really tired us out, but we still had 60 miles to go. It was so beautiful at the lookout points - Utah is so unbelievable! More about this later. We enjoyed 40 miles of downhill that took us from high alpine meadows to red rock canyons, and after a nice picnic lunch on the shore of Panguitch Lake, into the town of Panguitch.

We had our usual routine of milkshakes (at a nice diner in Panguitch) before taking a two-hour nap to avoid the hottest part of the day. We met a number of nice residents of Panguitch, including the Newell family with their three children who were supportive of our ride. Then we were off, to ride the last 20 miles on a beautiful bike path through red canyons to Bryce Canyon National Park, where we had our much-needed day of rest.

After sleeping a little later the next morning, we went for a short hike in Bryce (strong work on that hike!) then met Jen's mom and stepfather, who treated us to a wonderful ALL YOU CAN EAT dinner. We would have broken about even, so we took all of the decorative fruit on our way out (the last orange was finished four days later) to make sure we got what we paid for.

The next in our string of poorly-informed assumptions was that after leaving the Great Basin and climbing over Cedar Breaks we would be out of the desert. It turns out that as you move east, Utah gets drier and hotter. We have been seeing temperatures in above 105 every afternoon, with no shade in sight. Our first day back was no exception. We started biking against a striking backdrop.After an indescribable downhill through a steep slickrock canyon (you can see Jen in the picture below), which changed to red rock (there's Sarah),we arrived at the base of our next 20+ mile climb at 1 PM, with triple-digit temperatures. We wisely decided to wait a few hours at a conveniently-placed campground before continuing onto Boulder in the evening, The road to Boulder was intense:no shoulder, and steep drops on both sides. Did we mention the ridiculous slope?

Yeah, we were going in the hard direction. We found a small oasis in Boulder - a real grocery store with lots of health foods! Dan was in heaven, and after some discussion with the owner (a very nice woman by the name of Donna) we got permission to camp in the backyard of the health food store. And let's not forget the fabulous dinner we had at the Burr Trail eatery in Boulder, with local beef for the meat-eaters and delicious entrees and dessert for all.

Despite losing a few slices of our PB and J sandwiches (Dan insists that it was the hungry black cat that was hanging around the store), our experience in Boulder was a great one.

Our ride the next day also was full of pleasant surprises. We began with a steep steep (did I say steep!) climb to an elevation above 9000 feet. After a great downhill, we coasted our way to the small town of Torrey, Utah. We asked Jen what time it was, and she exclaimed "Taco Time" - as we entered a local eatery/gas station for some mexican food and cold drinks.

The scenery of this ride was "unbelievable" as Dan would say. What began as a climb through the woods, with cattle in the middle of the road, and unfortunately placed cattle guards (which snagged on to Sarah's front tire - no injuries, thank goodness), continued with the amazing boulders, cliffs, and rocks of the Capitol Reef National Park (so beautiful - we couldn't believe we hadn't heard of it before!), and then desert everywhere, hot and dry. When we saw the first tree and patch of shaded lawn in several hours, we knew we had made it to Caineville and it was time for lunch - and another one of our afternoon naps.

We awoke from our naps slightly refreshed - that heat is a killer! and Dan's "all-natural" bug repellant was no match for the flies that went after us during the nap - and continued on to Hanksville, our destination for the day. But on the way we stopped in at an organic farm nestled on the side of the desolate road, all by itself. Sharon, a recent college graduate out of salt lake city, utah, and a self-proclaimed vegan, greeted us with a warm welcome and invited us to try some homemade whole grain bread, some freshly made goat cheese, and some cold iced tea. We were so happy to have stopped!

We found a nice campground in Hanksville to lay our heads to rest for the night. Thanks to the generosity of Elliott, a former schoolteacher from northern Utah who owns the campground, we had our campsite for free. Elliott told Russ and Dan about the time 30 years ago when he bought the property that became the campground - as he recalled it, he was drunk from a night at the bar, but luckily, the the campground turned out to be a successful venture.

We left Hanksville for a short day of riding, to our destination at the Hite Recreation Area, in the middle of nowhere, Utah. With about 15 miles left in our ride, we got a visit from the Morris folks, Robin and Joel, who greeted us on the side of the road in their rented Jeep Cherokee. They had driven down from a family wedding in Denver, and boy were we happy to see them! They brought water, french bread, hummus, grapes, and dessert for lunch - and of course a huge watermelon.

When we arrived at the Hite Recreation center, let's just say it wasn't what we were expecting out of a recreation area. For all of those LOST fans out there, imagine Dharma Initiative Station 12 - that's about what Hite looked like. No trees, no shade, no grass. A couple of picnic tables perched on a concrete slab that was hot enough to cook eggs. Luckily we found the one air conditioned mini mart to have out picnic.

After the Morris' left with most of our gear - we wanted to ride the next day with a trimmed down load, we had our usual afternoon nap - with our sleeping pads on top of the outdoor picnic tables to avoid the angry red ants on the ground - and then had a quick dinner of microwaved burritos. Our "night" of "camping" at Hite went something like this: drenched in sweat on top of our sleeping pads, we tried to soak up as many hours of sleep as possible before our wake up time of 1 am.

We were eager to leave Hite early in the morning, and began a steady climb in the dark with the stars shining overhead. With less gear we made great time, arriving in the city of Blanding Utah before 11:30 am (for all of you Jeopardy fans, it's called the "the home base for adventure"). Here we are writing from Blanding, in the lobby of the Comfort Inn, where we certainly are comfortable after showers and laundry everyone is clean and happy. Tonight we will go to dinner with Dan's parents before they say goodbye tomorrow morning.

Today is our last day in Utah - we had no idea the amazing beauty to be found in this state. We will surely miss the great views, amazing landforms, and red rocks, but certainly not the intense heat.

We promise to write soon...
Have a happy july 4th :-)

Dan, Russ, Jen, Sarah, and Alex

If you can't stand the Heat, get out of the Nevada

We Left the KOA (kampgrounds of America) in Ely, Nevada early in the morning and headed towards Baker, our last stop in Nevada. Here's the problem with Nevada, we wake up at 4 AM and we can't scrounge together enough layers to keep ourselves warm, but roughly by 7 AM we can't shed enough layers to prevent ourselves from sweating in the hot and extremely dry Nevada desert. Our biking schedule of 4AM- 2PM has been an interesting transition but proves to be the only way to make it to our destination before the heat gets too strong, and our cheddar cheese attains its liquid state. Our travels this day took us through the Great Basin, apparently a vast valley expanding 500 miles in each direction. As always, our bike route took us up mountains and through valleys. Without exception, mountains surrounded us in every direction. The valleys consist of endless, straight roads that allow us to see our destination (excitingly enough the next mountain) but we never seem to get any closer. After many lonely days on the country's loneliest Highway 50, we finally veered off its course and arrived at Baker several miles later. I am sure everyone has heard of Baker, NV, but for those of you who aren't into visiting towns with population circa 80 and unpaved roads, let us clue you in. We found one supermarket, and there was definitely nothing super about it. Imagine your living room, then imagine something smaller, and that might give you a good idea of its size. Now, open your refrigerator and remove roughly half its contents. This may give you a better idea of the number of items available at this store. To complete the picture, our purchase of 2 small watermelons, 4 drinks, and ice cream did some serious damage to their inventory. No more watermelons in Baker, no more ice teas, and only one more selection of ice cream. We must say, however, that the people were very friendly, both of them. We learned from some of our biking companions that 1 of the 2 restaurants in Baker offered free camping provided that you eat there. We have not made many restaurant stops, so this little treat to ourselves worked out nicely. The Electrolux Cafe contained 3 tables and was staffed by a waiter, a cook, and a receptionist, the owner serving all 3 of these roles since in reality he was the only person there. Luckily for us, Anne Marie and Peter (our fellow CT cross country bikers who have followed our same course, with Anne Marie's parents and daughter following in their mini van) entered the very same restaurant (luck we know, considering there are only 2) and offered to pay for our dinner that evening. As always, we accepted their offer and thanked them for their kindness. We are still biking with them, and every day we see their van pass us on our route. Hopefully they keep following us, or vis a versa. All being said and done, Baker was an interesting little town with a nice visitors center and a nice scenic view of the mountains. Staying true to Nevada's theme, the night for camping was very hot and it took some effort to fall asleep.


We were all sound asleep in Baker, when suddenly the alarm goes off and Russ jumps out of his tent to fire up the stove for our morning oatmeal. He really is good at getting us started in the mornings, usually one of the first up and getting things moving. This particular night in Baker, when Russ started to wake everyone up for the morning there were mixed reactions among the group. Sarah decided she would sleep for 5 more minutes since she felt she had at most gotten an hour or so of sleep. Jen, although hesitantly, began to wake up and go through her morning routine. Alex rolled over once and no intention of getting up at that moment. Dan, being the kind sole that he is, starts getting up, however, after several minutes decides to first consult his watch and then his timer. These processes took roughly 3-5 minutes, but after that, Dan timidly spoke from his tent these words of wisdom, "Russ, I looked at my watch and I think it's only 9 PM." Alex's immediate response was, "Thank goodness, I don't think I would have been able to bike a single mile right now." The group let out a collective sigh and convinced Russ to extinguish the stove flame and head back to bed. In Russ' defense, the cell phone and thus alarm service was sketchy at best in Baker. At the real 4AM wakeup time, we woke up and headed for Milford, Utah. 7 miles into the ride, we crossed the Nevada-Utah border, but more excitingly for DMo, we crossed the time zone. We then crossed the usual mountains and valleys. This morning was particularly pretty as in the early hours we passed "the most beautiful cows" as Sarah put it as well as saw much wildlife on and around the road, including rabbits, antelopes, and deer. We were told mountain lions existed, but luckily for us they are shy creatures and don't have much use for bikes, at least not a touring bike. So, now lets talk about Milford, Utah.

Milford was a pleasant surprise to us. Despite yet another windy descent into town (the head winds once again turned downhills into uphills and we may as well have been riding stationary bikes because getting anywhere was difficult). Our frustration at the wind was quickly dissipated as we pulled into the first diner and rewarded our strong ride with a round of ice cream and milk shakes. The diner was called Penny's Diner and immediately came to our liking as the waitress refilled our shakes at no charge. Thank you Penny's Diner. Once again, we ran into Anne Marie, Pete, and family (our CT friends) at the diner and had our daily chat with them. We biked around the cute town of Milford and settled with our tents in the outfield of the town's baseball field. As we quickly learned, baseball games were scheduled for that evening. No worries, however, the kids playing were small and we were out of their batting range. We got creative and headed to the town pool to clean up with some showers and a quick dip in the pool for some of us. The next step was once again the diner for dinner. The same waitress gave us a great deal on our bill and helped us enjoy the evening. With the exception of Daniel, burgers were had at the table, some bigger than others. The burger Russ ordered deserves special mention. The name was Monster Burger and the diner allows you to place any topping you desire on it. Bad news, they were not expecting hungry bikers. Russ ordered the following combination: we start with a .5 lb burger, add jack cheese, add onions and mushrooms, add bacon as well as sunny side up egg, followed by breakfast ham, and mashed hash brown. Just like any other burger, it also included lettuce, tomato, and pickles. Let's just say many napkins were used. Our evening ended with the conclusion of a little league baseball games and a sunset against the beautiful mountains as the backdrop. Dan called it a humble little town, and that it was.


Another early morning ride was scheduled for Cedar City. It was supposed to be a short and easy day. However, after making good time up the mountain, the wind had something else in mind. As usual our last stretch into town, this time about 20 miles, took much longer than it should have. Instead of rolling down into the valley we pedaled to prevent ourselves from being pushed back up the mountain. Cedar City, being one of the larger towns we have seen in a while, had much promise. However, the presence of the Shakespeare Festival put a damper on our hopes of finding hotel accommodations. The camp site in town proved to be no better and competed in price with many of the hotel rooms. Currently, our sleeping situation has not yet been resolved and we are actively working on lodging for the night. Best Western, however, in the meantime, has graciously let us use their laundry and pool services despite not being able to donate a room this evening due to the busy night in Cedar City. We nonetheless appreciate their efforts and help thus far. Perhaps they will finally cave if we set up temporary camp in their lobby. All of us our near exhaustion, but we plan on pushing on one more day before a day off in Bryce Canyon National Park. Tomorrow's lineup includes an 18 mile up hill and gains an additional 4,000 feet of elevation. Our day off can not come soon enough and we will certainly need it after tomorrow.

Eeee-leee

We're in Ely, which is not pronounced like you'd expect. It was an 80 mile day with no services (but we didn't see a "Next Gas 80 miles" sign). There was absolutely nothing between Eureka and Ely, except 5 bikers and three passes. We totally rocked today - we got out of camp quickly and hammered out the uphills like John Henry hammers railroad ties. Unfortunately, we only have 15 minutes on the computer here at the KOA so this is all you get. Tomorrow we are headed to Baker, only four miles from the Utah border! Nevada has been long, straight, and beautiful, just like Alex. Until next time, Russ, Jen, Sarah, Dan, and Alex.

Lonliest, Longest, Straightest Highway in America

The midnight ride of Coast to Coast began at 1:23 a.m. Saturday morning, much later than that of paul Revere. Strapped with headlights, reflective bands, and bike lights, the team rolled out of the Best Western and down Route 50 towards Austin following pseudo members of the taliban ie US Navy in costume. There were approximately 10 cars that passed us before sunrise, costing Russ to lose a pivotal bet to Dan. The road was straight, long, and dark, but luckily there was a full moon to additionally light our way. We passed through the salt flats, which felt like old snow to walk on: crusty on top, but easy to sink through.

Around dawn we sailed down a long downhill into a huge valley- ie the Centroid Naval Base. Centroid is clearly a name established from the 1970s when the first computer came to Nevada. By this time, we had ridden approximately 5 hours and still had miles to go. As the sun rose, so did the temperature. We cruised through the only other two dots on the map- historic Middlegate, which had been recommended for its food, and Cold Springs, which we don't recommend. At Cold Springs, we still had 50 miles to go, and it was 10 a.m. Sarah was dilligently counting down the miles until we hit 25, so we could enjoy our PB & J. We hunched under the one shrub in the entire state for shade, and quickly gobbled down our meal, in order to hit the road again. The heat was exhausting. Our last 25 miles were a downhill with some nice cloud coverage(like you care), but then the windstorm began. We had cross winds, which blew us across the lanes and required us to focus hard to stay on task, about as hard as Dan Morris rides his uphills, which for those not in the know is extremely hard. The final climb into Austin was not our steepest to date, but felt that way after 118 miles ni 15 hours. it was approximately 3 miles and a serious mountain town as most are in Nevada because of its prolific mining. We spent our night at the local Baptist church (sans proselytising) and enjoyed the music from a lovely family reunion just across the street. this morning we rolled out of austin and up and over the pass to reach Eureka. Todays ride was perfect. We had 60 miles of flats with a nice tail wind and clouds over head. We are camping at the local park and enjoying the amenities of the swimming pool and we will attempt our first barbaque of the trip. 2 long days, we're tired, bedtime................

Fast and Steady

Preface: loving the hotel and the internet, not loving the fact that the pictures won't upload.....

And so on we blog. This morning we rolled out of The Plaza just after sunrise to avoid the brutal heat of Nevada, and after averaging 12 m.p.h. rolled into Fallon, NV, around noon. Our ride this morning, through a large basin, was the longest stretch of flat we have seen to date and included a gradual downhill slant allowing us to bust out some easy miles. The scenery was terribly arid and desolate, which made it biker friendly and an interesting contrast to the environs of California. While previously we were surrounded by ginormous pines towering above us, steep climbs, and subsequent downhills, this morning's basin didn't even offer a small bush to pee behind. Towns were few and far between with populations less than 100, and yet each had its own casino with an all you can eat buffet. We don't think many mammals naturally live in the area, although there were a fair number of squished snakes on the road and significant rumble strips.



We were so fast this morning, we had lunch after we arrived in Fallon. Lodgings were donated generously to us by the Best Western in town, and they even stocked our room with water and chips, which was a nice treat!! Let's take this moment to talk a moment about food. So while cycling on average 8 hours a day (today being a magnificent exception!) we estimate we are burning roughly 7,000 calories. The question thus becomes, how do we replace all of this energy?!? The simple answer is quantity and frequency. Our day begins with breakfast, which usually includes bagels, cereal, juice and/or, and including, fruit. This morning breakfast was provided continentally by the hotel and even included a toaster for Dan's bagel. Each day we all travel with at least 2 servings of fruit and 2 power/cliff bars, a camel back full of water and a minimum of 2-3 water bottles. Lunch is sandwiches, more fruit, granola bars, and usually a dessert of sorts. Once again fruit and bars are stocked and we head out for an afternoon of more cycling. Dinner consists of vegetables and starches if we are near towns, but if away from grocery stores, lots of pasta, nuts, left over lunch foods, squished treats found in paniers, and another sweet. Last night, Alex and Dan prepared a super healthy dinner of salad with tons of vegetables and barbaque chicken on top. (Salad as a dinner is still under some debate by members of the team, but was accepted yesterday since there was meat. It is traditionally thought that salad is not a meal, but rather an appetizer.) For dessert we had the last of the Mama Morris cookies, which will be greatly missed!! Obviously our diets have some variation when we are closer to civilization occasionally including ice cream and cheesecake for example, but these splurges are rare. It is of note also that watermelon is consumed at least once a day as it is Dan's favorite food and assists in the hydrating process.

All right, well that is that for now. The plan for the afternoon is to catch some ZZZs, hit the hotel pool, shop, and prepare some dinner. Tomorrow will begin our climb out of the basin heading through some salt flats and also the equivalent of the Top Gun training region with all sorts of loud planes soaring overhead; it will be our longest day pushing us just over 100 miles! Camping is in the cards, so once again, don't hold your breath for the next post; it's looking like you all will next hear from us in Utah. Sorry there are no photos for you to enjoy. Hope all is well. Till next time. Signing out, Jen, Sarah, Alex, Russ, and Dan