American Dirt Prologue

Day 58: The Grand Finale

2011-08-10T07:33:00.000-07:00

Day #58) August 9, 2011. Eugene, OR to Florence, OR: 65 miles in 5:39 hrs.

Just didn’t have it in me to write a blog yesterday post-ride. So I’m down here in the lobby of the Comfort Inn right now pecking away to get this up this morning. Pete is back in the motel room sawing logs – this after we did the “beerathon” last night at the Rogue Brewery in Newport, OR.

Well yesterday was the day. It’s hard to explain the joy and at the same time the sadness of ending something like this. I mean after 57 days of a gypsy lifestyle it all came down to one last ride. I’d kind of been thinking about this day for the last couple of weeks. It wasn’t as if I was fried or burned out, I think it was more a matter of really looking forward to seeing my loved ones and friends again. It gets kind of lonely out there doing a solo with this day after day thing into a new place, new town, new state. You can talk on the phone, do skype, the whole nine yards, but after a while you just begin to crave the real deal, the flesh and blood. That’s me of course, and we’re all wired differently. But I think I’d have a hard time doing something like this that would put that facet of my life out of commission for many months or even years at a time.

So anyway Monday night I did that damned Chinese buffet for dinner, having already let the lunch buffet settle for about 6 hours. The buffet was like crack for me, I just couldn’t for the life of me resist the temptation to get my arse back in there and much and sushi and egg rolls again. I purposely waited until 6 pm for all the food from lunch to digest such that I could re-enter the “ring” with full force. And that I did, hitting the sushi table first for a full plate of rolls and a big dollop of wasabi. Then on to the appetizers with hot & sour soup, egg rolls, spring rolls, peanut chicken, fried rice and fried dumplings. And of course there were the entrees, which included beef & broccoli, garlic shrimp, chicken & cashews and on and on. I walked out of there 4 lbs heavier!

Had a quick Ninkasi Oatmeal stout and it was off to dreamland. Got up at my now standard 5 am and began to prep for an 8 am start. Did the complementary breakfast, packed, had way too much coffee and was just totally ready to roll at 7:30 am. Now I had called Pete at 7 am and told him that the weather looked good up in Eugene, with the heavy fog cover already breaking up and some spots of blue sky visible. He indicated that was the same case for weather down along the coast at Florence. He’d camped out at the OR Dunes which is just south of Florence. Looked like we were going to get a WAY better day yesterday than the non-descript day on Monday. Well, I was just so packed “n” ready that I decided to get a jump on the day and roll out at 7:30. And that was it.

Rolled down Rt 126 into downtown Eugene on what was turning into a really nice day – temps in the low 60’s and the sun beginning to pierce through the thick fogcover. Had to do a bunch of turning on Rt 126 as it jigged and jogged all around the city. Finally made it onto the west side of town and began the truck towards the coastal mts and the town of Veneta. Heck, I yanked my vest off as soon as I got out of town. Tuesday morning was a heck of a lot warmer than it had been on Monday, and what’s more the thick fog cover had really broken up in the first 45 min of cycling such that was graced with a really beautiful party sunny sky. Now I was hoping that I could get about 2:15 hrs of cycling in before I hooked up with Pete, this just to kind of push me a bit to get good mileage and average speed for the day.

About an hour outside of Eugene, at least on the bike anyway, I could see the coastal mt ranges in the foreground, just kind of getting bigger and bigger. Now to me, having rode across several pretty significant mt ranges, these coastal mts looked more like big tree-covered foothills. By the time I’d gotten to the town of Veneta the day had just become spectacular, with such wonderful temps to cycle in, a cool breeze blowing out of the northwest, and just picture-perfect sun and cloud combination. “Yup,” I’d said to myself, “this is going to be an amazing way to finish up a trip.” And the really cool thing, the thing that just had me jazzed to a pretty high level was the fact that I was going to meet up with a friend to finish the ride. It was a carbon copy of last year’s final ride, when Barney met up with me for the final ride to Everett, WA. You just don’t know how wonderful this feels to have someone take the time and effort to join you for the final ride of a long trip like this. It just heightens the whole experience exponentially. I really think it comes down to being able to share that experience. Solo traveling has it’s place in my life, and I really enjoy many facets of it, but the one downfall of doing a solo is that you just cannot share some of the special experiences. Today I could.

Got through Veneta feeling really, really good. I had the legs today, I had the weather, I would have a riding companion in a matter of an hour or so. The butt – well it was what it was – just in a constant state of sore, even with than new dbl shorts I’d been wearing since the Burns to Bend ride! Now the traffic had been pretty thick from Eugene to Veneta, but once past Veneta it totally thinned out. My berm was fantastic, being anywhere from 3 feet wide to 6 feet wide, and smooth and fast feeling. The only downer, and it really wasn’t that bad, was the occasional logging truck which would go by, sending out this light plume of sawdust and bark behind it as it zipped by me. I’d just turn my head down, chin against breastbone, such that the dust wouldn’t get in my eyes.

By this time the road was starting to do this false flat climbing along the Long Tom River and a rail line leading me up into the coastal mts. Within 20 min I was on my way to the first of two kind of passes for the day. The first, at an elevation of 767 feet, well it went by like a second hand ticking, I mean it was over and done with in a matter of minutes. Compared to what I’d been climbing for the past 2 months, this was really so short and mellow that I was kind of dumbfounded. I was able to go middle ring the whole way up, and then just took this wonderful flier on the way down, where again, the western side of the climb was much steeper and longer than the eastern side. Around me was what appeared to be like a “rain forest” with these massive pine, or hemlock trees covered with long drapes of moss and fuzz. The mt air seemed so “earthy” smelling and pungent what with such vegetation.

So by that time I’d been riding about 2:15 hrs and at the very bottom of that descent I saw a rider coming at me – a rider on a mt bike with a red kit on… Pete Baughman. Man that felt good to see the dude. He did a U-turn, pulled up to me and we bumped fists. Turns out the guy was just riding like a madman to try to get 30 miles in before we met. He said he knew that I’d take off early to try to the “the jump” on him. It’s amazing, in that we’re all so damned competitive in every facet of our lives. I mean even when we were planning on meeting, the both of us wanted to try to get as far as we could before the other guy appeared. He definitely got the better of me yesterday, covering that ground from the ocean and into the coastal mts at like 17-18 mph on a bloody mt bike!

So I said to him, “ok get ready to go REAL slow.” And he was totally ok with that. He described the remainder of the ride as being pretty fast, with a long stretch up along a river and then just one small pass of about 500 feet in elevation (he has a Gamin 705 which does elevation) and then a flat and fast finish to the coast. So we rode for about a half hour together and then stopped at this little “last chance” kind of grocery store in the small hamlet of Walton up in the coastals. Got a some soft drinks and a bag of Pepperidge Farms chocolate chip cookies and sat down in the warm sun on a picnic table to much and get caught up on each other’s lives. Now Pete and Jane had just moved from Kent, OH to Washington state, so everything has been going at 100 mph as of late for them. They’re still settling into a whole new lifestyle and place, but I could tell from the way Pete was describing their new life that it was exciting and wonderful.

The stop was a quickie and we were back on the bikes, with Pete pulling me as if it were a 30-mile leadout! I mean we were just flying along the RR tracks and through the mts. There were times when we were motoring along at over 20 mph. And then came the second pass, and as Pete had said, it was an approach of about 2-3 miles and then just a small pitch up to the top. Managed to stay on his wheel all the way up the approach in the big ring. And I have to say that I was surprising myself at how good I was feeling going up that long false flat approach. Then when it pitched up I had to hit the middle ring, but again, as was the case with the first pass, this thing was over in a matter of minutes. Then I was home-free with nothing more than a descent and a long run along the Siuslaw River to the Pacific Ocean.

Now we did have to go through this 500 foot long tunnel at the start of the descent, which was pretty cool because is was sloping down mt. Then the descent, not too switchbacky, and pretty fast for about 3 miles, where I just let the yak do the work of pushing me down mt. Pete, well he was back flat, chin down to the gooseneck just flying down the mt. From then onward, along the Siuslaw River and the RR tracks, Pete just got in front and did this monster pull into what was becoming a pretty significant headwind out of the northwest. As each mile ticked off and we got closer and closer to the ocean the wind just intensified that much more. Now I swear that there were times when I was tucked in his draft, with my front wheel of a fully loaded rig just 6 inches off of his rear wheel. I mean the dude was approaching like 21-22 mph at times into that wind, and if I left that wonderful draft I’d have gotten spit out of there like a freaking tornado!

God the miles were flying by. By the time we hit 10 miles to Florence we were varying between 16 mph into a super gusting headwind or like 21-22 mph when the wind wasn’t gusting. And by that point I was counting them down, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, and on down until the magic 1-mile marker. Once freaking mile to go and the trip would be completed! And then bang, we were in Florence. Now the good news was that we’d made it in an amazing 4:15 hrs, and well, not really the bad news, but the other news was that we still needed to ride further to have access to the Pacific Ocean. You see Florence is not situated right smack dab on the ocean. So we crossed over the very famous Highway 101, and continued west on a county road, then took a right on another county road that ran parallel to the ocean. Problem was that there were nothing but these exclusive “gated” communities all along our left sides with zero access to the ocean. So we just continued north along this county road hoping to come across beach access in the not too distant.

That finally came about 3 miles up the road, where we turned in and descended this steep little asphalt road, and then turned left onto a gravel road and into a parking area. And there it was – the Pacific Ocean at low tide. Pete checked out the access to the water, cajoling me to walk the whole rig down to the water and dipping the front wheel into the Pacific. But it was a chore, with me having to push the bike through deep, loose beach sand, down a little hill and onto the beach. Then I had to push the rig through a kind of quicksand down to the water. So there I stood, with the water lapping lightly at my front wheel while Pete took several pictures. With the mission accomplished he came down and it took the both of us to push the rig around in the wet sand, and then up and over that sandy hill and back onto the gravel parking lot. DONE! At this point we traded bikes and both got treated to a whole different riding position. Pete looked as if he were riding a tricycle what with my seat so much lower than his, and I looked like I was standing because his seat was so bloody high. I mean I was getting a prostate-ectomy on that high seat. Pete on the other hand was nearly hitting his jaw with his knees due the seat being so low. It was pretty funny and a very cool way to end the trip.

We traded back the bikes after a few miles back up the road. Back in Florence my rig was broken down and stowed in his car and on the bike rack, and he pulled out a Black Butte Porter for me as a congratulatory gesture. I phoned Judy to let her know that the mission was accomplished and off we went, up Highway 101 to Newport where we had a room reserved for us at the Comfort Inn. The scenery along the way was just something that you have to experience – absolutely stellar! Now I do have to say that there is a TON of traffic on the 101, so it’s not like you’re just cruising down this nice little ocean-view road. This pup is heavily trafficked, and despite the many cyclists we saw riding this thing with full pack, I really don’t know if I’d enjoy doing that for 1200 miles of heavy traffic. Pete and I both talked about that, and how difficult it would be to deal with that kind of traffic for 1200 solid miles. What’s more the wind off of the ocean, God it was like gale force winds at times. And really, judging by the bend in all the ocean-facing trees, you’d have to do this thing north to south or else you’d be fighting a headwind the entire way.

Nope I was VERY happy to be in a car…and be DONE. Had to go about 50 miles north on the 101 up to Newport. And as I said the sights were just picture book around each and every turn. Maginficent! Newport is really a pretty big place compared to Florence and all the little towns we’d passed, and the great part of the whole thing was that there was the Rogue Brewery in Newport. THAT was our diner destination. Got to the hotel where Pete was finally able to crack a few beers, and where I was well on my way to getting toasted on Black Butte Porters, because by then I’d had three on the drive to Newport and two more in the hotel room B.S’ing with Pete.

Finally quite jawing and got showered and changed to go to the brewery, which was right down on this awesome little waterfront district. Great vibe to the place. The Brewery restaurant was as I expected, just totally point on with great food and stunning microbrews. We did some homemade bread with mozzarella and then some fried calamari, this amidst some great beer. I did some porter and chocolate stouts, while Pete did the IPA’s. After a super diner I cohersed him into searching out some fresh seafood, where we ended up on this pier at a restaurant that made what the sign said was some “great clam chowder.” Got to bowls to go and ate the soup on the pier in the twilight. Soup was wonderful. And there on the wooden pier, after sharing many a fine brew with a good friend, listening to the gulls and the waves, and smelling the amazing smell of the sea and fish, I felt as if that day was right up there with my day in the CO mts with Brad, and my day doing McKenzie pass with Rob and Rema. Yup, three really amazing days with four really amazing people – those are the most memorable days of the trip for me, the days where I’ll remember the feel, the sights, the smells and the sounds and the friends. Those will be the days that are burned into my mind like no others. Thanks to all of you who made those days so special!

That was it. Now I’ll do one more blog as a kind of postscript to the trip, a blog that I just don’t know where the hell I’ll go with, but one I think needs to be written nonetheless just to give a sense of finality to the whole adventure this summer. So I’ll have that last blog up in a day or two. Right now I need a little time to reflect on the past two months.

From the beautiful, sunny west coast of Oregon, all the best to everyone…….Pete

Day 57: Day in fog/belly on fire

2011-08-08T16:27:00.000-07:00

Day #57) August 8, 2011. McKenzie Bridge, OR to Eugene, OR: 49 miles in 3:29 hrs.

Wow, what an anticlimactic day compared to yesterday. Just not a lot to say. But I’ll give it a shot just for entertainment value!

Got a large pizza last night from the café across the street – the Hawaiian pizza with Canadian bacon, pineapples and onions. It was great. Trouble was that my eyes were bigger than my stomach – as usual – and having deliberated on getting the 12-inch medium, and then at the last minute switching to the large 16-inch instead, well, it was just a beast of a pizza. I was a stuffed pig half way through. Top that off with a big 24 oz bottle of that Ninkasi Oatmeal Stout and I was looking like a human piñata. I did manage to eat a bit more of the za a couple hrs later, but I still have like 4 slices left. That I figured I’d put in the micro fridg and same for breakfast.

Got up at 5 am, and didn’t plan on leaving until at least 8 am, what with Eugene being under 50 miles away, and the temp being about 45 degrees this morning. Wish I could have slept longer but having been getting up between 3 and 4 am for so long, my internal clock is just set right now. No need to hurry out, though, so I just worked a bit on the computer and waited for the little grocery to open so I could buy a cup of coffee. No complimentary coffee in this motel room. Eventually, against better judgment (remember the last time I had pizza for breakfast? Acid reflux ball of fire in my gut for 2 hours of cycling!) I ate those 4 slices. Now I’m no Eisenstein by any means, but you’d think I learned my lesson on that ride from Walden to Steamboat Springs. NOPE! No, I kind of justified that the Walden “pizza for breakfast” debacle was with a barbecued chicken pizza. “This is a Hawaiian pizza,” I reasoned, “and I shouldn’t have an issue with this kind.” Yea right, it’s the red sauce stupid! It’s the red sauce!!!!!

Once that store opened and I got some coffee down in the gut to mix with that cold pizza, I could just feel the fireworks beginning. So I got 2 danishes to throw down there to help neutralize the acid buildup. Right then and there I knew I’d done it again, and if my leg could kick backwards hard and high enough I’d of kicked myself in the arse several times for doing that stupid stunt for the second time. Pardon me, but what a dipshit I can be!!

So I just kind of waited for the sun to come up a bit more for warmth, and then got on the road at right around 8 am sharp. Still pretty chilly out though, as I was still at about 2000 feet in elevation in the Cascades. The forecast was calling for clear blue, sunny skies for the day – except for the fact that a sea fog normally rolls in and up to the Cascades each morning, and then burns off in the afternoon. And once I got rolling I could see the fog bank down the road. Only took like 30 min of riding and I was right inside of it. Now right from the start I was burping up that freaking pizza-coffee mix, and it was just pure misery. Felt as though I was trying to eviscerate my innards about every 10 min.

Rt 126 from McKenzie Bridge to Eugene is right along the McKenzie River, so that was nice as something scenic. But by and large what with the fog bank overhead, I just couldn’t see the mts. Now the road started out with a fairly nice berm, but eventually it just dwindled down to this 2-3 foot strip, or nothing at all. And the traffic on 126 was moving! Add some logging trucks to the mix and it was a bit dicey at times. And this was the first time in the trip where I really had any trouble with cars honking. I mean the one time I had to cross over this stream that feeds into the McKenzie, so there was no berm on the bridge section, and I’m over as far as I can go and this arsewipe starts honking at me from about 500 meters back on the road. Like where the hell am I supposed to go? Ditch the bike and jump into the stream? So as he went by I gave him the one-fingered salute, motioning my hand up and down in the air. And this happened a second time when I was doing this little roller climb where there was zero berm. Dude starts honking at me like I have to move, and once again I gave a nice up and down salute!

I mean I do my very best to NOT be out in the middle of the road, and oftentimes I’m just inches from the gravel on the side of the road, literally riding this razor thin line of asphalt berm. So it’s not as if I’m not paying attention here. I’m totally dialed into keeping it safe – on both the left and right sides of me. Now had I been in the boonies somewhere with a thousand miles to go, I’d have probably just not done anything. But at this point, with this much mileage under my belt and with the end in sight – I’m just not in the mood to take any *^&%^#@.

Back to the acid reflux, which was just making me completely miserable. I could just feel the small explosions in the stomach, which would then vent upwards into my esophagus like lava coming up through a lava tube. Couple of times I was within an inch away from stopping at a mini market to buy some Tums. But I continued on Tum-less.

So as I said, with that fog bank overhead, it was just like riding on a crappy, cloudy day. There were even points where I was getting spritzed on by the fog, and the temp stayed super cool, to the point to where I removed only my vest today, but kept the polypro on for the entire ride. Generally this was a net descent ride, what with Eugene situated at just 431 feet in elevation, but there were a few rollers here and there. But I never shifted out of the big ring for anything. My biggest issue today was just the damned busy traffic on Rt 126 and the lack of, or meager berm to ride on. And funny thing was that I was playing hop-scotch with the ACA (Adventure Cycling Ass.) van and riders. So the ACA had it’s riders doing the same busy stretch. No other way really.

Only one of their riders past me, so I kind of felt pretty good about that seeing that they are riding totally supported and have no gear on their bikes other than maybe a handlebar bag. As I got closer to Eugene the fog got thicker, colder, and there was more drizzle going on. Matter of fact it’s now 4:15 pm out as I’m writing here and the fog is still completely covering the area. No burning off going on at this point! By the time I got to Springfield I got a very nice, wide berm and rode it all the way into Eugene, another 4-5 miles down the road. Got a place here on the east side of the city – near two Chinese restaurants, a Subway, a gourmet grocery store, and my life is complete. I quickly showered and then made it to the chinese buffet for a 4-plater lunch! Went to the gourmet grocery after than and got another bottle of the masterful Ninkasi Oatmeal Stout for later this eve.

Oh yea, the acid reflux went away in about two hrs. So this was a pretty nondescript kind of day – short ride, not too much in the way of stellar scenery, and my gut was on fire for 2/3 of the ride. Hell, my kit didn’t even pick up one drop of sweat. I mean it was just a quickie ride and it was over. Didn’t even really stop to take but a few pictures due to the heavy fog and dreary scenery.

So tomorrow my friend Pete (Pete and his wife Jane just moved to the Seattle area) is going to park down in Florence, OR and ride his mt bike up into the coastal mts to meet up with me. Then we’ll ride back to the west to the Pacific Ocean where I’ll finish. Right now as I’m writing Pete is driving from Seattle to Florence, where he’ll camp tonight. I think after tomorrow’s ride we’ll camp or motel it on the coast and then drive up the Oregon coast on highway 101 and check out the sights. Then I’ll hang in Seattle for several days and then fly and train it on back to Ohio.

So that’s about it for today. Sorry it wasn’t a “barn burner” of a day. I am hoping though that tomorrow’s ride through the coaster mts will be a really scenic ride. I’d hate to have the fog bank again just blotting out the mts and sky. So I’ll leave no earlier than 8 am and see how the weather looks. I’d told Pete that I’m phone him if it’s really socked in up here tomorrow morning, and then we could plan accordingly.

Talk to you tomorrow – I think. If we camp I may not be able to put anything up on the net. So if you get no new blog on Wed, you’ll know that we camped and I had no internet service. All the best……pete

Day 56: Loving the Cascades

2011-08-07T16:46:00.000-07:00

Day #56) August 7, 2011. Bend, OR to McKenzie Bridge, OR: 66 miles in 5:08 hrs.

This had to be the MOST wonderful, enjoyable, scenic ride of the trip. I’d gladly climb a pass each and every day if I could experience what I experienced today!

Ok, I got up at a very nice 5 am so I could be on the road at 7am. No more of this riding in the dark, headlamp, vest crap. I’m on the homestretch and there’s just no need now to start riding before the sun comes up. Sipped motel room coffee while I watched the Sunday morning local news, and then went down and got going on the continental breakfast. Had some yogurt, bagels and cream cheese, packed and was motoring at 6:50 am. The temp was a very comfortable 52 degrees and there was a slight headwind out of the northwest. Not a cloud in the sky, and it’s supposed to be this way for the rest of the week.

As I rode out of Bend I was overwhelmed by the wonderful, pungent aroma of pine in the cool morning air. That sore arse from a day ago had actually healed pretty good, especially with a new kit on now, so I was feeling quite comfortable. What’s more the dead, heavy legs from yesterday had perked up for today, so I felt confident in climbing another pass today. Turned out of town on Rt 20 and just headed for the Three Sisters Mts. This was a fairly flat 20-mile stretch of road to the town of Sisters. I mean right now I feel such a sense of accomplishment, so I was just stopping and shooting pics way more than the last several days. It was totally casual with respect to the pace. Hell, I just have three days to go, so no need to kill it anymore. Besides this part of the trip is just so amazingly beautiful, I want to soak up each and every mile of cycling out here. It’s a dream come true for a cyclist!

As I rode west those mts were just getting bigger and bigger in the picture frame. Around me was all this farm and ranchland with some really swanky ranch homes nestled right below those big, snow covered mts. Made it to Sisters in just over 1.5 hrs, and I was really riding pretty mellow. Stopped at a Subway and got a fountain coke, hoping that it would me across the McKenzie Pass. While I was there a ACA - Adventure Cycling Association – van was stopped at the gas station next door gassing up. I later found out for another cyclist that this is a group who is about to finish up a fully supported transam crossing as I am about to do.

Sisters is a cool little resort town nestled at the base of all these big mountains. And there, I turned onto Rt 242 to take me to the pass. Now I’d found out that this stretch of road – the scenic route - just recently opened for the summer, like 3 weeks ago. Prior to that the snow was too deep for vehicular traffic up at the top of the pass. Now they did allow bicycles to ride up as far as you wanted, but no autos. So I got going on Rt 242 and was just blown away by how cool this stretch of road was. I mean it was narrow, with no berm, but there was so little vehicle traffic on this road that you could just ride in the middle of the road more than half the time. The road in the beginning was just arching up at like 1-2%, so I could still ride in the big ring. I mean the road, the cloudless blue sky, the cool temp, the amazing towering pines at the side of the road, and those gorgeous mts off to my left and right side – it just couldn’ get any better.

So I was in this state of total cycling bliss. You live for rides like this one. So I was expecting this climb to the pass to be like 20+ miles, much in the same vain as was Cameron Pass in CO, but then like 3-4 miles in I saw a sign that read: McKenzie Pass 11 miles. And I was like, “damn, I can this thing is not going to be some kind of killer climb. It just might take me 2 hrs or less.” And right about then these two riders pull out of a trailhead parking lot right behind me, a guy and a gal. So they pulled up to me and asked where I was headed and where I came from. I went through my itinerary, and then introduced myself. Rob and Rema were both from Bend, and had driven out to Sisters to do the pass climb on both the front and back sides. So we just continued to jaw as we rode. And I told them a couple times that I didn’t want to hold them back, but they continued to hang with me and talk.

Now I’ll have to admit that if not for them I’d have ridding easier, but it was just so nice to have company that I bridged up to them every time I kind of fell off the back. And about 3 miles up the road the pitch really began to change such that I had to shift to the middle ring, and then into the little ring. But they just stayed back and softpedaled with me. Now there were a couple of times where they got about 200 meters ahead of me, and then I’d just drop down a gear or two and get out of the saddle and bridge back up. Now we talked and talked and talked. Turns out that Rob is an Olympic Snowboarding coach in Bend, and once we each found that we both coached, the jawing continued ad infinitum. They are both Canadians, but have live in Bend in the US for many, many years. They love it out here, and I see why. I even told Rob that I was envious of the outdooring opportunities thay have here. This is Boulder, CO without the pretentiousness. But out here, the ocean is just 200 miles from Bend!

We stopped at a really nice observation point and Rob and Rema pointed out all the peaks, and even took some pics of me standing and riding. So the area out here is volcanic, and all along the sides of the road once we got half way into the climb, is made up of volcanic piles of rubble, this the result of an eruption that only dated back 1700 yrs. I mean surrounding all these mts was nothing but vast fields of volcanic lava flows that were bulldozed into this big rubble fields. It was otherworldly looking for sure. The higher we climbed the more intense these fields became, until finally, up near the top by the pass, you were completely surrounded by lava fields. The road just narrowed to this little pathway that cut through the lava, with the lava cliffs being some 20-50 feet above the roadway.

Topped out and I was just really elated to have experienced such an amazing ride, and to have ridden with these two great folks for the whole darned thing. I mean they could easily have just motored on their own, but they held back and rode me up the mt. Dismounted at the top and climbed up to this observation tower where the views were fabulous. Just couldn’t get any better! So I bid farewell to Rob and Rema and then got it rolling on the back side to descend for about a half hour and then climb back up on the west side. I got going and stopped a few more times for more pics, and then the fun began. I mean this was a technical, but totally exhilarating descent. You know when the speed limit is 15 mph that the switchbacks are wicked and the pitch downward is steep. And it was indeed. I felt like Casey Jones driving his train down the mountain what with that trailer lending extra weight to my descending speed so that when I leaned into a switchback I could really feel the weight of the whole rig just driving me forward and downward. It was actually pretty much of an adrenaline rush.

I mean there were a couple section where on this really narrow road with zero berm, it was pretty much of a rush to be zipping through some of those corners with the yak at 20-30 mph. Only one time did I kind of poop my drawers when some idiot went left of center on a switchback and was coming right at me. I yelled like crazy at the dude who apparently was NOT paying attention. Me on the other hand, I was like in a trance working through the switchbacks and negotiating around the occasional patch of loose gravel that had made it’s way onto the road. But damn, every like 8-10 min or so there’d be a sign telling you your elevation, and I was like loosing 1000 feet within that span every time. This just continued for miles. The climb on the west side was 100x harder than what we had climbed on the east side.

Down about 8 to 10 miles Rob and Rema were parked in a pull-off carbing up on some energy bars. I stopped and said a final goodbye and then continued the break neck descent, just watching the mile markers and the elevation drop drop drop. I caught a cross country guy, Matt, just before the jcn with Rt 126. Rob is riding from Yorktown, VA, and has been on the road for 70-some days. So we rode for a bit and talked. Rob is shooting for Eugene today, so with me stopping in Mckenzie Bridge, he just continued down the road. I probably could have put in another 2.5 hrs to Eugene, but I was good with making it a shorter day and getting some work done this afternoon. So again, another brief encounter and I was on my own.

Got to this little mountain motel in like 5 hrs of riding. Nice little place just across the street from a nice café. Did the shower and kit wash thing and then ambled over to the café. Got a nice little table outside on the patio and got a scrumptious burger, salad bar…and these totally killer micro brew oatmeal stouts made by the Ninkasi Brewing Co. of Eugene, OR. These beers were the topper to a perfect cycling day! I just lounged out on the patio after finishing the burger and salad and enjoyed the sun, the mts, that fresh mt air, and the GREAT stouts! I’m back there for their homemade pizza for sure this eve. Even went to the little grocery store next to the café and got a big 24 oz bottle of the Ninkasi stout for later this evening.

That’s about it. It’s nearly 5 pm now and I’m starting to feel that belly gremlin again demanding more food! I’ll work a bit more and then capitulate to the growling stomach. Two more days and the ocean is at hand. All the best to everyone, from the beautiful Cascade Range of Oregon, I’m out………Pete

Day 55: Just around the Bend

2011-08-06T15:32:00.000-07:00

Day #55) August 6, 2011. Bend, OR: Off day.

Not a whole lot to say on a non-riding day. Stayed up till 11 pm and got up at a recreational 6:30 am. That felt so good. Just walking outside this morning to get a red-eye from Starbucks, the aroma of fresh pine from all the pine trees in the foothills around here is just refreshing. Reminded me of ROMO in Colorado. The temp outside was a brisk 49 degrees. I’m going to have to really bundle up for tomorrow’s ride. Did red-eye coffee and worked in the morning till about noon, and then headed out on the bike to the downtown Bend area.

This is really a wonderful place. I mean to see the Sisters Peaks off to the west just towering over the foothills here in Bend, it’s quite beautiful. The city itself has a great vibe to it. Kind of a super outdoorsy place to live and recreat. I rode to a couple bike shops to put some air in the tires where I could use the pressure gage, and then looked around for a jersey top. Found one in the second shop, but at $115 that was just way too much for a souvenir jersey for this trip. I was good with 75-85 bucks, but not 115. I’ll look more on the coast.

Took a ride around town on my super sensitive butt – I mean we’re talking SORE – and went into the park down along the Deschutes River. Great, clean place with this big hot-rod car show going on, so it was just packed with people. Then hit the Old Town district for lunch. Did the Bend Burger Co, for an absolutely amazingly great burger. They had like 10 different burgers to choose from, and honestly each sounded like a winner. I ended up with the Black Butt Burger – filled with jalapeños, special burger sauce, cheese, caramelized onions. Great! Temp here is now about 78 degrees and nice and dry.

Going to just lay down and rest for a bit and have a couple micro brews from Bend’s local micro brew – the Deschutes Brewing Co. My legs were super tired on the noodle ride into town. So today was really much needed. I think I picked two great days for my off days on this trip: in Ft. Collins to visit Brad and Andrew, and here in Bend, probably the coolest city I’ve visited in 3500 miles.

Tomorrow is 60-80 mile ride o McKenzie Bridge, OR, and I’ll have one pass, Mckenzie Pass at 5200 feet to ride up. Then it’s a descent to the town. Monday with be a shorter ride 50-60 mile ride to Eugene, OR. And Tues, the last day will be a 60-65 mile ride to the coast.

Well, I hear a ice cold Black Butte Porter calling my name. Look forward to seeing you all when I get home…….Pete

Day 54: Bent on Bend

2011-08-05T19:33:00.000-07:00

Day #54) August 5, 2011. Burns, OR to Bend, OR: 132 miles in 10:19 hrs.

First of all….Happy B-Day Dad. All the best and lots of love. I hope your day today was a great one.

Ok, I bloody well did it. It hurt. It was hard. And I’m pretty wickedly tired. My arse is literally raw! I think I need a tube of Second Skin to plaster all over my arse cheeks! Also…not many pictures today. I was more concerned with keeping the rhythm going today than I was in taking pic, so the picture show today is rather meager.

So I got up at 3:30 am and got really to roll for a 5 am shove-off. Downed some motel room coffee and then pounded a foot long Subway sub as insurance for a long day. I had bought 2, 1-liter bottles of water and stowed those in the top of the yak for easy retrieval. I also had bought some Cliff bars, trail mix, and fruit trail mix. I mean I was prepared to make the camp-out in BLM land if it was just not in the cards today. I also broke out a new set of cycling shorts – one bib and one regular. These guys had never been used on this trip, and I wanted the very best padding on my arse that I could get today, seeing that I was getting mentally prepared to go up to 12 hrs in the saddle. And lately, with my arse getting pretty sore around 3 hrs in, I need extra insurance there to.

So I made it out the door at 4:50 am, and was riding before 5. The air was pretty damned cold, probably like about 48 degrees. I had on the polypro long sleeved top, vest, and I should have had my gloves out, but I shined that on. Too late there. Turned on my headlamp and got rolling, with a sign at the west end of town saying that Bend was 132 miles away. That was daunting to see that pup so early in the ride. Now the road kind of was doing this false flat thing for the gazillionth time, and on this day that’s not exactly what I wanted to see. The road was good, the traffic was almost non-existent and the berm was about 4 feet wide, so I was in good shape for my 30 min of night riding. Hell, I had toyed with shoving off at 4 am, but that just seemed a bit too dangerous to push my luck that long with a night ride, so I went with 5 am.

That false flat…well, it pretty much was the start, the base so to speak, of the first summit, and it just went and went and went until the morning dawned and I could see the ridge in the foreground that was the pass. Now the elevation of Burns is 4100 feet, so these passes today were not going to be the beasts that I did yesterday. I already had the elevation, and just had to gain several hundred feet on each of the passes today – but it was still climbing in the middle and little cookie! Climbing is climbing on a day when you have to pedal 130 miles. Probably took like 30-40 min of gradual climbing to get over this first one, Sage Hen Hill Summit at 4600 feet.

Topped out, took a quick picture and then just descended to the town of Riley. Now look at a map and you’ll see that Riley is a dot on the map. But in reality all Riley is…is a grocery store/gas station. That’s it! No houses, nothing else there but this little store. So I made it to Riley in 2:15 hrs, and that was 26 miles so my average was way under where I had wanted it. But nothing to do – can’t hammer for 130 miles – so I have to take what I can get. Stopped in the store and had a quick coke and bought two packets of Honey Stinger shot blocks. Those are the pups that saved me on the day I did 98 miles to Heber City, UT. Did the NASCAR pit stop thing and was back on the bike in about 8 min. And wouldn’t you know it, but when I hit this long section of false flat I detected a headwind out of the northwest. It was subtle first with the sun having just came up. The day dawned as a clear, cloudless day that was just beautiful. The temps were great, being nice and cool. Yanked the polypro top and vest and kept it going.

Rode past another sign: Bend 104 miles/Hampton 62 miles. “Ok,” I thought, “making a little headway here. I’ll see how I feel by the time I get to Hampton. That’s where I’ll decide if I can pull this off today.” So I kept it rolling. Around me was this just massive, endless, emptiness of a landscape. I was in a basin with mts to the north and south, on a false flat with a headwind picking up ever so gradually and this was like so bleak and barren. Gave me the feeling that I was totally outclassed by Mother Nature. I could really get my ass handed to me if that headwind got worse, and that’s usually the case as the sun rises higher into the sky – really stirs up the atmosphere. Made me wonder if I was in for a royal ass kicking today by the headwind and the false flat. This stretch certainly was NOT flat. It was really rolling up and up and up in steps.

Now I was really trying to be cognizant of my gear selection today and the amount of pressure I was putting on the pedals. What I’m saying is that I had to really concentrate on not mashing today. Mash for 4-6 hrs and you’re legs are just totally cooked. I had to spin at a higher cadence and just take what I could get – not to fight the headwind. And speaking of the headwind, it had gotten worse as the morning wore on – just as I had expected it would. And I was kind of bitching to myself about how I’d had these easterlies for so long on this trip that I’d come to expect them. And then WHAM I get a westerly on a day when I could least afford it. Poor, poor pitiful me!

So let’s see, we’ll make a list here: good temp and great day as opposed to hilly and false flat roads with a growing headwind. I guess that’s a wash right? So on to Hampton. And this was a grunt indeed, as it seemed that I was just false flat climbing and battling a growing headwind the whole bloody time. Made it to this little gas station/restaurant in the town of Hampton in 5:15 hrs. Again, just like Riley, the town’s nothing more than this gas station/restaurant. Went inside and this one guy at the lunch counter told me that I looked pretty tired. Told him that I wasn’t very good at hiding it was I? Yea, I was like 67 miles in at that point and I was indeed tired. So I ordered a giant fountain Dr Pepper (no coke) and a fresh strawberry parfait. Must have knocked it all down in about 10 min. The folks inside were just really friendly and asked me to sign their register. So on the way out I had a group of tourists looking over my rig, commenting on how cool the trailer was. And I told the one fellow, “yea the trailer is great, but the problem with the trailer is that you have so much room.” And he was perplexed by that. So I added, “well, when it’s roomy you tend to just fill it it – like I did! And then it’s heavy as hell!” He just laughed, and off I went again.

On to Brothers, OR for the next stop, some 21 miles west. Now on this stretch was more of a false descent, and I was able to work into the headwind with some decent speeds. Brothers, same story as the previous two towns – nothing but a gas station/store/restaurant. At this one I got a Powerade and a big blueberry muffin. This place is run by a couple of really nice ladies. They cook food as you order it, or you can choose from the limited amount of groceries. I wanted to make this another quickie stop, so I didn’t order a burger or sandwich. The one lady refilled my water bottles and then brought me a big pitcher of ice water and a glass of ice water in addition to the stuff I bought. Downed all the water and ate the muffin, and again, back to the road.

Now at this point I was a whopping 43 miles from Bend. And what with that wind it could have been 143 miles. It was going to be tough. From this point onward there was nothing in the middle. So I had everything I needed what with my food and water. And wouldn’t you know it, the first 20-mile section was all false flat leading into the final pass. This pass was a breeze compared to everything else, but still, it was climbing with 90 miles in the legs. Made it to the top of the pass with 20 miles to go to Bend. Wouldn't you know it, as I looked to the west I could see these big beautiful coastal mts in the distance, all snow capped and massive. What a sight to see after crossing the OR interior. And at that point I broke out the Honey Stingers and just gobbled down two packs of the shot blocks. They just exploded in my mouth. And then on to the descent – just about 3 miles down onto this place that’s called Oregon’s Badlands, and let me tell you that all of a sudden the temp increased by like 15 degrees, and suddenly I was really feeling the heat for the first time in the day. Really, like it was as if I’d descended into an oven. And what’s more ahead of me was a gradual climb that just went off into the horizon.

“Jesus,” I said outloud, “this is just NOT going to get any easier.” And so into the middle ring and I must have climbed for about 30 min up this thing. Topped out, then climbed yet again. And this stair step thing went on for another 10 miles. By then the headwind was really starting to howl, so I was thinking that this thing was going to be a grunt from mile 1 to mile 132. No “Freebe’s” today! That’s about the time I actually started to look deliberately at the mile markers to do the big countdown. And damn they were slow coming.

Made it into Bend in just under 10.5 hrs. And I was feeling pretty wrecked, but nothing like the day I stumbled into Jefferson City, MO. Checked the first motel I saw – Friday night and booked solid. Then on to the Sleep Inn – one room left on second floor. “I’m there,” I told the girl. Now this wasn’t one of the cheapies I’m usually getting, but I was so tired that I’d have payed triple one of those cheap places. I was done!

Showered and then did a chinese place where they had a 6 dollar special, and then rolled over to Subway and ordered two footlongs for tonight. Also got a six pack of Black Butte Porter. No work tonight, just this blog and then I’m vegging.

Well, I thought long and hard about it and I decided to take an off day tomorrow. I was really hoping to do this thing with just one off day. But man, I am just so cashed right now. I’m going to enjoy the city of Bend tomorrow and just relax. Then I have about 200 miles to the coast. I’ll break that up into 3 days of 70 miles/day. So that’s it right now. I’m going to lay down and rest up the legs – which have been going in and out of cramping spasms for the last hour.

All the best……Pete

Day 53: Two and a half passes to Burns

2011-08-04T15:14:00.000-07:00

Day #53) August 4, 2011. Juntura, OR to Burns, OR: 59 miles in 5:29 hrs.

Man, I’ve been getting up pretty late these past mornings – today at about 5 am. No worries though as I knew that I’d pick up an hour by entering into the PST zone today. So shoving off at 6:30 am was ok. I had ordered a club sandwich with a macaroni salad last night at the café so I could put it in the frig and have it this morn for breakfast. So I got that down about 6 am and then was packed and on the road at exactly 6:30.

Was it ever cool this morning – about 49 degrees, so I had to put the long sleeved poly pro on and then the reflective vest. Twenty pedal strokes later I was out of Juntura! And it was the same as yesterday – a false flat climb up along the Malheur River right out of town. But it didn’t take long for the road to leave the Malheur River valley and begin to climb up gradually into the mts. And bingo-bango on to the first pass of the day – Drinkwater Pass, elevation 4212 feet. So as soon as I began to feel the effort I noted the time. Spent twenty min or so in the middle ring, and then when the pitch increased I hit the little ring from the remainder. And this pup just kept going and going. After about 45 min of climbing I thought I’d topped out, but it was just a long false summit that dipped down slightly and then arched up again for another 25 min to the real summit. Somewhere along that false summit was the Pacific Time Zone line, and I yelled out a Whoop as I went by that. Then the climb contined on. Yup, that was a climb all right, just about 1:10-1:15 hrs in length.

The descent was pretty dinky after all that climbing, and what with a second pass down the road I was totally good with that. No need to loose a ton of elevation only to reclimb it for a second time. So the descent went right back into another climb, not the second pass, but I’d call it “half a pass”. And this pup took a good 30 min to surmount. Now by this time I was making about 9 mph progress, and that equates to a solid 6-hour day if everything remained the same. I mean making forward progress was killer slow. On the plus side: just fabulous weather, great temps, and very interesting scenery. I had the day to ride just 58-60 miles, and I was NOT going to cook my legs what with a crazy long day on the docket for tomorrow. And what was pretty cool was the fact that I felt really good today on the climbs. The arse was not on fire and the legs were strong and fluid.

So I came up to the “half pass’s” summit and descended yet again. Then pedaled for a good several miles on a gradual up until I saw my second climb up to the next pass. And this thing was one of those “Penntucky” climbs: no switchbacks whatsoever, but rather just a road straight up the side of the mt, kind of contouring up as far as I could see. Now it wasn’t like this massive summit or crag, but rather a long ridge that separate basins. So again, I noted the time and began climbing, and it didn’t take long for me to shift into the little cookie and just enjoy another slow and ponderous noodle to the top. And this rampart was just a LONG son of a gun. I was in the saddle spinning for 10-15 min, then gear up to the middle ring and climb out of the saddle for 5 or so min. I did this on and off for a good 40 min, partially to give the arse a break, and partially to really rest the quad muscles. This is a great way to climb – for me anyway – and I just feels very refreshing at times to gear down and climb out of the saddle.

The funny thing about this climb, and it’s called Stinkingwater Pass at an elevation of 4848 feet, is that it just kept going and going and going. And I remembered that this is the pass the motorcycle folks were telling me about yesterday. The guy was saying it just went straight up the mt, and by God it does indeed do that. I must have come to 3 false summits, and then it just pitched up and continued to go on for another 10-15 min. I mean just when I thought I was at the top, the road dipped down and then went right back up again. The summit came well over an hour into the climb. The descent – a piddly 2 miles. But again, I’m rather keep the elevation than reclimb it over and over. At the bottom of this descent was a massive basin, Oregon’s Great Basin, and the hamlet of Buchanan. I stopped at this little gas station/store/Indian jewelry/antiques place. At that point I’d gone 36 miles in about 4 hrs. And that was just all climbing. The sign said that Burns was 23 miles to the west, and looking at the road ahead of me, it was as flat as a pool table and straight as an arrow. So I got one can of coke and continued on, hoping that my climbing was done and that I could really begin to make some time with a much faster speed.

Luckily the wind was every so slightly out of the south, and I was able to average a solid 14 mph with no headwind. This was just pure delight to crank down Rt 20 at such a lightspeed! Hell, I’d been noodling so long at 4-9 mph that 14 felt like I was on fire. And this was the case all the rest of the way to Burns. To the south were some light rain storms, but I was way ahead of them and had no worries that I’d bed pooped on at the last minute. Got into Burns and went straight to a Subway and got my latest favorite sub – the Seafood Sensation. And I got the 4 scoops by gosh! No nickel and diming me in that area here in Burns. Add to that 2 40/50 oz fountain cokes and I was good to go. Then dialed in a little efficiency motel and here I sit pecking at the computer keyboard as usual.

Ok, so tomorrow. I’ve seen signs that say that Bend, OR is anywhere from 120-140 miles from Burns. When I add up the mileage on the road map I get 120 miles. Now there are two passes, one at 4596 feet outside of Burns – I’m good to get one out of the way early – and the other at 4291 feet just east of Bend – that one could really hurt! With that said, I need: great day with low temps, no or low headwind, or better yet a tailwind, and super legs to make this happen. I have not done a ride with full gear that’s this long since Ryan and I did 152 miles in a day in Ontario, Canada. And that ride took me nearly 10 hrs – a stellar pace with fairly flat roads and a moderate tailwind. I’m not banking on a pace that fast tomorrow. So I can only do what I can do. I’ll take plenty of water and plenty of food. If I cannot maintain 12 mph, I think I will not be able to pull this off.

I’ve got some ideas and potential options, but really, there’s nothing between Burns and Bend but one little gas station in Brothers, OR. Now there are services in Riley, OR, but hell, it’s just a measly 26 miles west of Burns. After that it’s all nothingness. So if you don’t get a blog on Saturday morning, you’ll know I did not reach Bend on Friday. Then again if I do reach Bend late on Friday, you still may not get a blog on Saturday morning, cuz I’ll simply eat, shower and go to sleep.

So that’s the story. I hope to have a report to you tomorrow evening. All the best and wish me luck…….Pete

Day 52: Finding the Oasis

2011-08-03T18:21:00.000-07:00

Day #52) August 3, 2011. Vale, OR to Juntura, OR: 56 miles in 5:07 hrs.

I did the walk-around in Vale late last afternoon, and it was actually quite interesting, what with all the Oregon Trail murals on the buildings throughout town. Some were very detailed and colorful. Now the temp by that time was a whopping 96-degrees, and we’re talking like 6:30 pm, so I was feeling the heat for sure with just a couple of miles of walking. I’d planned on doing this diner for supper, but at the end of my walk-around in the center of town (my motel was on the western outskirts) I came to a Mexican restaurant, and I figured what the heck. Might as well give it a try. And again, just like the place in Utah, there were locals coming and going so I figured that it was authentic. Heck I was the only gringo in there who was speaking English. Ordered these short ribs braised in a red spicy red sauce with refried beans and rice, and then got a large burrito on top of that.

My God was this food good. Now honestly, I’m a Chinese and Asian food junkie, so Mexican is not high on my list, but the Mexican I’ve had in the past couple of weeks has just been so amazingly good that I could definitely swing that way. Trouble is that in Ohio, I have NEVER tasted food that even comes close to what I’m eating right now. NEVER! The short ribs in the first dish were just like melting right off the bone in this crazy good red sauce, and they came with hot corn soft shells, so I mixed meat, beans and rice and sauce into the shells and had some wonderful eats. Then the burrito. Got the crisp pork burrito, and again, just like up in Utah, this burrito was so good that I cannot explain to you. Now Judy and I love to eat at Taco Tonto’s in Kent, and Judy thinks these are the best burritos on earth – and I love them to – but let me tell you that they are as phony as a three-dollar bill compared to what I’ve eaten thus far at Mexican places out west. I was so satiated, so stuffed, and so overwhelmed by the good food that I had a Buda belly that was to die for!

Went back to the motel and vegged on more TV with more cooking shows like Hell’s Kitchen and Master Chef. Then beddie bye at 9 pm. And low and behold I woke up late this morning, at like 5 am. Man I just slept like a rock last night. Had to be the overabundance of Mexican food that just put me into REM-sleep land for 7 solid hours. So I threw some motel coffee into the coffee maker and then scarfed down a pre-made sandwich I’d bought at a Sinclair station yesterday eve, packed and was on the road at 6:30. Now I saw 6:30 MST. I’m in OR, but I’m still in MST and not PST. You see there’s just one county in OR that maintains MST – and that’s of course the county that I’m currently in – Malheur County. But…this was the lightest 6:30 am I’ve had in a while so I’m just one county away from PST and a 5:30 am start again. And I’ll need it on Friday for sure. More on that later.

Got going on a pretty cool morning with the temp at about 58-degrees. Wore just the reflective vest, and my arms were slightly chilled for the first 45 min of riding. And that’s totally good in my book seeing that I just cannot fcn well in the real gnarly heat. Give me cool and I’ll ride all bloody day long. Heat? That just destroys me. So I was very happy to have it cool for however long it could be. The sky was perfectly clear – not a cloud to speak of – and the air was perfectly still. So it was just a stellar morning to begin a ride. So it took me like 30 seconds to ride out of Vale and into the bleakness of the high plains of OR. Now there were farms here and there, but mostly it was just dry and barren foothills with brown and yellow, dried out vegetation – except for one place. To my right, off in the distance was the Malheur River, which is pretty much the sole irrigation source for this whole area. Around the river were a plethora of cottonwoods and tons of cropland being irrigated.

Now I noticed from the get-go that I was climbing ever so slightly. Hell, nothing wrong with this picture as I’ve been doing that for nearly 6 weeks! So I was actually riding upriver along the Malheur and very subtly climbing. Like I was working to do 11 mph, so I don’t know that the grade was but I’ll assume that it was 2+% or more. Just enough to let you know that you cannot go fast today. And then comes the first pass, this one is Vines Hill Summit, and it is a good 2900 feet in elevation. Small potatos I know, but to me it was a healthy climb. Took me about 28 min to get to the top, and I was in the little cookie by the half way point. Now it wasn’t like that crazy thing that I did on my way to Snowville, UT, but it was a close second. Descended and then the grunt work began – slowly climbing a false flat up along the Malheur River for the next 40 miles.

Couldn’t do more than 11 mph on the real climbing sections, and did like 12-14 mph on the slight descents. But it reminded me of the climb that Brad and I had done on the first day to Cameron Pass in CO. Same exact thing with the very gradual up along a river. It snaked through these beautiful bleak canyons for miles on end. Every once in a while the road would pitch up a bit and force me out of the saddle to kind of stretch my legs out a bit. And the road, it was this nasty chip-seal shit that was composed of a quartz-gravel, kind of round and pea-sized stuff that was just a major friction factor on the tires. That stuff easily took a good mile per hour off of my speed. And I could tell because the road would change to smooth asphalt when the road would cross the river. You’d get these aprons of great road for about a quarter mile before and after the river crossing and then right back to the chip-seal. Those of you who have never ridden on chip-seal – well, you’d just have to trust me on this – IT SUCKS with a fully loaded bike!

So I realized that the great times and speeds I’d logged in the past couple of days on I-84…those days are gone. Back to reality here in OR on Rt 20/26. And then the inevitable occurred…I began to feel a westerly headwind. I mean come on now – it just had to happen. No freaking way I could miss that on an east to west ride. And gradually, over time, it got stronger and stronger, probably like about 8-10 mph at times. And it became even more of a factor once I got to this real canyoned out section for road. That’s when the signs began popping up warning of strong wind gusts. Had to be the wind funneling down trough the canyons like a wind tunnel. And the road was just snaking north, south, east and west through this long canyon. So I’d get a tailwind, crosswind, and headwind at any given moment depending on my direction of travel.

By about 10 am the sun was just beginning to make itself felt, at least by me! I’d shed the vest way back on the first pass, and what with the sun getting hotter I was half tempted to shed my top. The climbing just continued on with the road usually hugging the Malheur River. Along the way there would be little oasis’s of humanity farming or ranching. But mostly it was just nothingness, a treeless, bleak landscape of parched and sun-burnt foothills as far as the eye can see. Made me feel so little, so insignificant in the big picture.

Now I knew that there’d be nothing between Vale and Juntura, so I’d made sure to have enough water and food, and ended up making a quickie stop about 10 miles outside of Juntura. Found a section of guard-rail where I could lean my rig and then just got out the final Cliff bar my fitness class had given me (this was saved in my back bag as an emergency bar) and munched it along the Malheur while I swigged on water. Damn it had gotten quite hot by then. Then remounted the steed and continued the slow plod to Juntura, up and up and up along this false flat climb.

Got to tell you that my ares at this point is just torched. I mean it usually starts rebelling about 3 hours into a ride now. So I’m getting out of the saddle more and more at the three hour mark just to give my arse a break. When I do, the shorts – and this may sound a bit gross – kind of unstuck from my skin like skin peeling off. It’s a rather nasty sensation. And believe you me, I’ve been a stickler for arse rash prevention, doing all that’s necessary for my arse protection. But to no avail. It’s just a wreck right now with with 52 days on the road and 51 of them on a bike at least 5 hrs a day. Enough said there.

Fumbled into Juntura with 57 miles and just over 5 hrs of riding. And those were a tough five hours of biking for sure. Juntura is about as big as Maybell, CO. Nothing here but one commercial place here – The Oasis Motel, RV and Café. It’s named right – it’s a bloody oasis in the middle of nowhere. Next town to the west – Burns – some 58 miles away. Great folks here though. I went in, sat down and jawed with an older gentleman for a bit as he was waiting for a milkshake, and also jawed with a couple of black leather-clad motorcyclists in their 60’ or 70’s. They all gave me props for what I’d accomplished thus far. The waitress gave me a small card to fill out for one of the only 6 rooms available here (I’d made a reservation just in case). And then I ordered up a 50 oz fountain coke and ice water. Next up was ….come on now you have to know that it was the chicken fried steak breakfast!

So next a trucker came in and sat down as I was jawing with the bikers, and I’d mentioned that I didn’t think I’d have any cell service here. Well the trucker pipes up that he has three bars here. So I got out my phone and be damned if I didn’t have 3G service with 3 bars! Amazing in that I feel like I’m in the furthest place from any kind of service that you can be in. So I drank 3-50 oz cokes and 3 glasses of ice water and then tackled the breakfast – very good indeed, but not quite as good as the chicken fried steak in Maybell, CO. That’s the gold standard right now. This one here – silver for sure. They just didn’t pound out the steak. Had they done that it would be a draw for sure.

So I got my room key and was directed to the little row of rooms, and quite honestly I was expecting the worst, I mean worse than in Snowville. But be damned if I didn’t open up this room and it is like brand new, spacious, and extremely nice – AC, regrig, microwave, tons of room, new furniture. I mean I’m totally impressed for 45 bucks. Only draw is that there’s no cable. Actually there is no TV at all. They have provided DVD’s for patrons, and if you require more choices you can go back to the café and get more DVD’s. No biggie for me. I just plugged in my phone and have been listening to internet radio for the past 4 hours. So I have my computer going with the air card and the cell phone blaring out internet radio and all is good.

Went back into the café and got a sixer of Black Butte Porter, a microbrew made in Bend, OR, put it in the refrig, turned the refrig on super cold, and then went out and sat in the dry, hot OR sun on the porch and drank some Porters. Really felt relaxing to just do nothing after riding and working. Went through three porters out there just watching the hot as hell day go by. Kind of cool to have no TV here and just listen to my Ambient Radio on the cell.

Tomorrow…this is going to be a very tough ride, what with two 4K+ passes to do. I’m told by the gentleman who was having the milkshake in the café that that is the tough stretch here on Rt 20/20, the stretch from Juntura to Burns. Then the next stretch, the super long one, from Burns to Bend, that is more like high plains without all the snaking through canyons and such. Still, it’s a 130 mile section with no real services. I still am mulling over the strategy on that one. I guess I’ll get it dialed in tomorrow after all the climbing. But really, I’d like to think that maybe with an early start – and it being PST – I could get going at like 4:30-5 am and maybe have a good shot at doing 130 miles…IF and only IF I have not nasty westerly headwind. Get a headwind and it’s a whole different ballgame. More on that tomorrow evening.

I’m going to sign off and go over and have some dinner at the café. Could very well be the chicken fried steak dinner! God I’m a sucker for that dish….. And with the magic of writing I just got back from dinner and did indeed get the chicken fried steak dinner. Talked with the waitresses for a minute of so and they were super friendly and fascinated with my trip. They even wrote out a voucher for 5 bucks off my breakfast, and then when I thanked them but told them I’d be leaving around 5:30 am, the one pulled out a five and tried to give it to me for money off my dinner. I told her to keep it as part of the tip. Really sweet folks. What a wonderful little place to stay after a day on the road. It’s a one stop shop!

Ok, on to Burns, OR tomorrow…Pete

Day 51: On to the Oregon Trail

2011-08-02T14:49:00.000-07:00

Day #51) August 2, 2011. Boise, ID to Vale, OR: 74 miles in 5:03 hrs.

Now last night once I got done working I ambled over to he Kopper Kitchen Pub & Grill for a bite and a couple of beers. So I asked the waitress what the house specialty was, despite the fact that I was eying the full rack of barbecued ribs. The waitress told me that the fried chicken is the big seller there. Now I’m ok with fried chicken – not like crazy over it. But I always like to ask at local establishments what their kind of “signature” dish is before I order. So with that said, I changed my mind and went with the sure thing. Why argue with a sure thing right? So I ordered the specialty fried chicken – a half chicken. And while I waited I had some Moose Drool Porter on tap – ahhhhhh amazingly good! I really enjoyed just sitting there and basking in the fact that I was just about to venture into OR and complete the trip in about a week. Really felt good.

So the waitress came back and said that they were running a bit late on the order. “No problem,” I said, I’ll just have another Moose Drool!” So I did the same thing again, kind of daydreaming back on all the cycling and all the states I’d ridden through. About 30 min after the order I got my chicken, and I pretty much knew just by looking at it that it was rendered to a crisp in the steamer or broacher or whatever. It was really dry looking. I mean KFC looks like gourmet chicken compared to what this looked like. So I ate a chicken leg – dry as hell, then a wing, dry as hell, and then a thigh, just the same – super dry as hell. And I was thinking as I was eating: wow I really blew this one. And then I knew that the waitress was going to ask me how everything is when she came back to check on me. And she did, and I told her it was really dry.

She apologized a ton, and kind of indicated that she thought that it had taken way too long to make. So I saw her up there talking to the manager, and she eventually came back and offered me free dessert and 30% off the bill. And I was like, hey it’s not your fault, but that’s cool with me. So I finished off this desiccated chicken. Waitress came back and offered me the dessert, where I asked if instead I could have another Moose Drool. Got a thumbs up on that and I was totally good. Really, my meal was three great porters. The chicken – that was filler.

Went back to the motel and crashed at about 9 pm.

Up at 4 am, and walked down to Denny’s for a coffee and then back to pack, eat breakfast and then was on the road at 6:30 am – right into rush hour on I-84 in Boise. Now I must be pretty impervious to this kind of traffic because I felt just fine. Hell, this was tame compared to the time when Ryan and I were riding through downtown Edmonton, Alberta during the afternoon rush on the interprovincial. No that was mind-bending! Didn’t take but about 40 min and I was free and clear of the Boise rush. And as luck would have it, be darned if the wind wasn’t out of the east again. This has just been amazing. Then it was on to the next rush – Meridian, and I was zipping along at 16-17 mph. And that was totally a fly-by. I had a full lane to ride on for my berm, and only occasional traffic construction areas, but on these where they had parts of the lanes coned off, I was able to ride on the newly constructed stretches of highway, so at times I could just hammer out 18-20 mph with new road surface and light tailwind.

It wasn’t until 10-15 miles east of Caldwell that I ran into a stretch where I was forced onto a 3-foot berm aside the dbl lane where the road construction was on my right and there was nothing but miles of 4-foot high concrete barriers right next to my meager berm. The whole time I was looking to the north and south, for at least the past 2 hours of riding, and there were rain storms just pelting down rain on both sides of me. I felt as though I was in the lucky zone again all the way around what with this corridor to the west that was free of any storms and the amazing tailwind at my back. Ok, so that one stretch outside of Caldwell, that was a bit dicey to ride on, what with traffic zipping by at 70 mph. Once the construction was over I was on this crumbly old piece of crap berm that was totally atypical of what I’d been riding for the past 130 miles of I-84. I mean this thing had plants growing in the crack and crevices, and there was gravel and crap all over the pace.

This made me feel really happy that I had my Shwalbe 700x40C tires on the bike, probably the best cross-county tires made! Period. I mean these pups have HD ceramic guards on the sidewalls and are tough as nails. They’d served me well over nearly 3300 miles of riding thus far. They’re a bit heavy, but it’s worth it. So I was feeling ok about the crappy section of berm, and knew that I had just about 20 more miles to go before I finally left the interstate for good. Luckily the crap section ended with the brand new section of berm, like glass smooth with new guardrails and all. This was still barreled off with the orange barrels so I had this new section all to myself, and I was like flying. And that’s about the time I felt this: thud, thud, thud, thud from the back wheel. I knew it immediately – nail in the tire! Jumped off before the tire even had a chance to loose air and sure enough, right through one of my 80-dollar Shwalbe’s was a brand new sheet metal screw that was used on that new stretch of guardrail. This thing was 4 inches long, and went through the top of the tread and came out of the sidewall. The tire was flat not more than 30 seconds after I dismounted.

Those Shwalbe’s are good, but not impervious to sheetmetal screws! My biggest worry was if the screw had damaged the rim. So I had to walk the rig about a quarter mile up to this new section of guardrail where I could lean the rig against and use as my workbench. Got there and first thing I pulled the screw out with my leatherman plyers. This thing was brand shiny new. I must have hit it with the head pointing forward and then the pressure of the tire just elevated it up and into the tire. The tire was ruined with two massive punctures through the top of the tire and out the sidewall, and the tube was toast with two gapping holes.

Had to take everything off the bike, all the luggage, and then disconnect the yak from the rear. Then I set the bike up on a guardrail post, as if it were on a bike stand, and removed the wheel. I keep all my tire and wheel tools in the seatpost bag for easy retrieval, so I snagged a tube, and then got a spare tire (I carry two spare tires) from on top of the yak back in the back (again for easy retrieval). Got everything changed and put back together in about 30 min. I mean changing a tire and tube with a fully loaded rig takes about 10x longer than with a regular unloaded road bike.

Got it rolling again and began hitting a series of these….guess what….false flat climbs! And it was just like yesterday when these things just kept going in a series of tiers, up and up and up. But with the tailwind, I could at least big ring everything at about 11-15 mph. So I was still able to cruise. Got to the Oregon line in about 3.5 hrs into the ride and stopped into a welcome center to get some water refills and an OR highway map. Then on into downtown Ontario, OR and to Vale, OR on Rt 20/26 W. This area is a carbon-copy of Southern Idaho - just as dry, just as barren, and just as important to agriculture. Actually that’s about all that’s here is agriculture – just miles of corn, onion, potato and all these irrigation systems. To the north are these dry, highlands that could be called foothills, and ditto for the south. Once on 20/26 W I was just riding along a broad river valley – with a great easterly tailwind!

This terrain is a fax of southern ID, and if not for the change of border and the welcome sign to OR, I’d thing I was still in ID, or UT or CO, up in the high plains! Just not much of a change. Made it to Vale with the temp at about 85 degrees, but it felt a lot hotter for sure. Did a quick ride around the town and saw that one of the motels was a total dive, like it rented out by the week! The other, get this…the Bates Motel, was much better and still a bargain at 40 bucks. Yea, the Bates Motel. I’ll have to be careful when I take a shower! Those of you under 40 yrs old have no idea what the hell I’m talking about. Google: Norman Bates.

This place is pretty out there, and it gets even more out there as I ride west in this Eastern OR basin. Showered and then rode down to the DQ for a couple of burgers and then back here to the “Bates” for work. Great little place though – AC, microwave and cozy little room at a mom & pop motel. I don’t even try to haggle with these little independent places, hell they have to be having a hard enough time as it is. They’re just independent business folks trying to make a living. And I respect that. I do haggle or bring up ARRP, AAA , or “guy biking across the USA” with the chain motels for a better deal.

Tomorrow is the beginning of some tough riding, and I’d booked this little place in the town of Juntura for tomorrow eve. I have to split up this first section into two 50+ mile days, because other than Juntura there’s nothing between Vale and Burns. This is a 114 miles stretch, and the second segment, Juntura to Burns contains 3 mt passes. So I don’t want to try to slam out 114 miles in a day that contains 3 passes. Don’t know what I’ll have in Juntura. It could be just like Maybell or Snowville, or it could be wifi-less and cell-less. So if no post you know I have no service for the next day.

I’m going to take a hike around this old cowboy town for a bit and take some pics. As you may or may not know, this route, Rt 20/26 is part of the Oregon Trail. So there’s some rich history here. Heck, I went into DQ and there was three young bucks in there with the spurs on the boots just a giggling. Yup, this is cowboy land in a big way.

Hope to report to you tomorrow on this first stretch of OR interior…..Pete

Day 50: The good, the bad and the ugly

2011-08-01T15:24:00.000-07:00

Day #50) August 1, 2011. Bliss, ID to Boise, ID: 88 miles in 5:36 hrs.

Overall today was a great day today – but with a little bit of the good, the bad and the ugly. More on that in a minute.

So I blasted over to the gas station/grill again from grub-to-go, getting….the chicken fried steak breakfast. Yea, I’m a sucker for that greasy, high fat, fried, messy, disgustingly delicious dish of food. And if it’s on the menu, nine times out of ten I’ll try it. And this place, well, you can do it like Denny’s – have your breakfast anytime of the day. So I got this pup to go so that I could blast on back to the room and watch Next Network Star on Food channel. And I got to tell you that no one has come close to the chicken fried steak that I had in Maybell, CO yet. The stuff here in Bliss was not pounded out, so it was a bit tough, and the gravy – the gravy is the deal breaker in my mind – it just wasn’t “plate licking” good. Now the dish was ok, but not a homerun. Watched my show and then something on the Science Channel about science extending life and then by 9 pm I was in bed with the drapes pulled closed and the AC on. Goodnight!

Up at 4 am for another potentially hum-dinger of a ride. Seems like I’m stringing together more and more hum-dingers closer and closer to each other. The big factor today was, in my mind, going to be the weather. To be more specific – the wind. Now this area has windmill farms everywhere, so the wind can be huge out here. No check that, it can be downright brutal out here if you’re riding into a headwind. Get a tailwind today – smooth sailing in under 6 hours. Get a headwind today – 8+ hrs of riding depending on how hard the wind.

Got my coffee down, two bananas and two yogurts and was out the door and on the bike before 6:30 am. The morning was calm – dead calm, which was kind of disconcerting because that meant the wind machine wasn’t on yet. More guessing on the wind direction. So my first 30 min was a false flat descent down into the Snake River Valley. Then by the time that daylight was just starting to pop, the wind picked up – out of the easy! By God, I’ve been one lucky SOB on this trip with all these easterlies and southeasterlies. It’s just crazy good luck.

Now this section of the ride was rather interesting in the valley what with the Snake just cutting through the rock like a buzz saw. In some places the actual river gorge was just this narrow section of cliffs that rose up to a couple of hundred feet high. In other sections the river was more passive, where there were grassy banks and trees and some houses and boat launches. Now the canyon itself is miles wide, but not really that steep. I must have descended for 10 or so miles very gradually to finally get to where I was down along the valley floor doing these rollers up and down, with a crossing every once in a while of the river itself.

And this is where the ugly came in. To get out of the valley I had to climb these steeps, like 4-5 of these things that were miles long. So I’d ride for a bit on the flats, and then go up this rampart for a couple of miles, over and over. That’s not the ugly. The gnats were! So when I slowed down to do the climbs, down below like 10-11 mph I’d get this swarm of gnats all around me, my bike, my panniers, everywhere. Remember the bulldogs I wrote about in Manitoba? Same thing just way smaller. Well these freaking things would get in my ears, my nose, I’d inhale them, I mean it was just living hell climbing, sweating, and working while these damned gnats were just swarming like a hive of bees around me.

And this got to be the norm each and every time I hit another of those ramparts out of the valley, I’d slow down enough such that the gnats would swarm around me head. I could see them in my rearview mirror also, and they were just as thick behind me as they were in front of me. Then when I’d top out I’d get up to speed again, like 15-18 mph and they’d be gone. So eventually I’d hit another rampart and yell out loud in frustration, “Regroup!” And be damned if those bastards wouldn’t start swarming again. Did it every time. And to me, yelling out “regroup” was kind of a painfully funny way of dealing with these things. No kill count here – they were too small. And worse yet I sucked down 3 or more in my mouth as I was breathing hard going up some of the climbs. All I could do was to try to swipe my hand in front of my face for a few seconds of peace before they began to “regroup” around my head. Some of the oncoming traffic probably thought I was waving at them! I must have looked like a lunatic climbing out of the saddle and swiping at my face every 30 seconds. Then I’d get to the top, and with that tailwind, I’d just fly. These things just couldn’t go much faster than 11 mph.

Then came the granddaddy of the ramparts, this thing that was like 3+ miles long. All the other climbs were like 5, maybe 8 minutes of gnat hell, but this one, God, I was thinking that I’d be swatting gnats for a half hour. I mean it was middle cookie all the way for a freaking long, long way up, up to the lip of the valley. So for that one I really tried to keep my speed up as long as I could, but then the inevitable finally occurred and I shifted and swatted for 15-20 mins of gnat hell. God I was never so happy as to get to the top of that valley so the gnats would be gone.

So I got to the top and it was just amazing at how fast I could go at times. Bye bye gnats – for good. I’d do like 17-23 mph depending on the grade, all the way to the city of Mountain Home, like 45 miles into the ride. Stopped in Mountain Home for a coke break, and when I saw a Subway, I knew that was the ticket to get me through the second half of the ride. Went in and got the giant fountain coke and a flatbread half sandwich of egg and cheese with veggies. Then back on the bike as fast as I could get on it. I mean I was almost paranoid that the wind was going to shift and be in my face for the next 40 miles or cycling. Well, it didn’t, and it actually got stronger as a tailwind.

But now the bad – really not that bad. So I had this killer tailwind, and the weather had turned to total sunshine and blue sky, but the road just kept stair-stepping up in these endless series of false flat climbs. Some I could do like 17 mph, and others only like 12-13 (fast enough not to have the gnats to deal with). But they were endless, and it was amidst this hot, dry high plains environment that was so painfully boring. Got to say that Southern ID is not the most scenic place in the US. Now look, things could have been way worse, and I was making great time, so I’m just kind of nitpicking at this point. Actually it really was just a minor issue. But I had to title the day: The good, the bad and the ugly. So this was my bad.

By the time I had about 18 miles to go to get into Boise, I was really getting parched. The sun was out in full force, and with the dry heat and the tailwind, I kind of began to feel the effort, so I made a stop at this super mega-gas station/restaurant place for a final coke. Do a 44 oz fountain and a 44 oz of water and was back on the bike and back to doing what seemed like the never-ending false flat. And I kept wondering, no actually saying to myself that this thing just had to have an end to it, but I’d keep going up and over and up and over – with some pretty good speed of course. Then came the pay-off – 8 miles of false flat descending down into Boise, with me loosing more altitude that I’d gained! I mean hell, Mountain Home was at 3.1K and Boise is at 2.7K, so there on the big, wide open stretch of high plains it must have been close to 4K.

Descended into Boise at like 27 mph for a while with the miles just ticking off like a second hand on a clock. Nothing is so beautiful on a bike trip to see the miles going that fast at the end of a day’s ride. Got a Motel 6 by the airport and here I am just relaxing in the AC as it’s nearly 100 degrees out right now. Went to Denny’s for my post –ride meal, and of course when I saw the chicken fried steak and eggs on the menu – sign me up. Again, nowhere near as good as what I had in Maybell. There’s a little local pub/grill right across the street from the Denny’s, so I’ll do that for dinner. Might even get a few ice cold brews with my dinner to!

So that will do it. I’ve not looked at a map yet to determine tomorrow’s ride, but I’ll likely try to cross into OR, around Ontario or thereabouts. May even take a mellow day – like 50-60 miles. Yea right!

One more state to go and that will do this trip. All the best……Pete

Day 49: Riding the storm out

2011-07-31T17:01:00.000-07:00

Day #49) July 31, 2011. Burley, ID to Bliss, ID: 81 miles in 5:17 hrs.

Ok, so yesterday evening went into a Subway to buy a sub for dinner and a sub for the morning breakfast. So I do the order: 1 meatball marinara and 1 seafood sensation. So the gal makes the seafood first, and I noticed that the pan was almost out, and she scooped out the remainder and then went to the back. Now I though she was going to come back with another pan of the seafood and finish my sub. But she returned with no pan, and then just smoothed out the stuff that was already on the sub. And so she proceeded to ask me what veggies I wanted on the sub. So I said: “Is that all of the seafood you’re going to put on it,” because I’ve been eating this stuff for three trips now, and I know EXACTLY what four scoops looks like on a sandwich. Well, she says, “I put four scoops on, and that’s what we’re supposed to put on it.” Then I replied, “look, you ran out of seafood in the pan there, you went back and checked for more, there wasn’t more and you’re now trying to pawn this off on me when it most definitely is not the right amount.” And let me tell ya, what she had put on that sub was about half of what you normally get. Then I said, “this is total bullshit. You don’t have more in the back and I’m NOT paying for this. Forget it! You can toss that and make me something else.” So she went into the back to check with a manager or something and then returned and asked me what I wanted instead, then she had a different waitress make the two subs for me.

Man, I was like shaking I was so pissed off. I’m dumb but not stupid, and don’t try to tell me that two scoops are four scoops. And like the amazing thing was that when she’d spread the seafood salad across the footlong it didn’t even cover the bread on the inside. It was just so ludicrous to have this young chickie trying to tell me that I wasn’t seeing what I was seeing. So the other waitress made me a different sub and then the nutball chick rang me up, kind of with this pissed off attitude. That’s when I told her that she could have been honest with me and have just told me that there wasn’t enough to make a footlong sandwich, not to try to con me into believing that I was getting what I should.

Enough said. So up at 4 am with plenty of time to spare. I wasn’t planning on getting on the road until 6:30 am, so I had time to wander over to the lobby and grab two cups of coffee, relax, try to watch the local forecast (nothing in ID in the way of early Sunday morning news), eat breakfast, pack, and get my kit on. Tell you what, it’s a piece of cake now to get a footlong down the gullet at 5 am now compared to a month ago. I’m dialed into “high volume” eating in the am now! Got out into the morning with a vest on due to the 61-degree temps and got the ride going. Rode back into the center of town and got on Rt 30 W, and wow, looking up at the sky, I seemed to have storm clouds totally surrounding me. It looked just horrible to the south, and to the north – lightning! Was kind of an unsettling sight to see some much storm activity around. And judging by the forecast from last night, today was supposed to be 30% chance of rain today, mainly in the afternoon hours. So much for that forecast because it was raining and storming all the hell over the place. At least I had a nice little tailwind out of the SE.

Have to say that today was some of the most boring scenery I’ve experienced in the trip. I mean it was just flat and false flat the whole time amidst vast fields of potato, corn and wheat. There were mts off to the south and way, way off to the north. Sorry to say that even KS and Eastern CO was more interesting. But what was really catching my eye was the lightning to the north and the massive black sheets of rain to the south. Seemed as though I was riding down this ally-way between two big storm cells. It definitely gave me a real sense of urgency in my intensity level to at least get to Twin Falls, about 40 miles away. So I pretty much rode at a rather hard pace to stay rain free. Goal was to get to Twin Falls and reaccess the weather as to whether I could go further or not. Kept a pretty good pace going, past these windmill farms, and farms, and farms and farms. Just nothing but farms. I never realized that ID was big into farming. I guess the potato thing is just off the charts out here.

So I made it into Twin Falls and by then it was sprinkling and I was about 2.5 hrs into the ride. Now the big decision: stay with Rt 30 which is further to Bliss, ID than the interstate 84, or take I-84 and just try to ride like hell to beat the storm, which was nipping at my arse by that time. Earlier in my blogging I’d written about being able to ride on the interstate in UT, but you can only do that when there is zero opps. for riding on a parallel road system. But here in ID, the interstate is totally legal for a cyclist. Anyway, I took a look to the east and you could just see these massive sheets, like long drapes of rain coming my way. TO THE INTERSTATE! So I rode about 5 miles to the north and jumped on the I. Kind of makes me want to rename this trip: American Interstate!

And I just put it down, doing like 20-22 mph riding for my dry life, with the rain spritzing and drizzling. Even on the false flats I could maintain 17-18 mph. So I did this for about an hour, just pedaling for all it was worth. And I got ahead of the front, and finally got in some decent weather down the highway. You know the cool thing, was when the highway patrol went by….and just kept going! No stop, no hassles. Plan was to do a long section of freeway tomorrow, from like Bliss to Boise, because there is really nothing that parallels on the way to Boise. But looks like I started that a bit early by getting on today. Well, I was making some real time there, and then there was road construction, and it was an 8-mile section where traffic was rerouted onto just on lane, the eastbound lane, where it was just one lane each side. And in the westbound lane, well, that was brand new asphalt that hadn’t been bermed or painted yet. So rather than get on a thin, 2-foot strip of berm on the two-way eastbound lane, I just stayed on the new pavement and had that all to myself. Kind of wondered if the highway patrol would see it as I did, and be darned if two went by….and not a problem. Bingo!

By the time I hit the sign “Bliss 7 miles” I was just cooked. My legs were totally toast. My average at that time was the highest I’ve had on the trip – with the yak of course – at 15.4 mph! I’d paid the price for gunning it so hard. So when I was running and gunning I was getting a bit greedy and thinking that maybe I could get to Glenns Ferry or maybe even Boise with a monster day. But with 7 miles to go I kind of was running on fumes. So I decided to at least stop in Bliss for a massive fountain coke and something to eat. If I felt better I’d go the next 19 miles to Glenns Ferry – but a big NO to Boise. Rode to a little gas station/store called, get this…Stinker! Yes, stinker. Come on now, calling a store Stinker, with this little skunk logo under the text? I thought that so funny – maybe I was punch drunk.

So I went in Stinker and grabbed a 44 oz fountain coke and a pre-made ham sub. Then looked at the map. Looked at the map more, ate more, looked at the map, and it was like – I’m done, just don’t have it in me to put another 1.5 hrs in the saddle. Hell, the last 7 miles I’d dropped down to like 14 mph. I mean that was it. Just couldn’t imagine another 19 feeling that dead – especially my butt. Damn it’s just raw meat at this point. Ok, so Bliss, ID, population 275. This is another of the myriad of small towns on this trip. They do have: two motels, two gas stations, one café and that’s it. It’s a blip on the freeway. Got a motel from this really nice guy who owns a mom and pop place, and he gave me a deal on the room cuz I was riding across the country. Got internet, sat. TV, AC, huge room. Great deal at 44 bucks. The guy even told me he’d throw my sink-washed kit in their dryer when he saw me hanging cloths way out in the back on this fence. Told me the wind would likely blow them in the field.

I asked about food, and he told me about this gas station a block away that has this little grill connected to it. Said the food was great. So I gave it a try, and it’s just crazy good. Their burger was fabulous. I have to admit that I was really leery about gas station diners, but this place was so atypical to what you’d expect. Also did this small salad bar for 2 bucks extra. Came back and have been working for the remainder of the afternoon. I’ll definitely be going back to the gas station for my supper in an hour. Then relax my aching legs and butt in the bed vegging on the Food Channel’s “Next network star.” Wow, what a life I’m living!

Would love to make Boise tomorrow, but that entails an 87 mile day. We’ll see how the weather responds to this plan. Could be a long, hard day if the weather sucks.

That’s it, late……….Pete

Day 48: On to Idaho

2011-07-30T15:21:00.000-07:00

Day #48) July 30, 2011. Snowville, UT to Burly, ID: 86 miles in 5:53 hrs.

Last night was certainly the most mundane Friday night I’ve had in ages. Now, no ill will to Snowville, UT, but honestly that was a very boring place to be overnighting in. Now to start with, I had worked for the better part of the afternoon on the computer and I was just dying for a break and a couple of beers, so I wandered back over to the Flying J. Now this Flying J is like the only real big gas stop until Burly, ID, so it was just jam packed with people – like shoulder to shoulder packed. I’m a closet agoraphobic, so this place just packed with people mulling through all the overpriced shit totally gave me the creeps. I had to get my beers and something for breakfast asap or I was going to crack. So there I was going up and down the isles, getting jostled by people doing the same thing as me. Everything was just so freaking expensive, so I really tried to be conservative at what I bought – if only for a matter of principle. So first to the beer, and to my utter amazement all they had was the big three Miller, Bud, Coors. No, check that, they did have a six of Corona for 10 bucks! Now I hate the big three, and I’m only faintly good with Corona, but at 10 bucks for a six – nope, I wasn’t about to get fleeced on that buy. Seriously, everything in the Flying J was like twice as expensive as you’d normally pay. So I did the unthinkable….I bought 2 Bud tall boys. God did that hurt! For breakfast I got a 3 dollar bag of trail mix.

So I bought the 2 tall boys (I have not drank a budwiser in decades!) walked back to the motel, with me being the only person there, and sat on a dilapidated picnic table in the sun and drank my brews while I watched life go on in little Snowville, UT. Really, if not for the freeway exit this place wouldn’t exist. So all I really saw was a parade of semis, pick-ups and tourist cars come and go to the two diners across from the motel. What a place that was, just a little dot on the map where people stop for gas, food, and maybe lodging – and that’s it. It’s just a quick-stop little place that you never even remember if you’re in a car gassing up and getting a quick bite for the road.

But to me, that was my home for the day. As I was sitting on the picnic table the temps were in the mid 90’s, and I mean it was just this real dry heat, like a baking kind of heat, what made the Snowville that much more of a Godforsaken place. Went back inside the motel room only because I was beginning to drip with sweat just sitting there on the table. So back inside I tried to just kind of surf around on my computer, but the speed was pretty slow, and it was just a pain to try to do anything. I mean hell, it took 5-10 min to download each of the pictures I’d put up on the blog. So esentually that was a wash also, and all I had left was the three TV channels. Ended up watching Judge Judy for a bit, then the news, then Seinfeld reruns, then I went to the “other” diner for dinner There I did a comparison of the chicken fried steak I’d eaten for luch at Molly’s diner. And Molly’s was the big winner. That second diner, I think it was called the Frontier, was way too expensive and the food was just mediocre compared to Molly’s. Should have gone with the sure bet. But that’s life – taking chances!

In the early evening I had such a jones for food that I cracked the trail mix and ended up eating the whole damned bag. Went to bed at 9 am, having turned on a overhead fan to kind of lull me to sleep in addition to drowning out the noise of the incoming traffic into the motel.

Got up at 4:14 am, walked over to the 24/7 Flying J for some coffee and another breakfast - due to my eating the trail mix last night. Went back to the motel and began packing and drinking coffee and eating. Now I could have left at like 5:30 am, but it was just really too bloody dark, partly because of the thick cloud cover that had moved in over night. So I waited for just a little longer till 6 for the dawn to break. Then, with reflective vest on and headlamp on, I hit the road. This morning was pretty cool, I mean goosebumps cool. But I’d rather endure 15 min of warming up than having put on the poly pro and sweating for that 15 min. So I just waited for the inevitable warm up to occur. And the road was a beautiful false flat descent, where I could just chug along at like 14-15 mph right from the gun. “Wow,” I thought, “this could be a quickie of a ride today if it’s all like this.”

And that was the case for a good 40 min of riding. Smooth sailing and all was good. Good until that false flat descent eventually turned into a false flat climb. Once I crossed over I-84 this false flat climb was just a road that was straight as an arrow, one of the straightest roads I’d encountered in the whole trip, that seemed to roll off into the horizon. To give you an example of how long and straight this road was, I’d see headlights up to the west coming at me and it would take anywhere from 8-10 min for the vehicle to pass me. I mean I could see these cars and trucks coming at me at 65+ mph and it would take that long for them to reach me. I had to back off the pedals to a 9-10 mph pace because I was just cooking the legs trying to maintain 12+. And that’s about the time I saw the sign: Burly 71 miles. Now by that time I’d already done a solid 10-12 miles, so now I was faced with 71 more miles – ooops I goofed on the calculation again! So just add another hour to the day.

Now this area I was riding through on Rt 30 W out of Snowville, it was just pure desolation. It deviated from I-84 by a long way, so I was just like out there in no-man’s land. Then I see another sign: No services for 102 miles. No that of course if if you continue into Nevada on Rt 30, but wow, I mean this is truly out there. I did get to the cut-off of Rt 30 and Rt 81, and then I saw another sign: Elko 186 miles. You’ve got some real balz to take that Rt 30 out into the badlands of UT and NV. Went right onto Rt 81 and kept doing that false flat climb, up and up and up. Must have taken me 1:20 hrs of that false flat and then I began a gradual false flat descent to the ID border. And from there my wish was granted – a fantastic false flat descent that lasted like 1:30 hrs through Southern ID. Again, it was just desolation, but this time I felt like I was making ground. Trouble was that I had still expended a ton of energy on that bloody false flat climb, so by the time the descent came I could just feel the legs running out of gas.

Could be the last several days of climbing. Could be the fact that I’m like 48 days into the ride. Could be a lot of things, but the legs were definitely feeling tired today. Tried to keep a good touch to the pedals nonetheless as the flat descent continued, and at times I was doing 20+ mph, really making up for the slow climbing portion of the ride. Passed a sign that read: Malta 25 miles, and amazingly enough I made Malta in 1:20 hrs. Malta, 50 miles and 3:25 hrs into the day was my first touch of civilization. Stopped at a little filling station for a giant fountain coke and a ham sandwitch. Talked with the cashier for a bit and found out that a big triathlon was taking place today in Burly – the Spudman triathlon.

Made the stop quick and then back on the bike ready for the final 33 miles. By this time my legs were really feeling dead, but behind me to the south the sky was really getting quite dark, and in the mts I could see stringers of rain draping down. Had to keep the pressure on the pedals and make Burly before any chance of rain, despite the forcast for a clear day. But at least the road was flat to gently rolling. Once I got to within 10 miles of Burly I saw a road closed sign that had been used for the triathlon, and then there were all the gu and gel packets smashed on the roadway. Got into town and it was just buzzing with triathletes. Most were already done with the race because I was able to ride on Rt 81 which was closed earlier in the day. I mean the whole town was just filled with car toting tri bikes.

Past a couple of “dive” dive motels on the way in on Rt 81, and I was like, hell I’ve already done that last night. Not tonight! So I kept riding into town and then took a right on the I-84 business rt to search out something a bit more palatable. Found a nice little place next to the interstate and that was that. Did Arby’s instead of Subway – Subway had like 30 hungry triathletes waiting in line right after the race and I just couldn’t wait in a line that big. Arby’s was just fine.

Back here to work and that’s another day on the road. No prognostications on tomorrow. I’m just going to take the day and do with it what I can. The weather has definitely taken a turn, and it looks like the rain could be coming into the city soon, despite the forecast.

From Spud country, I’m signing off…….Pete

Day 47: The climb of climbs

2011-07-29T15:53:00.000-07:00

Day #47) July 29, 2011. Tremonton, UT to Snowville, UT: 41 miles in 3:54 hrs.

Good thing I did this day as a “lay up”, because it would have been a total butt kicker had I tried to make Burly, ID today.

Last even I decided to go to this little Mexican restaurant up the street and give it a go. And it was just an amazing surprise – in a very good way. There were a couple folks in this little “gas station turned Mexican restaurant, and they were all speaking spanish. I took that as a very good sign. So they were out of chicken, so I ordered two beef burritos for 4 bucks each. Now she gave me some red salsa and some green salsa, and I asked which was the hotter of the two. She indicated that the green was hotter, so I asked for some extra green salsa. Got back to the motel room, ripped the bag open and it was just crazy how big these things were. I mean we’re talking as think as your wrist. And first bite was the confirmation that I had hit a homerun. Man, these burritos were just great. Somehow the strips of beef were grilled (no ground beef here) such that they were just a bit on the crisp side in places – made for some delicious food. Inside was some kind of white cheese, lettuce, refried beans and various spices. I had to wait about 2 hours before I ate the second one.

Ok, so today was supposed to be the easy day. And time-wise it was, checking in at just under 4 hours. But intensity-wise, wow, I had a climb today that will go down in the books.

Go up at 4:30 am and then just enjoyed some morning java as I watched the local news and weather out of SLC. Ate 3 big blueberry muffins from the lounge area for the complimentary breakfast, and then packed. Got on the road at 6:45 am, a bit on the late side, but what with my estimation of 35-40 miles for the day I was in no hurry. Now yesterday I’d seen this monster looking climb like miles off in the distance to the west, and I presumed that this climb was the very same Rt 102 that I was on in the city of Tremonton. So seeing that yesterday and figuring that it was going to be in my future, that made it much easier to take when I found out that it was indeed part of my route. Anyway, I pedaled off to the west on 102 passing under I-15 and then a mile or so later over the top of I-84. And the closer I got to that climb the bigger it became.

Probably took like 5-6 miles before I actually got to the base of this thing. And by that time Rt 102 had deviated off to the S and this pup just continued straight west as a small county road. I think it was listed as 11200 N St. So I shifted to the little cookie right from the get-go, and then noted the time on my cyclo computer so I could see how long this insane thing would last. Now like I said, I had to shift into the little cookie right away, so that gives you an indication of how steep this thing was. Now the first 10 min was a fairly easy spin in the second easiest gear I had. Then the thing got steeper and I had to hit the easiest gear I had – the pie plate in the back.

Then I had to start standing with out of the saddle pedaling just to get up across the switchbacks. I mean I went from like 4 mph spinning in the saddle to about 3 mph out of the saddle on the first switchback. Back in the saddle after the switchback and then into the second switchback, this one really crazy steep, and I was soon doing just 2.7 or so mph. I mean it was so steep that I couldn’t have climbed it in the saddle. Just no way! Now this thing because a challenge, and I was key to take it on, just to see if I could keep the bike upright and not have to walk. Never done in on any of my cross-country trips, and I was determined to not do it today. So this second switchback took me a good 10 min of out of the saddle climbing to get up and over such that I could sit down and pedal when it eased up a bit. By then I was 30 min into the climb, with what looked like the mother of all inclinations at the very top, this notch in the mountainside where the road cuts through. And this thing was no switchback, rather it was just a straight shot up for a half mile or so.

I spun in the saddle as long as I could into that thing and then had to go out of the saddle again. And this was just crazy. The whole time I was under 3 mph just churning away out of the saddle. There were several cars that went by in the opposite direction, and in one car these two chicks gave me the thumbs up, and in several of the other cars the people just looked at me like I was crazy. I summated in 44 min and I have to say that this was one of the toughest climbs that I’ve ever done in a cross-country ride. It was just about as gnarly as Sunwapta Pass in the Canadian Rockies, but just not as long. At the top I was just amazed at how high up I’d climbed. Now I’m not talking big altitude here, but just the severity of the pitch, and its length, that’s what was so staggering.

Took some shots at the top and then descended, and I’ll tell ya what, I really had to dbl brake with those disk brakes on the back side of this monster. It was frighteningly steep, and what’s more there were cattle crossing rungs in the descent every 400 yrds or so, so I didn’t want to biff it on one of those things. I mean I was really braking on the steep section at the start. Once the graded settled out a bit I let it rip and descended for several miles down the the jcn with Rt 83 N. And there at the bottom of this monster descent, at the 83 jcn was this expansive complex that turned out to be one of the places (or the place) where the space shuttle’s external booster rockets were made. It looked more like a giant chemical plant.

Went N on 83 and it was just flat, flat, flat for a good 4 miles. I mean what a desolate place this was – the facility, a farm or two up on 83 and then nothing but this high foothills as far as the eye can see. The final two miles on 83 was a false flat up to I-84. Now as I’d mentioned a few blogs ago, I had found that if I could only ride on about 25 miles of I-84 I could bridge Rt 102 in Tremonton and Rt 30 in Snowville. If I couldn’t ride on 84 then I’d have to spend 200-300 additional miles going WAY out of the way to get to Burly, ID. I mean it was just a matter of those 25 miles to save me 3 days of riding. So I’d called the UT Highway Patrol office in SLC a few days back and left a detailed message with one of the higher up officers inquiring about this stretch of interstate to bike on. I was gone when he returned my call, but he left a message saying that I could indeed ride on the interstate on the berm on that particular stretch. Tell you what, that totally made my life so much easier. Honestly, you can’t imagine all the studying of maps I had done to see what the alternatives were if I could not ride on that stretch of interstate.

So anyway, I got to I-84, rode up the onramp west and began my interstate ride – which was a false flat climb for about 6 miles up another mountain. Now this was a joy to do compared to the monster I’d done earlier. I was in the middle cookie and just spun along on the far right side of the berm, going over this minor rumble strips that were situated every 100 feet or so. They were a minor inconvenience compared to 3 days of additional riding had I not been given permission to ride the “state”. Traffic zooming by at like 75 mph – no big deal. This climb took a good hour plus to finally get up and then I was greeted with about a 4 mile descent, followed by another false flat climb, this one probably like 7+ miles long, followed by another descent down into Snowville.

So I have to say that today was no easy ride by any means, but I was so happy to have saved myself hundreds of miles of additional riding that I was on cloud nine anyway. Now Snowville is about 2x bigger than good old Maybell, CO. Just a Flying J gasmart, 2 small diners, a campground and this motel – Outsider’s Inn. Stopped in at the Flying J and grabbed a 44 oz fountain coke for a buck, then rode 200 ft down the road the inn. This place is small – single floor, 8 rooms and no one anywhere to be found. Then I read the signage on the door – pick an envelope out of the plastic bin next to the door. That envelope has inside it: a room key, and sign-in card. The rooms are open so you can pick a room based on the several numbered envelopes with the numbered keys inside. Once you pick the room, you keep a key, fill out the card (credit card no. or cash) – and then put the envelope in the drop box on the door. It’s like picking a camping site on the honor system for God’s sake. Amazing! A couple of the rooms had been used the night before as the beds were disheveled and the key was left on the dresser. So I found a room, #5 and was filling out the card when the proprietor arrived to clean the rooms from last night.

I complimented her on the “honors motel” and then took care of payment. Now this little place is bare bones basic, with just a TV with 3 channels, no wifi (but my air card is a go with limited speed so I may not be able to download pictures) two beds, a dresser, a bed table and a beater chair. But it totally serves it’s purpose for me, making it such that I can split up a totally long ride. Showered washed kit and then hoofed it 2 min away to Molly’s Diner. Nice little retro place that’s probably really popular with the truckers. Got the lunch special – Chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes, veggies, lunch roll, and chicken noodle soup. Homerun! Great meal. I was just packed, and the chicken noodle soup was a bowl, not some dinky cup.

Went to the park across the street and sat on a picnic bench in the shade of a shelter just taking in the vastness and the desolation of this place. Just amazing how desolate it is here. By then the temp had to be 90, and all around me were these barren, heat bleached foothills. I just sat there for 15 min wondering what the hell it takes to live in a lonely place like this. To me this place is just God forsaken, and to the locals this is home! Crazy isn’t it? Came back here and took advantage of the early day by doing bike maintenance. Fixed my front disk/rotor alignment and cleaned and lubed my drivetrain. Been working for several hour since then.

Think I’ll go to the Flying J and grab a few beers for this eve. Dinner – well let’s see….pizza at the Flying J or one of the two diners. Then time to veg with my whopping three TV channels. This ought to be some kind of Friday night! I think I’ll be surfing the net for the evening on my computer, racking up ggb on my aircard, instead of watching garbage on FOX, CBS or ABC.

Tomorrow – Idaho, yes! Two more states and I get this thing in the bag. All the best……..Pete

Day 46: Did I say easy ride?

2011-07-28T16:32:00.000-07:00

Day #46) July 28, 2011. Salt Lake City, UT to Tremonton, UT: 78 miles in 6:11 hrs.

I just love looking back at the previous day’s blog, especially the final comments on the next day’s ride. Yesterday afternoon I wrote “Well, tomorrow I’m looking at a fairly easy ride to set me up for a big ride on Friday.” Yea right. I was on the bike for an “easy” ride of 78 miles today. And it was bloody work to. More in a minute.

Late night the old gremlin got the best of me. And what with Judy’s comment to me yesterday that all I eat is Subway and chinese, I decided to try something different. So right next door was Apollo’s Burgers – local, different, and interesting sounding. So I went over to the carry out kiosk and checked out the pictures of the stuff before I walked in to order. And damn, those were some BIG burgers. Went in and ordered the Apollo Burger and the Mushroom Swiss Burger and added in some onion rings. Ok, so I got my order, walked back to the room and opened the bag – Holy Moses were those burgers big! These are dbl burgers with like pastrami, lettuce, tomato, onion and the works on them. And then the oinion rings – had to be like ¾ lb of rings.

So I got into the Apollo, and it was just crazy good. The kind of local stuff that you just keep going back to all your life. This burger made Louie’s in Akron taste amateurish. But it was just a total monster. Once I ate the rings I was totally overflowing, and couldn’t even think of eating the Mushroom Swiss. Two hrs later I did eat the second burger. So I do change things up - thank you Jude!

Got up at 4:30 am and packed, then did one of the best breakfasts at a motel yet, and then got on the road at 6:30 am. Now I’d calculated today’s ride to be about 60 miles, all in the basin and all that I thought would be just as flat as the basin ride yesterday. NOPE. Now the first 1 hr was pretty good as I negociated out of SLC and worked my way north paralleling I-15 N on probably 6-8 different roads. And I have to pat myself on the back with my choice of roads because they were pretty darned sweet. No traffic trouble, decent berms, and great road surfaces. Once I got to Framington though the road really began to hug the foothills of the mts and the climbing began. No worries though as it was just an easy 60-mile day...I thought! The terrain was super rolling with the foothill literally a quarter mile off to my right. The homes and the neighborhoods were just spectacular and totally off the charts expensive. Saw a ton of cyclists whizzing past me both south and north. I only had to stop once to check with someone on directions, a policeman from the town of Farmington, who pretty much confirmed my route choice.

I was finally able to get on Rt 89 N (it was part of I-15 for 15-20 miles) which came off of the interstate, and that’s when the climbing really began, first as a super long false flat climb, and then as two pretty intense little cookie climbs. I’d thought that the whole Ogden, SLC Provo area was all one big, flat basin. WRONG. No, they’re basins separated by highlands. And the climb up out of the SLC basin and into the Ogden basin is the toughest I had. So on this stretch a rider caught up to me (and that’s not hard believe me) and we began to talk – him asking me about my trip and me asking him about his cycling. Turns out this is Bill’s first year as a cyclist, and he’s now training to do his first 100-mile ride down in the St. George area later in the fall. He was a runner, but has been sidelined by injuries a lot, so he made the switch to cycling. He looked to be doing quite well. So Bill filled me in on the stretch I was going to ride today, saying that I had one really big, steep climb on Rt 89.

He rode with me for about 25 min and then peeled off to ride down to the Great Salt Lake, off to my left about 3 miles. Hell, at times it looked like the ocean down there. After he left I did a good descent and then looked off to the north and there it was, this rampart that just went way the hell up into the horizon. So once I descended and got to the base of that climb the wind was just gusting out of the east at like 30+ mph, really forcing me to lean into the wind to not tip over. It was coming out of this canyon, kind of a wind tunnel that was just channeling the wind like a wind tunnel. Once I hit the climb that gusting wind was totally gone. It was really unique how localized it was. So the climb was indeed steep and long, and at the top of this pup were million dollar homes tucked right up onto the foothills.

Descended into Ogden, and I was really disappointed as to the looks of this place. It was rather disheveled and run down in places. Sorry to say this but it reminded me of parts of downtown Akron, OH. Off all the places in the basin I’d ridden through, this was probably the least appealing. And what floored me was that just up the hill were those million dollar homes. I mean there were points in my riding through downtown Ogden that it just felt creepy.

Kept rolling on Rt 89 N through Harrisville and N Ogden with more rolling climbing. Next city up was Brigham City. And this was a pretty place in the downtown, but the northern periphery was again, kind of seedy. By then I had 50 miles in, and I still had a good ways to go. So much for my easy 60-mile day. I realized I’d be in it for 70-80 today. The final 20 miles of the ride were really more in the country than urban. Once out of Brigham City it was just like I was heading out into the country, with farms, ranches and miles and miles of crop and grazelands. I was also surprised at all the orchards out in this northern basin area. Went by countless produce stands similar to our Szlay’s in the Cuyahoga Valley. There were places that specialized in cherries, others in peaches, and still others in veggies. Then there were the mega stands that had everything.

By the time I turned on Rt 13 N I felt as though I was in the high plains again, with more desolation in the basin and mts seemingly on all four sides of me. This part of the ride was indeed very flat, and I could maintain 14-17 mph to help bump up my overall average. Made one stop in the town of Corinne where I got a 44 oz fountain coke. Sucked it down and finished off the last 14 miles to the city of Tremonton. Place reminds me of some of the small towns I rode through in KS, save for the mts on all four sides of the basin. So I got into the city and went to this motel that was right down the street from a Subway. And I get in and no one’s there in the office, and there’s a No Vacancy sign up. So I asked a maid there if there were rooms available. Well, she couldn’t speak English. So I thanked her and went back to the office, with her following me saying, “no rooms, no rooms, no, no.” And I was like, I’m getting the hell out of here, close to Subway or not, this is nuts!” Rode down the road about a mile and came to a nice little place where English was the language of choice and got a very nice little efficiency. Then I just broke down my gear and rode back to Subway to eat.

Got a couple of Fosters Oil cans afterwards and rode back to the motel to work. I’m telling you this is a sweet little place for 45 bucks. Got my flat screen TV on the wall, a coffee table to work on, two foo-leather easy chairs to sit in, a refrig, a microwave, and a queen sized bed. Couple that with the all important AC and life is good.

Ok so tomorrow….I’m almost scard to say it will be an easy day. I’ll call it a “set-up” day. I’m looking to do like 35-45 miles to the town of Snowville, darned near on the ID border. Have to do that because the next decent sized town is Burly, ID, and it’s a solid 80+ miles from Snowville. So rather than attempt a 120-130 mile day tomorrow and “go for the green,” I’ll shoot for the fairway and lay up for a good day on Sat. Tomorrow is the day I get on the interstate for 25 miles. So I think I’ll hazard to say tomorrow will be much less in mileage than today. I should be correct on that one. Now on the intensity? Don’t know, could be climbing hell.

I think I’m going to walk on the wild side for dinner and do this little Mexican place just up the road. But NOT save any for breakfast. That’s a big no-no after that epic ride out of Walden, CO having had pizza for breakfast, and consequently acid-reflux for 2 hrs of total hell.

Could be totally out of contact up in Snowville tomorrow, so If you don’t have a blog to read on Sat morning, it’s because I had no cell and no wifi. Which reminds me, I had 4G coverage in SLC yesterday, and damn was that nice. Only had that 3 times on this trip – DC, St. Louis and SLC. Everything else has been 3G or less.

Late……..pete

Day 45: Salt Lake State of Mind

2011-07-27T16:55:00.000-07:00

Day #45) July 27, 2011. Herber City, UT to Salt Lake City, UT: 66 miles in 5:7 hrs.

Man, my belly gremlin was just off the leash last night. I mean I was hungry from the time I got done riding to the time I went to bed. So around 7 pm I wandered over to a little chinese place and got some food – dinner and then something for the morning breakfast. Got some Shrimp Egg Foo Young for dinner, and it was just great, and got some Ham Fried Rice for breakfast. But got to tell you that it was all I could do NOT to eat that fried rice right after the egg foo young. I was even tempted to go out and get a big milk shake at Micky D’s but by God I’ve got restraint this year! Yes, I held back and went to sleep dreaming of waking up and eating that fried rice in the morning.

So I stayed up till a whopping 9 pm last nigh and slept to 5:10 this morning. Man I definitely needed that night of sleep. Slipped out to get a coffee from the gas station next door and then packed and nuked that fried rice and ate that. Got on the road at about 7am, and it felt just great to not have all that oil truck traffic to deal with. Traffic today was just the normal traffic I’d been dealing with all along. No more dbl oil tanker trucks all day long. Now the gentleman from the Strawberry Lake visitor’s center had told me that my ride from Heber City to Provo would be all downmountain. So I felt good knowing that I had no passes to climb today. He did mention that right around Jordanelle Res. that I’d have a bit of ups and downs, but generally it was all down.

Now Heber City is just completely surrounded by these beautiful mts. They’re just awesome to look at. I headed S on Rt 189 and began my descent to Provo, with this section of road called Provo Canyon Rd. As soon as I got on 189 S this monster mt range was staring me in the face, and as I got closer to the reservoir it just got bigger and bigger. Finally stopped at the reservoir and took some pics and then moved on. And true as yesterday was with respect to the gentleman’s guidance, so to was his call on the ride today – I hit some gentle climbs right around the reservoir. I have to say that doing these climbs, my legs were no where near as shredded as I thought they’d be. I mean I could feel that I’d done a lot yesterday, but they were pretty good actually. I did use the little cookie on a couple of the rollers and I did notice that when I went out f the saddle I felt it a bit in the quads. But all told, I was real happy with the way I felt today. Now my arse – that’s a different story. Damn it is sore! I mean I’m sitting on a big cushy pillow right now as I write this blog.

So I got around the rollers on the lake and then began the descent down Provo Canyon. And along the way I took some pics and kind of rode really casually. At one of the stops I pulled into a view area to take a few pics of Bridal Veil Falls, and just as I was shooting I noticed this bike & hike trail below the view area. So I was getting ready to leave and a sheriff pulled in, so I kind of flagged him down and asked about the bike trail. Amazingly enough he told me it went all the way to Provo, so I didn’t have to do the descent on 189. He directed me to go down the road a half mile and get on at a little park. Then I started picking his brain as to the best route on a bike into Salt Lake City. He pretty much agreed with what I was going to do, but did give me a little beta on a couple of different roads to go on. So he was just pulling up all these maps on his car computer and showing me each and every road to my destination. Then he wrote it all down on some note paper. I think we were there shooting the (&*%&&% for a good half hour, talking about cycling and racing and touring. Really nice guy.

Got going on the bike and hike, and man did it feel good to not to have to deal with traffic for 45 min. The trail was gorgeous, hugging this little river that was flowing off of the reservoir way up where I had started. I had several bikers giving me the thumbs up as they passed me. Made it down to Provo and let me tell you, this place is just a beautiful city, nestled right up against the mts that I’d just descended. What a sight it was riding north with those mts on my right side. I mean there are no foothills here like in Boulder CO and Fort Collins CO. In Provo the main range is really right smack dab there in your face.

Used the sheriff’s instructions and made it to Rt 89 N, and rode that pup for about 20 miles – with a wonderful southerly tailwind at my butt. So I could ride at like 14-18 mph the whole time. Damn, I just felt like riding the whole day. Now I was riding basically intercity, but the berm was just massive, or there was a designated bike lane to ride. Either way I felt perfectly comfortable in the 2 and 3 lanes of traffic. And actually, having ridden for weeks in the desolation of KS, CO, an UT, riding this urban gig really felt good and invigorating – as goofy as that might sound. So then I crossed over I-15 on this other road the sheriff had given me, and this had a huge bike lane on it. Took that to Rt 68 N and continued to Salt Lake City.

The temp out here was very reasonable, being in the 80’s and fairly dry. Now about the first 10 miles of 68 had a designated bike lane, and again, I was riding with those wonderful mts on my right the whole way. So I got up over a couple of minor climbs and then descended down into the big basin that Salt Lake City sits in. And damn, the construction and the business our here is just on fire. Most all of the developments are new, and everything really looks as if it’s been built within the last 5 or so years. Now this is the area that would be considered the southern burbs of SLC, and as I got closer to north SLC you could tell that things were older and have been around for awhile. Traffic got pretty busy the closer I got to the city, and eventually the big berm gave way to 3 lanes on each side of the road. Nonetheless, I had zero problems riding in the far right lane. Not one irate driver the whole day.

So where I was riding, that’s actually the western edge of SLC, so I never road into the downtown, but rather skirted it to the west. Started looking for a place to stay once I crossed over I-80, and right across the Interstate was a Quality Motel. Worked out just great – Subway across the street, chinese restaurant across the street, beer store across the street, price of motel very reasonable. Done. They even gave me the “guy riding across the country” discount! Real nice people in the Quality Motel, as the manager and desk clerk were really into what I was doing. So I said, after we talked for a bit, “does this mean I get the guy crossing the country on a bike discount?” And the manager replied, “heck yes you do!” And they really set me up just fine.

Did my usual post ride duties. Now I did call the UT highway patrol to ask them a question about riding on the interstate. See, there’s a route that I’m looking at but it dies out with about 25 miles of no state or county roads – BUT it can be done if you ride 25 miles on I-84. So just for shits and giggles I called and asked if it is lawfull. And be darned if one of the officers said “yes indeed you can do that. Just be careful and stay on the right hand side of the berm.” I was just blown away. But I’ve heard that this is permissible out west where sections of state and local roads die out but there’s just a piece of interstate to bridge the gap. So this will save me a boat load of mileage by not having to ride way to the NE in ID.

Well, tomorrow I’m looking at a fairly easy ride to set me up for a big ride on Friday. Friday could be like a 90-miler into Burly ID. That’s it for today. Late………Pete

Day 44: Mombo ride out of gas city hell

2011-07-26T17:16:00.000-07:00

Day #44) July 26, 2011. Roosevelt, UT to Herber City, UT: 98 miles in 8:32 hrs.

Damnit I did it! This old fart still has it in the endurance dept.

Went to bed at 8:30 pm last night knowing that I really wanted to give it a go for the big daddy ride to Herber City – nearly 100 miles away and containing a grunt of a climbing session up to 8K into the mts. Bad thing was that today in Utah was predicted to be a really wet day, what with a big line of storms moving in from the south. So I hit the hay wondering if, despite my mindset to shoot for the moon on the ride, the storms could put the kibosh on my ride either in the beginning or somewhere during the ride.

Got up at 3:30 am and immediately looked out the window to see if it was raining. It wasn’t, but it had rained sometime last night very lightly. Turned on the morning news out of Salt Lake City at 4:30 am and listened and looked intently at the Doppler map. And let me tell you it was just a mess of green, yellow and red, especially down in the south in the Canyonlands area. But up in the northeast, in Roosevelt, it was just thick cloud cover. The general forecast was that it could rain or it might not rain to the north.

That’s all I needed. I packed, knocked down a half a sub, ate 5 or 6 fig newtons and downed some motel room java. Due to the cloud cover I couldn’t get on the road until 5:45 am. It was just a bit too dark and the traffic in Roosevelt at that time – it was like the LA rush hour for God’s sake. Now I typically get on the roads that early and it’s like the dead zone. Not out here with the oil/gas boom. I’m guessing what with this boom out here, that there are crews who are working 24/7. I mean it sounded like the freeway out there at that early hour. I was just amazing. And it made me even more determined to get the hell out of this part of UT asap.

Put my reflective jacket on, turned on my headlamp and got it rolling. Double tanker trucks, single tanker trucks, a gazillion white Ford, Chevy and Dodge pick-up trucks and various other work trucks were just buzzing past me. It was just totally amazing. I actually think this is worse that the boom going on in ND. And I started playing games to pass the time, counting how many vehicles out of each ten that passed me were related to the gas industry. Did this umpteen times and the best I got was 10 out of 10 and the worst I got was 8 out of 10!. Just a steady of stream of trucks passing me. Thank God at that point I had a 3-4 foot berm – with a rumble strip.

My ride today was WAY slower from the start than yesterday’s, that because of the false flat climbing right from the gun. It was all I could do to comfortable maintain 11-12 mph. And what with 90+ potential miles ahead of me I sure as heck wasn’t going to cook myself in the first 5 hrs, while expecting the day to take somewhere around 7+ hours. Took me about 2:20 hrs to get to the town of Duchesne, that at about a 12 mph average. Now the traffic had slowed down considerable save for those damnable dbl tanker trucks moving west and east at 65 mph. Most of the site workers in their white pick-ups had already gotten to their destinations by 8 am. But even in Duchesne, the place existed because of nothing but oil related businesses. Good choice to blow that one off. I stopped at a gas convenience store to get some fuel for the long haul – a cold coke and a banana. Made it like a bloody bit stop in NASCAR and was back on the bike in like under 5 min.

And this is where the grunt began. And today’s grunt surpassed what Brad and I did getting up into the Rockies last week. So I started this false flat climb in the big ring. And then into the middle ring, and then into the little ring. It started just as I crossed over a branch of Starvation Res. And that pup climbed up for…..1:30 hrs! Honestly, an hour and a half of climbing. And it was grueling climbing not just this false flat lollygagging I’d done in KS. This was real, and this was extremely long. And the cavalcade of tanker traffic just continued uninterrupted. I’d hoped that the mess would all turn off somewhere in Duchesne, but not the tankers. They just continued to rumble up and down Rt 40 like a bunch of angry bulls. Now on the plus side, never did I have a problem with one of these trucks. They all made it a point to go over the yellow, or when it was dbl lane on the climbing, they’d move to the left lane. I’m really happy that I installed that rear view mirror. Cuz today I was looking at that way more than I was looking at what was in front of me!

Went through a water two water bottles by the time I’d gotten to the “top” of that climb. And thankfully, with the cloud cover, it was pretty cool, like in the 70’s. So I wasn’t going through water like crazy, but I was getting pretty thirsty what with all the climbing. Once I pseudo-topped out, I did this gradual descent to a little rest area with vending machines. I mean this stretch of road was just lonely, long, and hardly even populated, so seeing that little rest stop for water and food, that was a plus I hadn’t counted on. Guzzled water from the fountain until I felt like my stomach was going to burst. Then I bought a sweet and salty nut bar out of the vending machine. Refilled bottles and another quick pit-stop. Back on the bike and rolling again. Because of that 1.5 hr climb my average had fallen to like 10.8 mph from 12. And suddenly I was recalculating my eta.

Now I had two options on this ride: bag it at a mountain chalet that is over priced and way too foo-foo for my taste, or take it all the way into Heber City. I was just going to see how I felt, and see how the weather looked. Either way I was going to get in more that 80 miles today, and at 8 mph that meant that the day would be at least 8 hours long. So anyway I did a slight descent into the ….hamlet, community, whatever of Fruitland. Now this pup was smaller than Maybell. I mean it was a grocery store and about 15-20 houses/trailers and that was it. Buzzed through. I had emergency food and plenty of liquids, so I just wanted to keep the train rolling.

And that’s when the (&*%^*%#^%$ hit the fan. Right out of Fruitland the big daddy of climbs began. And this dog was a mountain climb easily equal to what I’d done in CO. It pitched up quick and suddenly I was in the little cookie doing all I could to save the legs from getting cooked. Welcome to the Uinta Mts! It was beautiful, granted, but wow, with like 50 miles in my legs already I was beginning to wonder if I’d bitten off more than I could chew for the day. I mean this thing just wouldn’t stop. The majority of it was little cookie. And I had dbl lane on my climbing side so I used the far right lane, on the white line, rather than the berm that had pretty much disappeared and turned into a foot of rumble and a foot of berm.

Started going through water again by the bottle, just taking these big guzzles on occasion that would empty a quarter of a bottle at a time. Now as I had read the road map, and I’ll have to say that it had no passes listed and no topo lines to denote elevation, it looked to me that I’d be climbing to Strawberry Res. and then climbing again to Herber City. So going into this initial climb I was really concerned that the climbing was just going to torch me. Did the mindgame stuff calculating my eta at various mph ranges, and it just continued to make the day longer and longer. I even felt some sprinkles of rain now and then which gave me a sense of urgency on getting this pup done. Tell you what this thing went on for another 1:20 min before I finally topped out at Strawberry Res. All of this high country area is part of Uinta National Forest. There were plenty of camping areas available, but they were like 5-6 miles off the main road and down along the lake to the south.

So I just kept rolling on Rt 40. So it looked as though the Res. sits in this big saddle, and getting around the thing – it’s big – had to take another 45 min of riding on flat road. And the big problem was that they were doing road work, laying a new layer of asphalt, and had the lanes restricted down to just a narrow lane on each side with orange barrels partitioning off the berm and lanes. I had NOWHERE to hide from the trucks. Now when I could I’d duck into the opposite lane to like the big daddies go by. But in one instance I just couldn’t get over there due to oncoming traffic. And I hear this horn just honking and honking away at me. And I’m thinking: “ok just where in the hell do you want me to go – into the gravel for God’s sake?” And the honking just continued all the way up to me. Now by that time I was tired, sore, hungry, thirsty, and not in a friendly mood, so I just flipped the truck off and yelled out the F-bomb. Well, turns out that the guy was warning me of the wide load, and the guy riding shotgun pointed back at the trailer. So I kind of calmed down and waved thanks for the warning.

Came around the corner of the north end of the lake and saw a Visitor’s Center for the lake so I pulled in to refill the water bottles. I swear, I went in there so parched and punch drunk. I filled the bottle three times and drank each bottle. Then I refilled the bottles and did more drinking from the fountain. Now while I was going through this “drink till ya drop” routine, there were two older gentleman in there manning the help desk and kind of talking, but also kind of checking me out. So I asked the one fellow how far it was to the foo-foo chalet, and he told me 6 miles, all up with about 400 foot more in elevation gain. Then he said something that kind of blew me away. “From there it’s all down,” he said, “it’s 24 miles all down mountain to Heber City. You’d be better off just riding down to Heber.”

Now at that point I had thought that I’d have to climb another 24 miles to Heber, seeing that the road map kind of presented it as sitting at the top of the mountains. So I told him that and he replied, “I wouldn’t lie to you there’s not one bit of up in that whole downmountain! The chalet is just below the summit on the west side, so you can just coast to Heber.” “Ok I thought, if that’s indeed the case I just might go for the whole cookie.” Because honestly, I was totally cooked by then, and I’d resigned myself to go to the chalet for dinner and lodging. That was a gamechanger. Thanked the man and on I went to finish the mountin climb. Now the fist 3 miles out of this climb was pretty good, and I could actually big ring it, but then when a sign popped up telling of dbl lane starting again, I know I was SOL. And it was indeed little cookie time. So I climbed for like five min out of the saddle and then just had to stop and pull out some emergency food - my honey stinger energy chews – which are just like the shot blocks. These were cherry, and they just tasted so good that my bloody mouth exploded. I could well have gorged on ten packs of those. It was heaven. I have to thank my bud Drew for those little goodies he’d given me back in Fort Collins.

So I got going again and eventually topped out at a bit over 8K, and just like the old timer had told me, there just over the pass with the chalet. So I decided to trust him on the descent and go for the whole deal, and ride to Heber City. Now the distance to Heber City up at the summit was listed as 17 miles. And I was hoping there’d not be one inch of gain on that whole 17 miles.

(Right now at 6 pm MST it is just black outside here in Herber City, and the big storms are already invading Salt Lake City with a deluge – I’m watching local news. So the rain has arrived, and I feel pretty thankful to have gotten this ride in on such a volatile day.)

So that descent was just a screamer. I was so tired and beaten down that I just didn’t want to stop and take pictures or put on the helmet cam. I just wanted to be done. Now I figured that for 17 miles, I’d be descending for about 40-45 min. And damn, the minutes just flew by, 10 in, 20 in, 30 in and still descending, sometimes at 35-40 mph, with that yak just pushing me down mountain like a giant hand. And as I got further down the mt the temps got warmer and warmer. Before you knew it I had been descending for 40 min and had the city of Heber City in view. Did it! And I’m pretty happy that I’d stopped at that visitor’s center to get the beta from that gentleman manning the desk.

Got a little efficiency right smack dab next to a Subway. I actually felt pretty good considering that I’d just spent 8.5 hrs in the saddle pulling a yak all over hell’s half acre. Got a bucket of ice and just started mixing ice and water in my bottle and guzzling like 4 bottles worth. Called Judy to let her know I was alive and then just went over to the Subway with my salt stained kit on and munched down on 2 footlongs. Then did a 30 minute shower and washed my kit. Next up was ice cold beer and then this blog. I’m playing hooky from work today because I’m just too damned tired. I’ll veg on TV after I finish this.

Well, that’s about it. Tomorrow I’ll head down to Provo, and ride north to Salt Lake City. Feels great to have knocked off such a big chunk of riding today. Late……..Pete

Day 43: Reoccurring nightmare

2011-07-25T16:38:00.000-07:00

Day #43) July 25, 2011. Dinosaur, CO to Roosevelt, UT: 65 miles in 5:05 hrs.

Well, forget about the easy day to Vernal. I just couldn’t do 33 miles for the day. I’m still trying to figure this route out and then line it up with places along the way, so the “noodle” to Vernal just didn’t make sense – seemed like a wasted half day. But more than anything, this whole oil-gas thing out here helped to cement my decision on this. I’m telling you, it’s a carbon copy of ND situation I experienced last year, with a boom out here that’s got the truck traffic intense and the lodging situation locked up for months on end. I just want to get the hell out of here and get up into the mts where this crazyness doesn’t exist. I’m hoping to hit Salt Lake City in like 2-3 days, and than just wouldn’t have cut it by riding 33 miles today. So anyway, I decided last night to shoot for Roosevelt, UT and break my days up into slightly bigger chunks.

So got going at 6 am this morning out of Dinosaur. Now forget the gloves and earwarmer – too warm, at about 60 degrees. I did do the poly pro top for about 5 miles and then that came off. The road out of Dinosaur, Rt 40 W, was a false flat descent from the get-go, and after 2 miles I was in UT. Now by this time the landscape really screamed UT, what with the multi-colored cliffs and the small canyons. I had a very slight tailwind out of the SE, and what with the false flat descent was able to hit the big ring and just cruise. By 7 am the freaking oil/gas truck traffic really began to pick up. Honestly, I felt as though I was back in ND what with all the traffic. It was amazingly and hauntingly similar. I had anywhere from a 3 foot to 4 foot berm to ride so I felt ok in that dept. But God, it was just a pain in the ass with all that traffic.

That false flat descent pretty much went for 18 miles all the way to Jensen, UT. Then it got just the opposite – a false flat climb – for the next 15 miles to Vernal. It was unrelenting and tough, especially when the big trucks were coming from the opposite direction and their “tornado” winds would just slam into me causing my speed to drop by 1-2 mph. I pretty much had to do that 15 miles all in the middle ring. Got into Vernal at like 9 am, and it was game on to just blow through there and keep moving west. The whole city for gosh’s sake is just booming from anything that has to do with drilling out here. Trucks, trucks, and more trucks. Welding, piping, brine hauling, electrical, you name it and it’s in Vernal. To me this was the reoccurrence of a nightmare!

The next 30 miles into Roosevelt were pretty much a mix of false flat and false descending. Pretty much the same topography of the red, orange, pink and white colored cliffs and small canyons. Really pretty scenery. So I actually really blasted into Roosevelt in some great time, like at 13.9 mph, and I was thinking ever so slightly about taking it another 28 miles to the town of Dushesne, but by this time it was 11 am and the heat was really beginning to crank. Had to be about 88 degrees by the time I got there, so I decided to go with the plan and bag it in Roosevelt. So I kind of rode through town scoping out the lodging situations, and honestly there just wasn’t’ a lot. Went to one place and the lady wanted 94 bucks – yes 94 bucks. And do you know why? Because all the gas industry out here has inflated everything.

Too much, so I went to another little place. Now this one was definitely off the charts with respect to creepy. I pulled in and the husband and wife were cleaning the rooms from the previous night. So I inquired about rooms and the guys says that they only have one room on the first floor (I need 1^st floor due to all my gear), but I might want to see it first. And like he really encouraged me to look at it first. So I went with him into the room. My God! It looked like a crack den – not that I’ve seen those before. The carpet was sickeningly dirty. No wifi, no cable, no AC, and the bathroom – it looked like a bathroom of a grimy service station! There was actually mold on the bathroom ceiling. The guy tells me he they wanted 50 bucks for the room. Told him I’d do 40 bucks out the door but I really didn’t even like that. Dude said no and actually I was relieved that he did. This place was the dump of dumps. And it was totally booked save for the room he was trying to pawn off on me – courtesy of the oil boom! Went back down the road to an Americans Best Value Inn and got a very nice little room for a bit more than I wanted to pay. But shit, I have to work 4 hrs/day and I need internet and phone. This pace had frig, mirowave, wifi and AC to boot. So done deal.

Now I talked to the guy here who runs the place and he told me that the various companies involved in the oil boom out here book rooms for months in advance. He tries to keep 6 – get that 6 – rooms each day for walk-in tourists. So come like 3-4 O’clock in the afternoon – No Vacancy! That little conversation pretty much convinced me to try to put in a big day tomorrow so as to get the hell out of this place – the traffic the dust, the inflated prices, the TRUCKS! Got to shoot for the mts tomorrow to leave this mess. So I got situated and then took all the gear off the bike and rode straight away up to a Subway I’d seen earlier when I was scoping out the city. Went in and did a meatball sub and got two more footlongs to go, one for tonight’s dinner and one for tomorrow’s breakfast. Then rode back here to work for the rest of the afternoon.

So I’m going to hit the hay early and then shoot for a 5:30 am start such that I can put in a big day and get close to, or into the mts of the Uinta Range, up near Herber, UT. If I don’t make Herber, I could be staying in a little cabin type place up close to the mts, and I may not have wifi or cell service, so you may not hear from me for a day.

Wish me luck………Pete

Day 42: 15 climbs

2011-07-24T15:42:00.000-07:00

Day #42) July 24, 2011. Maybell, CO to Dinosaur, CO: 60 miles in 5:08 hrs.

Last night watched stage 20 of the TDF. And like I always say: You have to be able to TT if you want to win big stages races. Congrats to the Aussie who just destroyed the climbers in GC. Ok, that’s it for my TDF analysis. I had a Fosters Oil Can stashed in my yak – for emergencies of course, and I’d call watching that stage 20 a definite situation to pop the tab on old Mr. Fosters. Then Woody and I BS’ed for a bit and he led me into the kitchen to have the run of the regrig. It was the mother of all refrigerators, just stuffed to the gills, whereupon he told to take whatever I wanted. I ended up picking out some steak he’d just grilled that evening and it was spot on super. Hell, I could have just sat there and sampled all sorts of stuff, but I wanted to at least appear courteous – not a walking garbage gut! So I had about 8 pieces of grilled rib-eye steak.

Woke at about 5 am, and went to work immediately on answering emails, and then packing gear upstairs to then move to my bike and yak downstairs. Woody had set the coffee machine for 5:30 am, so I scarfed down a box of Sweet & Salty bars in my room, then moved all the gear downstairs and had a cup of great tasting java. I was the only soul up at that time, and tried to be as quiet as possible as I loaded all the gear on bike and yak. Watched a quick bit of morning news and then wrote Woody and his wife a thank-you note on a napkin. Then it was out the door and on the road at 6:15 am. Funny, the more I work my way west the sooner dawn is coming. This morning it was light out at 5:30 am. Good to know in case I have to pull a super early ride in the future.

So Woody had given me the lowdown on my ride today – HILLS! Heck, I’ve been riding for 6 weeks now and that’s been the operative word for almost the whole trip, no matter where I’m at there are climbs – climbs in WV, VA, IL, MO, KS, CO. The plains on this route – climbing! Not at all like the pooltable flatness of Saskatchewan and Alberta. Nope. Now those Great Plain provinces are truly flat. The route I’m doing now, NOT flat. Now I’m not complaining, but let me tell you, this being my third Trans-American crossing, I’ve done way more climbing than the other two combined! And I don’t figure things to go any different in UT and ID and OR. Just going to have to get used to not banging out these 80-90 mile days. I mean 50-70 with the heat and climbing and I’m just cooked by 11 am.

So getting back to the route today, Rt 40 W, and Woody had told me that I’d have 14-15 climbs on the way to Dinosaur. With that said, when I got ready this morning I already had the mindset to climb the better part of the ride. Got on the road amidst a cloudless, beautiful 49-degree morning, and right from the gun a had a bloody wall to climb on the way out of Maybell. This pup was like middle ring to little ring within 10 min. And then it took another 10-15 min to get to the top in the little cookie. So you get to the top and look to the west and the road just looks like a sine wave rolling off into the horizon. Once I topped out I could feel the sweat in my gloves, my earwarmer, and under my poly pro top. But I wasn’t about to take those off and totally chill out on the descent. So I just had to put up with the sweating, even with the cold temps.

The other piece of beta that Woody had given me was the fact that I’d likely be doing 57-60 miles of just pure desolation. There was only really one place along this stretch of road that may have a little diner, but this being Sunday Woody figured that it was closed today. So I needed to be sure to have enough water and food to get me through the whole ride. Made sure to have a couple of energy bars and 4 bottles of liquid.

So I got over that first climb and descended, did a minor whoop’tee in the middle and then climbed again. And it continued like this ad infinitum. Some of the climbs were just total killers, like little cookie and up to 20-25 min long, while others were gradual middle cookie climbs that were 10-15 min long. Then there were the little whoop-tee’s in the middle of these things that I could do in the big ring. So I was certainly giving my front derailleur a good workout. Now I think expecting today to be a bitch was kind of good, because I was just content to do my best to not kill myself as I had yesterday riding like a bat out of hell. And let me tell you, I bloody well counted each and every climb just to see if Woody know that the hell he was talking about. He’s not a rider and climbs in a car sometimes just don’t equate to climbs on a bike. In a car you just might not even notice. On a bike you notice everything, especially when you’re dragging a trailer up and over every inch of roadway.

The landscape was changing more today than in the previous several days in CO. Today I was noticing more of the stark, desolate and blank hills and mesas, and the small canyons and draws type of topography, very similar to the topography we envision when we think of UT. This was like desolation at it’s best.

Now a couple of times I’d get a stretch of several miles where I could big ring it and just cruise, but inevitably I’d come to a big descent – and I mean BIG – that would lead right back down into the base of another climb. Now somehow, someway I was maintaining like 11-12 mph for an average. Had to be the zipping down those descents at like 35 mph because my speed going up the climbs sometimes dipped to like 4-5 mph. I’m telling you they were freaking roller coasters. A couple of the climbs were just so big that I couldn’t even see the end. They’d just curve and stretch off into the horizon. And I’d watch cars to kind of try to see just where the climb was going, and most of the time the cars would just disappear. I timed one of these monsters and it took 27 min to climb!

By the time I’d gotten to about 34 miles into the ride I could really feel the climbing. It was just non-stop, relentless, and grueling. Now I’m not trying to be a Debbie Downer, because there was definitely a plus side to the day….great, fantastic weather and temp, amazing scenery, very low traffic levels, and finally, I was riding a bike through NW Colorado. Riding a bike = wonderful day, no matter how hard the terrain. And this morning riding gig that I’ve kind of stumbled into since last year’s ride, I just love it. Riding in the morning is usually otherworldly for a good hr out of the day. It’s cool, refreshing, and the morning light just does wonderful things to the landscapes. It’s a true kick in the ass to get on the road early and finish early before the sun just starts to cook the landscape like a pan on a griddle.

With 20 miles to go the steep climbing kind of gave way to these long, gradual guys that would go for miles. I could do several of them in the big cookie, but man, they’d just keep stair stepping up and up and up. Now Woody was right on the diner, that pup wasn’t even in what I’d call a hamlet. It was just this little place out in the middle of nowhere, and it was closed. No worries though, as I had plenty of liquids on board. By then I was starting to feel the heat of the day, round about 10 am. Went through 2 bottles by then and felt good that I’d have enough to make Dinosaur. And I’ll tell you, there was pretty much zero initiative in my head by then to go on to Vernal, UT, 33 miles W of Dinosaur.

When I saw Dinosaur in the horizon, wow it looked like NYC compared to Maybell. I mean there were a bunch of buildings, this despite the fact that the population is…….300! That’s how small Maybell was! So I rolled into town and saw two little motel/efficiencies – the one even had this carry-out cabin/kiosk for chinese food. They both still had a bunch of cars in their lots despite it being 11 am which kind of worried me. So I went straight over to a store/gas station for hydration to see if maybe it was still a bit too early. Got this 22 oz blue “slurppy” which I nearly guzzled and then went back in for a 22 oz fountain coke. Next stop was the CO visitor’s center, since Dinosaur is just 1-2 miles E over the UT line. Got a free UT map and inquired about the section to Vernal, with the folks telling me it was pretty good, with negligible climbing. And oh yea, there were exactly 15 big climbs. Woody was right on.

Then it was time to check out the efficiencies. The one was full for the night with oil/gas workers – which is big business out here. I damned near turned right out of the little gravel driveway and headed off to Vernal, with sore, dead legs and all, but I figured I’d give the other place a try just for the hell of it. I mean by then it was nearly 90 degrees and cooking. Turns out the lady had just one room available. Turns out this is kind of a boom area just as I’d found out in ND. Many of the workers just book out rooms for weeks on end. She told me it would be about 30 min before I could go in, so what did I do? I went to the chinese carry-out, which the lady and her husband also owned. I mean it’s right next to the motel. Got a lunchen special of Mongolian Beef with egg roll, rice and soup – 6 bucks! This stuff was awesome. So I sat under a little tent top and ate lunch while they readied my room. This is dinner for sure!

Once in the room did cell and wifi check – good to moderate - answered emails, and then the shower/kit wash thing. Ever just taken your cloths into the shower with you? I do it damned near every day. I soak the kit at the bottom of the tub/shower, pour shampoo on it, and then squeeze wash and clean. Then it’s onto the outside for sun drying on chairs, windowsills, fences, grass, damned near anywhere. Often I ask the owners of the establishments if there’s a place where they prefer me to hang my raunchy cycling cloths. Nine times out of ten they don’t care where I hang the stuff.

Next up micro brew! The selection of the day is Black Butte Porter from the Deschutes Brewery of Bend, OR. Great stuff! Been working here for a while just nursing my brews and pecking away at the computer and listening to either the TWC or the Cooking channel. No Versus here so I can’t watch the final stage of the TDF.

According to my UT map, I’m going to stay with Rt 40 W for a bit longer, maybe all the way to Salt Lake City. I’ll try to get some beta from the locals after I get west of Vernal. Tomorrow I’m thinking very seriously of just doing a noodle day to Vernal, and that sets me up for about 3 60-70 mile rides in a row. That because I’ll be climbing across more mts once I get west of Duchesne, UT. So just doing a little 33-miler to Vernal, I’m in a good spot to time out the next 4-5 days through UT, as I then head N into ID. We’ll see. Somehow I always seem to get some good beta from folks to kind of make the route become crystal clear.

That’s it for today. Right now it’s just a scorching dry heat outside. It almost looks like desert to the west in UT, so my early start strategy will remain as is. Until tomorrow……..Pete

Day 41: High Plains Drifter

2011-07-23T15:49:00.000-07:00

Day #41) July 23, 2011. Steamboat Springs, CO to Maybell, CO: 72 miles in 5:04 hrs.

Wow, my legs are just dead, dead, dead.

Well, I got up this morning and kind of did a recon of the map again, and figured that I just might want to try to make it past Craig if the weather was good today. So I had that planted in my mind after I’d decided last night to just go for a 42-miler to Craig. Figured that I’d just see how the ride goes, the time, and the legs. If I was good to go then I was going to make the next segment and shoot over to Maybell. The people at the motel last night had given me some yogurt and fruit for this morning since I was leaving way before their complimentary breakfast – pretty nice of them. So had some motel room coffee and yogurt, cherries and grapes. Then got on the road at around 6:30 am, with the temp at 46 degrees. Yes, 46! This time though I was ready with my gloves and earwamer to add to the long sleeved top and vest. Pedaled out of Steamboat into a just completely clear morning. Not a cloud in the sky and the wind was dead calm. The first 10 miles of road were flat as could be, and I was instantly in the big ring and just humming along at 15-17 mph.

Then I hit just a few whoop-tee’s as I got along the Yampa River, but I was still able to stay in the big ring. Within an hour the wind kind of picked up, but to my delight it was out of the NE, which brought my speed up even more. This was a great section of highway and terrain, with a solid shoulder and some really cool bluffs up along the river. Before long I was just screaming down the road at 17+ mph. And believe you me I was putting some definite pressure on those puppies to get the job done today. By then I was dead set on making Maybell today, come hell or high water – or should I say: come a change in the wind direction or heat and hills. I mean it was just silly at some point the speed I was carrying, like 20 mph, and I laughed out loud at time in disbelief.

I’d estimated last night that I’d be able to make Craig, 42 miles from Steamboat, in like 3 hrs if the terrain and wind conditions were really good – 3.5 hrs if things were slow. But like 1.5 hrs into the ride today I found that I’d be blowing that 3 hour number away. I mean I never shifted out of the big ring – doing all the climbing in the biggie. Now this segment was just desolate, and I figure that this is my future for the next week at least, going through these little specks of towns with zero amenities, and then every 30 or 50 miles hit a town or city with amenities. Such was the case today.

About 8 miles outside of Craig I removed my gloves, earwarms, poly pro and vest. Hell, my base layer was just dripping wet, not from humidity or anything, but just from riding so darned hard. By the time I made Craig that soaking wet base layer was totally dry. TG for the arid climate. Made Craig in 2.5 freaking hours, by 9 am. And at that point it was a complete game on to Maybell. Hell, maybe even Dinosaure which is even further up the road. Yup the greed thing kind of got me with all the speed and furry of the first segment. Didn’t even stop in Craig what with Maybell being just another 31 miles down the road. Now Craig was a pretty big place, with a ton of motels and eateries, and I’m sure great cell and wifi service. But I was willing to take a chance on getting a bit further down the road for the day. In the back of my mind I was kind of wondering if Maybell was going to be as far flung as the cabins that Brad and I had up in the mts, but I couldn’t stop cycling at 9 am, so onward. Well, I got to the western edge of the city and looked off into the distance and saw this massive, monster, giant of a climb, a bloody wall looming off to the west on highway 40. THAT was my future.

Time to suck it up! And I kind of thought that my second segment was not going to be so blazing as the first. Could very well be a ton of climbing if the road did not follow the Yampa River. So I get to the initial part of the climb, the approach, and shift into the middle cookie. At that point I really thought that it might have looked pretty bad from a distance but once I get right up on it, it wouldn’t be that bad. It WAS bad! Hello little cookie. And I was just working like hell on this thing, in and out of the saddle every couple of min. It was a total grunt. And as I was climbing it I had to believe that I’d be doing a good deal of climbing to come – could very well be that that pup would be the welcome climb to the rest of the day!

And wouldn’t you know it, got to the top and there was another, and another, and another, like a rollercoaster, going off into the distance. Ok, from a 15 mph average to a 10 in one fell swoop! After the third little cookie climb my legs were really beginning to feel the effort, having just mashed the pedals for 42 miles from Steamboat to Craig. And again, this was a very remote, lonely stretch of road, with nothing but high plains on all sides. Now how about we add one more twist to the mix…the wind changed direction and began to blow out of the west. That wind and hill scenario continued for about 10 miles, just putting the hurt on my quads.

After that hour the terrain transformed into a flatter, almost false descent kind of landscape with negligible climbing, but still with that slight W headwind. It was a TG moment for sure, but the damage was done, the legs by that time were just feeling dead. And let me tell you, by then there were absolutely NO thoughts about going even further to the town of Dinosaur. Nope, greed had been replaced by “I just want to get this done.” I was on autopilot, and made an effort not to look at any mileage signs or anything just so I wouldn’t have to play mindgames with myself. Now from a riding standpoint, it was a really great ride what with the miles and miles of desolation and the wonderfuls temp and blue sky. And even the traffic in this section was just so light that I could go for 10 min without anything passing me.

But man, when you’re in the hurt locker, every 10 min just seems to feel like forever. Really began to start cranking on my waterbottles. I mean like guzzling them. The heat had begun to crank up a bit, probably by then it was the low 80’s. But still, it was a dry heat, so I was good there.

The road just wound around all these high points, keeping me guessing as to exactly which way I was going. Sometimes it would be in a southerly trend, sometimes due west. But it was winding around down along all these little dry drainage runs and draws such that I just didn’t have a clue as to what was going on. And worse yet, I was always looking for that next big climb right around the corner. So I finally looked at my watch and saw that I should be within 20 min of Maybell, having really picked up the pace after all the climbing. But off in the distance I just couldn’t see any semblance of a town or city. It was just blank landscape. Maybell did indeed come after that twenty min, and it was kind of a shocker, having passed up the city of Craig. I mean from about a mile out Maybell just looked like it was a ranch in the distance – several buildings on the horizon.

Once I got there…it was! This place is capital S for small. There are two motels, a grocery, a diner, and a campground. That’s it. You could ride through it in just over a minute! But I was done and this was home for the rest of the day. Now I checked out the motels, the one looking like a true rat trap, and the other actually looking more like a B&B. Ok, so rat trap or B&B. Had to do it, so I rolled over to the B&B looking one. The other was just way too gnarly looking. What’s more I hadn’t seen a cell tower for that whole 31 miles and there certainly wasn’t in here, so I realized that my only hope with be wifi – and the rat trap didn’t look like they even had electricity. So I knocked and the lady invited me in to what they call a hotel. It’s really a big ranch house with like 8-10 rooms so it’s not really the kind of B&B that gives me the creeps.

Actually it’s a nice little place with very reasonable rates, not those crazy B&B rates. No frills rooms for sure and I don’t have a TV upstairs. There are 2 TV’s downstairs that are satellite – and they have versus so I can watch the second to the last stage of the TDF tonight. Hey, this wasn’t exactly what I go for, but it’s a very clean, neat environment, with some really friendly folks who run it and they have wifi. I’m in! So my cell is a no-go, but the wifi is maginal - it’s not blazing fast but it does the job. Unfortunately I cannot do skype with their wifi. Don’t know why. As you can see that’s my MO when I get to a place….test the cell and wifi signals and strength. That pretty much sets me up the rest of my day.

Showered and washed the kit and then off to the only eatery in town about 200 meters away. They have breakfast all day so I ordered this Chicken fried steak with hashbrowns, toast and two eggs. It was sensational. I mean the piece of steak that I was given, damn it was almost as big as the plate! No need for extras with this meal. I was just packed when I walked out. Next up the grocery for a beer. Ended up getting a six of Miller Genuine Draft – hey gang it was that or Coors Light, or a couple of other rancid choices. Back to the hotel where I sat on the porch with Woody, the owner, and shared several beers with him while he kind of filled me in on this area and how he came to own the hotel. Super nice guy, and it was fun to just chill out completely and have a beer on the shaded porch with Woody as the temps climbed into the low 90’s. We went through all but one beer sitting there jawing. Then he asks me if I like rocks, and I’m like “yea, I have a degree in geology.” So he shows me petrified trees, dinosaur bones and skin, geodes, hot spring mineral deposits, quartz crystals, and then some Indian artifacts. The guy has a small fortune in this stuff.

Woody inherited this place from his folks, and he’s put a ton of time and money into restoring it. It has a western theme, but not in a gaudy kind of way. It’s tasteful and interesting. Now mainly this is a hunter’s hotel, because in the Oct-Jan hunting season Woody tells me they pack em in here like 20 or more at a time. Elk of course in the big game that draws people out here. In the summer he tells me it’s pretty quiet but for the cyclists who come though here. This is a very good route for getting through CO, and I’m not the only one who’s on to it. Right now it’s just me and an older couple of ladies who are staying tonight. So it’s just totally mellow down here in the den.

Right across the street is a campground that costs 25 bucks a night….are you kidding me? Twenty-five bucks to put your tent out in the blazing sun all day? Nope, for 25 more you can do this hotel, and I’m telling you, that sun right now is just blistering at 4:30 pm MST. So anyway, I’m sitting here in the den working and enjoying the large ceiling fans that are keeping the place nice and cool.

Tomorrow I’m going to do Dinosaur, which Woody tells me is a LOT of climbing and 50+ miles away. God am I glad I didn’t buzz through Maybell and shoot for Dinosaur today. I’d be one suffering soul out there right now. Vernal UT is like 90+ miles away, and I highly doubt if I’ll shoot for that what with the hills, and the potential for wind and heat. More than likely I’ve got to do some of these sections in smaller bites. Now if the stars line up perfectly tomorrow, then I may give Vernal a shot. But I highly doubt it what with the butt kicking I got today on those hills.

Too much rambling already. Talk to you tomorrow. PS..I’ll try to put up pictures, but if they’re not there, you know that this wifi just doesn’t have the punch to it that I need to download pics…………Pete

Day 40: Now I know why they call it Rabbit Ears Pass

2011-07-22T17:35:00.000-07:00

Day #40) July 22, 2011. Walden, CO to Steamboat Springs, CO: 58 miles in 5:02 hrs.

Hit the local pizza shop in Walden last eve for dinner, figuring that with the large pie, I could kill two birds with one stone and have za for dinner and for breakfast. The pizza was really quite good and extremely filling – coupled with a couple of Nut Brown Ales! Hit the hay at a recreational 10 pm with the expectation to be on the road at 6 am the next morning.

Woke at 4 am, feeling really groggy and tired from yesterday’s slog up Cameron Pass. No motel coffee maker, and nothing open for a hot cup of java, so I was jonesing in that dept. Got all the gear packed and then miro waved the 3 slices of za in the refrig. And wow, it was tough from the get-go getting pizza down at 5 am. Matter of fact the last slice felt as if I was choking down a doughball in a pizza eating contest. But I knew that there was really zero between Walden and Steamboat Springs in the way of places to get liquids and food, so I just had to pack it in for the long haul. Same for the liquids, where I filled up 3 bottles with water and carried the Gatorade that Dave had given me yesterday. With the way I consume food and drink on the road I figured that I had plenty to get me to my destination. What’s more I had one emergency Cliff bar and some Honey Stingers that Drew had given me.

Now there was no AC in the motel last night, but they did have a little fan that I’d set up at the foot of the bad last night to keep me cool. But as usual in the mts, once early morning arrived it was pretty cold outside. So I shut the fan down early in the morn. But when I closed the little window in the room this morning, I noted that it was really cold outside, like about high 40’s to low 50’s. This was going to be a very cold ride to get going at 6 am seeing that Walden is at 8099 ft in elevation. Put on my long sleeve polypro top and my vest. I put my headband around my ears and just went with skin on my legs and hands. Got outside in the early dawn, and damn – cold, cold, cold. Really cold! I mean it kind of was cold enough to tense me up muscle wise. Right from the start I realized that I should have taken some gloves out of my front pannier. But once on the road I just hate to stop and dig through gear, so I figured I had to suck it up and just clench my hands into fists and to blow warm breath on them every so often.

The first stretch of riding on Rt 14 W, 33 miles of nowhere land to the 9400 foot Rabbit Ears Pass, was a grinder of false flat and whoop tees. And from the gun, once I descended out of Walden and began the climbing, my stomach was rebelling in a big way with the za breakfast. It was like this monumental case of acid reflux that I felt all the way from my esophagus to my stomach. It was pure misery – and the thing was that I know better. And damned if I didn’t go ahead and do za for breakfast before a ride where I’d be putting in hard climbing efforts from the start. That was just pure stupid and thoughtless. Add to that the fact that from the prior two days of mt climbing my shoulders, my low back and my legs were just torched. On the plus side was the fact that the morning was cloudless and just staggeringly beautiful. To the west there was an alpine glow on the far mt range and all the landscape in front of me had this faint pink glow to it. Quite remarkable to ride through!

My hands were pretty much beet red from the cold, and I was switching out clenched fists and blowing on hands every few minutes. Legs felt good and feet felt good. Ears were moderately shielded from the cold by the headband. Now on one stretch of false flat I could hear coyotes barking of to the north, really raising heck out there on the high plateau. And that’s pretty much what I was riding through, this massive high plateau that was nearly surrounded on all four sides by mt ranges. It was either BLM (Bureau of Land Management) or ranchland. But it was a sprawling swath of endless flatlands – well, not exactly flat! I was having a beautiful ride on the one hand, and a horrible case of acid reflux and dead, concrete legs on the other. Even right in the middle of my shoulder blades, I was sore there. So it was like ecstasy and misery at the same time. Tried to just focus on the awesome ride and not on the rebelling body.

In the first few hours of the ride the air was calm, but around 8 am the wind just kicked up to a gnarly level, and fast. It seemed to be out of the SW, and at times it was a dead-on headwind that just took my physical ailments up a notch. Those were the times when I’d look down at my odometer and see that I was just working big time to maintain like 8-9 mph. On the whoop tee’s I was relegated to doing 4-6 mph, out of the saddle just swerving around on the berm trying to keep a rhythm. It was pretty bad strength wise. And it was there that I realized that my “easy” pass for the day was going to be a total *^&$^@%^@ of a climb. Because if I was suffering on the little stuff, how would I feel on the actual pass when the road usually pitches up sharply? No easy day today that was for sure.

Figured that that 33-mile stretch was going to take me around 3:15-3:30 hrs to do, and after fighting my way up false flats and whoop tee’s and against a headwind, I did indeed cover that stretch of high plains in three and a half hours. Got to the Rt 40 W jcn at 9:30 am, and by then I had been relegated to using the little cookie a ton. Just had nothing in the legs. So at the jcn of 14 & 40, that was along the Continental Divide, at an elevation of 8772 feet and called Muddy Pass. That meant that I had another 700 plus feet of elevation to gain to get to Rabbit Ears Pass. Ouch! So I made the right onto 40 W and continued up a false flat – just spinning away in the little cookie. Came to one section where I thought I may have hit the next pass, but when I looked to the right and saw that the road just pitched up sharply on a switchback I knew that my little sufferfest was to continue for a bit more.

Did the switchback and then started up this long, like 2-mile rampart of about 5 or so %. Just dropped into my easiest gear and spun up, slowly and gradually. Finally made the Rabbit Ears Pass, and it was in no way as beautiful as yesterday’s Cameron Pass. Basically it was just a saddle in the mt. I was relieved to get over, thinking that I’d have a blaster down mt for a good 6-10 miles. But that was a pipedream. What it was was this long slog across the mt where the road just undulated up and down with plenty more climbing. I’d loose a hundred feet or so in a descent and then gain 50-70 of it back in a whoop tee climb. It was just crushing my legs. Ok, so on the bright side….cloudless, cool sunny day; beautiful alpine meadows surrounding me; and I was riding in the mts of CO! It all equaled out!

So I must have done like 3-5 of these whoop tee’s on the mt top and then I see a sign that reads: West Summit Rabbit Ears Pass 2 miles.” You mean there’s two passes? Yes indeed. So up again to the second pass in the little cookie. I probably spent like 45 min up on that mt top struggling to keep the pedals moving. Finally got to the second pass and that’s where I saw signs for trucks to check their brakes. Relief! Then another sign detailing a runaway truck ramp five miles down on the west side. That descent was going to be a screamer – and just what I’d been craving all that time. Turned on my helmet cam and began the descent, a beauty of a down mt of 7 total miles. It was one of those descents where you could let if fly for stretches and not worry about technical stuff (hard switchbacks etc.) – except for a patch of gravel across the road where there was damage. That section forced me to brake down to about 10 mph so as to not biff it in the gravel. Had I gone over it at the 35 mph I was maintaining, I’d likely have blown it in those 30-40 feet of thick gravel. It was pretty dicey. Got it going again and just totally enjoyed the amount of ele. I was loosing. That descent was just stellar, and off to my left I could see WAY the hell off the road down onto the high plains. Had to be a drop of 1000 ft down to the plains.

That descent took about 15 min to do, covering over 7 miles. For the last mile I could see the city of Steamboat Springs off in the distance. Once down, the road still descended in a false descent. Had to remove my poly pro and vest at the bottom because the temp had gone up at least 25 degrees. I mean it was hot down there. From there I had 4 more miles to get into downtown Steamboat. Felt pretty good to have all the climbing for today and really just softpedal all the way to Steamboat. Got a little motel in the downtown district, watched the TDF on TV as I removed gear and checked phone and email.

Once the TDF was over and after the shower and kt wash I headed down the sidewalks for some lunch. Now this is a pretty high end tourist town for sure, but it does have some real character. I can dismiss all the shit shops and tourista hangouts. There’s some great bike and gear places, and the choices of food is just staggering. Now you’ll think I’m crazy, but I had a taste for chinese, and that was just a block away. I figure that today I’m going to graze and try out a number of places with small meals. Did a little lunchen special at the chinese place and then got a gourmet cookie to go and then a red-eye coffee from a local java shop to bring back to the motel to drink while I work.

So this eve I went out for dinner and just did a splurge for the first time, going to this steak house on Main St and getting like a 20 oz Porterhouse. Just had to have some CO beef while I was here, and this place was just too tempting. Now at this place they let you pick out the cut of meat in a glassed in refrig, and then you take it over to a big grill to do yourself – with their tutelage of course on cook times and searing techniques. Did a wonderful salad bar, had a microbrew and then cooked my steak. Now I was just a tad worried about (&*^%$&^$ up an expensive cut of meat, but it turned out just fabulous. They kind of come around and check on you to make sure you don’t biff your beef!

Walked out of there just sporting this massive Buda belly. That about does it for today. There’s an outdoor concert down by the river, but I’m just too much of a party pooper to spend more time on my feet today. I’m pretty gassed from climbing mts for three days in a row. So in all likelihood I’ll be cashed out on the bed doing a bit of veging. Tomorrow is a short day to the city of Craig, and then I’ll shoot for Dinosaur for Sunday. That should put me in Utah on Monday.

Late…….Pete

Day 39: Cameron Pass

2011-07-21T16:19:00.000-07:00

Day #39) July 21, 2011. West of Rustic, CO to Walden, CO: 45 miles in 4:05 hrs

It’s just amazing how “wired” into society the cell phone and computer with it’s wifi makes you. I mean just one day away from those, and both and friends and family wonder if your dead or alive. And even me, I was in kind of a state of “loneliness” not being able to communicate last evening. But you know what? It was really kind of cool. I mean with just the radio and some REALLY bad stations we had a pretty neat time up at the Sportsman’s Lodge BS’ing for a couple of hours. And let me tell you – that is NO lodge. It’s a collection of rustic cabins. But anyway, so Brad and I just shot the (&%*$^ for a couple of hours. Kind of different isn’t it, just talking with people instead of watching TV or surfing the net and veging out?

Our dinner last eve was two packages of Johnsonville brauts, one just plain old beef and the other beef & cheese. Used the gas grill out by the store to cook them up and then Brad and I buzzed through them like a couple of starving dogs. Couple that with a couple of Newcastle brown ales and some Frito corn chips and that was din-din. Not exactly a gourmet dinner, and certainly not high on the nutritional scale, but it did the trick. I hiked a quarter mile up the road to a payphone to let Judy know that I was alive, and then came back to pack it in for the night. We hit the hay around 9 pm because we were in a canyon, and it gets dark pretty fast in there. And wow, did it cool off fast when the sun set! I started the night with just a sheet for a bed cover, but several hours later I woke up and had to pull the whole dag-gone 3 layers of covers over me.

Now we had planned to get going at about 6 am again as we had the previous morning. But wow, it was really cold this morning up in the mts, so at 5 am, Brad and I decided to just stay in our beds and let it heat up a bit. I mean it was a leg warmer/arm warmer/polypro top kind of morning. So we finally get up at about 6 am, and it was still cold. I had to pull out my fleece – the one I’d been lugging around for 2400 miles! I gave Brad one of my long sleeved poly pro tops and we attempted to get ready. I had a couple of muffins and 3 pieces of salami for breakfast, that and some Frito chips. Brad – dude had a cold braut wrap with two brauts in a burrito skin and slathered with mustard. Ouch!! We washed it down with some pretty weak coffee from the office and then we were ready to roll.

Got going just before 7:30 am, and this was one of the latest starts I’ve had in nearly a month. But damn, those temps were just perfect to ride in. Problem was that once we got on the road and looked up to the west, out towards the pass we were going to climb – it was dark and grey – and Brad, the mountain guy, kind of shook his head. Seeing that dark western sky, and knowing we were headed another 2000 feet higher, that was not a good feeling. But you just never know in the mts what’s on the other side. Could be a raging storm coming or could just be some broken cloud cover. I was pulling for the latter. But we headed up there nonetheless. Now last evening Brad told me he’d ride to the pass with me today rather than just descent back to the Fort from the cabin, so that was a very unexpected plus for today, just having a bud along for a pretty good 2-3 hour grunt to the top of the pass.

We got going right in time for the CO wind machine to greet us, and as usual it was blowing from every which direction. And once I started – wow, the legs were just two big pillars of mortar. Boy were they tired. And again, poor Brad having to plod along with me. Now all the while I had an eye out on that mass of dark grey off to the west, and slowly but surely it was beginning to disintegrate and break up. Now we probably had about 2 miles where the inclination of the climb was about the same as yesterday, but then things really changed, and I was fighting to NOT go into the little cookie. The pitches were much steeper, and I was out of the saddle way more than yesterday. And I figured to have about 14 miles of that to Cameron Pass.

We went through some pretty stunning sections where the Poudre River was just raging down the mt in a series of waterfalls and rapids, but then the Poudre just kind of disappeared and that was the sign that things were going to get pretty sustained and steep – and they did. You usually know that once the main river kind of disappears you’re going to be in much steeper terrain, and that the river will be replaced by braided streams coming out of the high mts. I eventually broke down and hit the little cookie, and then life was much better. My pride intact, I just hit a higher cadence and was able to keep my HR under like 160! Some of the long, steep sections were about a mile to two miles in length, and I’d be in the easiest gear I had. Now this was a far sight easier than some of the short, really steep climbs I’d done in KY, but it was just the length of these CO climbs that took it out of me. I’d stop on occasion to take some pics of the stunning scenery, then mount back up and continue the grunt.

In the first hour and ten minutes of climbing we covered around 8 miles. But it got tougher. There were times where I was just able to maintain 4 mph. Most of the time it was around 6 mph. And the climbing just continued. By about 2 hour into the climb we were at around 13 miles into the day’s climb, and we had stopped to take more pics and for some helmet cam action. And off in the distance to the west, a bit up the road was a big sign. So we at that point thought that we were about 2 miles shy of the summit. But after riding a bit further we were pretty amazed to discover that we were at the pass, with that big sign signifying such. And suddenly that was it. Mission accomplished. Brad took several pics of me at the sign and then the inevitable. And let me tell you, for all the good times I had visiting Brad over the last 4 days, it was a drag to say goodbye. I had a great time and having him ride with me all the way to Cameron Pass, that was a giant kick in the ass. It’s times like these that you really remember in a trip of this magnitude. Shook hands and he headed down the mt to the east and I headed down the mt to the west.

My descent was fast and furious for about 3 miles. Within that I stopped a couple of times to take some awesome pics of the North boundary of RMNP – these amazing craigs that I used to hike and backpack over 25 years ago. They were just beautiful. Then I got to descending down to the town of Walden. Now I dropped altitude pretty quick for about 1000 feet, and then the pitch leveled off a great deal, in much the same inclination as I’d experienced yesterday. And then I was riding on a very gradual false descent, where I could maintain 15-17 mph in this massive expanse of high country mountain meadows. It was so vast you could just see for 10’s of miles on both sides, and running through it was the Michigan River. Way off to the west wa in front of me was another mt range, and behind me was the one I’d just spent a day and a half riding across.

I’d finally took my vest off once I got down on that expanse of mt meadow, with the temp heating up to the mid 70’s. Now I had some rollers to ride across, but generally it was downhill, and I was able to stay in the big ring most of the time. About 1 hour outside of Walden a group of motorcycle riders passed me, and then down the road I saw one of the last riders pull over and get into his back bag. Just though he was going to put his jacket away or something. But as I got closer I saw that he had something in his hand, like he was doing a hand-off to me. And be darned if he didn’t have a cold bottle of Gatorade in his hand. So I did this U-turn and went back. Turns out Dave is also a bike rider and has done some touring and just wanted to shoot the ---- with me for a bit. And I was key to oblige. Great guy and really friendly. I downed the drink while kind of telling him my story. Filled him in on my Am. Dirt thing and how I’d still like to make that gig happen. He was really hoping to one day to a trans AM trip himself, so he was very inquisitive of my routes and my mapping strategy.

Dave gave me the lowdown on a good restaurant in Walden – Moose Creek Café - and then headed back down the road to join his friends. I made Walden about an hour later and saw Dave at a gas station. So got into my efficiency and then showered and washed kit. Next up cell and wifi service – could I rejoin the world? And the answer was a resounding yes. Great cell and my aircard worked amazingly fast . Seeing that I have a boatload of work to send out today, that was VERY reassuring. Then ambled over to the Moose Creek for lunch – burrito and some homemade chips and salsa. The lunch was a definite homerun! Thanks Dave. Matter of fact Dave was inside the restaurant while I was outside eating on the deck – what with these beautiful 70-degree temps outside at an altitude of 8099 ft – and he stopped by again on his way out.

Right now I’m enjoying a Wooly booger Nut Brown Ale, a microbrew from CO’s Grand Lake Brewing Co. Yum for sure. That’s about it for today. Riding 56 miles tomorrow to Steamboat Springs and going over one pass – Rabbit Ears at 9K feet. Until tomorrow…….Pete

Days 37 & 38: Into the Rockies

2011-07-21T12:50:00.000-07:00

Day #37 & 38) July 19 & 20, 2011. Ft. Collins, CO for an off-day on 19^th and Ft. Collins to West of Rustic, CO in Poudre Canyon: 55 miles in 5:15 hrs.

Ok, so you’re not going to get this blog until at least the 21^st of July. No cell and no wifi up here at 7600 ft ele. in our little 25’x25’ cabin. We’re not even in a town, but rather in the last bastion of humanity, a little place called Sportsman’s Lodge, before the 9000+ ft Cameron Pass.

First let me digress real briefly to yesterday’s off day. It was just totally lazy. I worked most all of the morning while Brad went to Greeley for a job interview, and then I walked over to a little bagel shop for breakfast bagels and some espresso. Later in the day when Brad got back we hit the outdoor pool at his apt. complex and just dipped briefly in the water and caught rays. Got to say that the temps have been so much more accommodating than the sweltering I’d endured in KS. Actually felt good to just sit in the sun.

Then came the goof –fest…when my bud Andrew came up from Denver to check in. The three of us used to work together in ROMO – Rocky Mt. Nat. Park – back in the mid-80’s on the park’s trail crew. Well, the fun, the stories, the crazyness, it all came back in this waterfall of inane humor when we went out to dinner. Went back to Coopersmith’s Pub, as it was just too good to risk going elsewhere. Plus…those microbrews are way too tasty. Had a wonderful dinner as usual and then just laughed our asses off at umpteen remembrances from ROMO while drinking up on brews. Finished the day off by hoofing it down through Old Town for a sugar fix, where we ended up at a gormet chocolate shop/ice cream shop. Got some ice-cream and that was the story. Had a great time, and there were points were I was laughing so hard I was crying.

So today Brad joined me for the ride, and our destination was to be this little place way up in the mts called Sportsman’s Lodge. It’s the last camping/cabin/RV place before Cameron Pass. It’s 54 miles from Ft. Collins. His plan was to do the ride with me to the Lodge, stay in a cabin for the night and then ride back to the Fort tomorrow, while I continue on across the Pass and then descend down to Walden, CO. This is probably THE easiest way across all the mts of CO in one fell swoop. The road is Rt 14, and it consists of two passes, Cameron at just over 10K, and Rabbit Ears, just over 9K in elevation. Sign me up for this one. Now having worked in ROMO I’m very familiar one of the other famous crossings – Rt 34/36 up and over Trailridge Rd, at an ele. of over 11K. That is a total grunt of a climb, with a ton of traffic. So I chose 14 because it’s one of the more “inconspicuous” of the traverses of CO.

I was really happy to have some companionship for a whole day, and a day in the mts to boot, and Brad was a great sport to put up with riding with me at such ridiculously slow speeds – me dragging 80 lbs of gear and him on his road bike. So we hit the road at about 6:10 am and got on one of the many bike trails in Ft. Collins. Just a quickie about the Fort – I really liked this place back in the 80’s when lived out here and I would come out of the high mts for a day or so to hit the “big city.” And now, many years later, I still have an affinity for the Fort. Great city, great bike trails, great vibe in the place. To me it far supercedes the pretentiousness of Boulder, CO. Ok, that was my dig at Boulder!

The morning temp was just ideal, and I wore my glow vest not because of wanting to be seen but because there was a hint of cold in the air. Several of the time & temp signs read anywhere from 62-66 degrees. We eventually got on the Poudre Trail, which is concrete and asphalt, and just headed northwest to the jcn with Rt 287. That ride was nearly 8 miles of bike trail and it was just stellar. Had a great time. Then we got off the trail and onto 287 for just a couple of miles. After that the real work began – 45 miles of non-stop climbing up Rt 14 to our destination. And that’s only 2/3 of the climb. Actually, where Rt 14 and 287 jcn, it’s 66 miles of climbing to the pass. So I’ll have 20 more miles of climbing tomorrow. Now the average of this climb is around 4%, but it varies – some places are almost flat, or slightly false flat with about 2% of incline, and then others it rocks up to the 5-7% range.

As soon as we got on Rt. 14 it was up and up. This is long, and it’s a grant to just keep going up and up and up. You have to get the mindset to think about plugging away rather than, “damn, I have so far to go.” Brad, I must commend for his patience and perseverance in kind of being my domestique all the way up this thing today. I mean on one hand I was really working to keep a piddly 8-10 mph pace, while
Brad was really working to go slow to stay with me. I’d told him that he was working just as hard as I – him to go so slow and me to go fast.

But anyway what a spectacular way to start my first day in the mts. The temps was just so perfect, with a hard wind blowing from every direction keeping us really ventilated and cool. And the scenery – WOW! God was it good to be back in the mts. Goodbye Great Plains and all that heat and humidity. Hello Rocky Mts with all your majesty, raw beauty and cooler temps. I mean around each and every curve was another stunning scene. And then having the Poudre River on our right or left side the whole time, just rushing like hell down to the plains, gurgling, tumbling, cascading racing. There were times when what with the wind blowing and the river roaring, we just couldn’t hear each other talking out loud. It’s just wild and crazy up here.

So we plugged along, past National Forest Campgrounds, several private campgrounds and a few cabin complexes along the river. The mts were just towering higher and higher above and the Great Plains, which soon just disappeared in my memory. Probably about 30 miles into the day my legs were really beginning to feel the effort. I was in and out of the saddle a gazillion times. Now I wasn’t bonked or anything, but I definitely was feeling all that climbing. Brad would try his best to hang back and give me a draft and a wheel but inevitably we’d hit a little riser and I’d be off the back in a NY minute. Then as the day wore on, the wind got just vicious, and we eventually hit these wide open mt meadows where the wind was just crazy hard and the false flat just kept rolling upwards. I’d do my best to tuck in behind Brad, but that would only last a couple minutes and then I was solo. THAT really took it out of me.

Around 40 miles into the day we stopped in the town of Rustic, CO, at a place called Glen Echo, where they had cabins, camping, RV and a pub, restaurant and grocery. I was definitely ready to stop and take a breather. We used this place as our rest and rehydration stop. Got a coke and some Poweraid. Talked with a local by the name of Drake, and Drake told us that the Sportsman’s was about 10-12 more miles back up the road. By then, with another 10-12 miles to go, I was pretty ready to be done with the day, and having chose NOT to do Cameron Pass today, another 30 miles from Glen Echo, I was very glad to have made a prudent decision. Talked with Drake for a few about some of the monster storms that had come through this area and then we said our goodbyes and Brad and I were back on the bike.

Back on the bikes feeling well sugared up, I worked about twice as hard to churn out those last dozen miles as I had on the first 40. The whole time I was doing my best to tuck in behind Brad to get some relief from the wind. We did manage to hit a couple of really good sections where I could do like 12-14 mph, but these were few and far between. By then I was silently counting down the mile markers to the end of the day’s ride -10, 9, 8, and on and on. Relief would come soon. We hit Sportsman’s Lodge with 55 miles in and 5:15 hrs of riding. That may not be 80-90 miles but I’ll tell you what, my legs were all about stopping by then. Wasn’t wrecked, but was pretty tired.

Go this rustic little cabin that has two beds, a stove, sink, electricity and some dishware and a hot plate. In my book this little place was just right. So we went in and paid for the place, in the grocery store/office, and I noticed that they had no beer. What? Are you kidding me. After climbing for nearly 5 hrs I was jonesing for an icy one. Brad told me that I’ll survive. But I just wasn’t hearing it. I told him that I’d bloody well hitch-hike back down to Glen Echo to buy some beer. He thought I was kidding…I wasn’t! So I got showered, washed and hung out the kit, and then ate some lunchmeat and cheese on burrito skins that Brad had bought at the little store, Then I walked out to Rt 14 and began hitchhiking. Of course Brad came out to goof on me, taking some pictures etc, and then told me to take off my sunglasses so I wouldn’t look so “threatening” to mom and pop tourista.

I told myself that I’d try for one hour outside of the Lodge, and let me tell you – there was so little traffic that I’d stand there for a good 5 min at a crack waiting. Well, 15 min turned into 30, to 45 and I was really beginning to loose hope when this guy in an old green Chevy pick-up stopped. Got in and got rolling and the guy told me he was only going about half way to where I wanted to go, but said he’d drive a half mile further to drop me off by a campground where I might have better luck getting a lift. So suddenly I was like 5 miles down the road and hoping like hell I wouldn’t be walking five miles back to the cabin or five miles down to Glen Echo. About 15 min went by with no luck, and then this guy from NJ stopped. Real nice guy, Craig, and he had two of his kids with him and he was headed to Glen Echo to have lunch at the restaurant. BINGO! Told me if I wanted, I could wait there and then he’d drop me back off at the cabin when they finished lunch. DONE!

So they went to lunch and I went to the pub and had a couple of Newcastle browns while I caught back up with Drake at the bar. BS’ed for a bit and then I did some dinner shopping and got a 6’er to go. Jumped back in the SUV with Craig and his kids and they dropped me off doorside back at the cabins. It worked out just great.

Listening to my little shortwave radio right now with Brad just sitting on his bunk reading every map I have and doing anything to stay busy. No tv, no nothing up here. It’s hot up here now, probably about 85 degrees, so Brad opened all the windows for ventilation. AC up here…..are you kidding me?

Going to sign off now, cook some brauts and have an icy beer. All the best to everyone. Hope to have a wifi and cell connection tomorrow so I can get back in touch with the world…….. Pete

Day 36: Hello Rockies

2011-07-18T20:28:00.000-07:00

Day #36) July 18, 2011. Ft. Morgan, CO to Ft. Collins, CO: 86 miles in 6:26 hrs.

What a great day of riding. And meeting up with my bud Brad on his bike to help ride me into the Fort helped to make this just a stellar ride!

Up at a leisurely 4 am…knocked down a footlong sub (cold cut combo) at 4:30 am (I’m getting pretty good at blasting through massive quantities of food at such early hours)…packed by 5 am…and out the door at 5:20 am for my ride to the Fort. And the wonderful thing about this morning was that it was actually cool outside. Now imagine that COOL? Yup, it just felt amazing, and gave me the false sense of hope that I’d be spared riding in 90+ degree temps prior to getting to the Fort. So I rolled out of Ft. Morgan, not an idyllic place to say the least. I mean it’s just kind of one of those “freeway” towns that’s kind of grungy and hot, and it’s likely to have seen it’s better days quite some time ago. I think the only reason it still exists today is it’s proximity to the freeway. Plenty of seedy motels and dilapidated buildings, and a very funky population.

So it was on to my first segment of the day – Greeley, CO. Took Rt 34 W to the freeway and then rode on this road called Frontage Rd, which paralleled the freeway for about 10 miles. 34 merged with the interstate just outside of Ft. Morgan and I couldn’t ride on that. I was lucky that I set the resolution on my computer map high enough so that this Frontage road popped up. Because on the state map it’s just not there – like a gazillion other roads that aren’t there. I mean at point I was so close to the interstate that I felt as if I were riding a third lane of it. I mean I could see traffic coming at me in my rear view and then I’d realize it was on the interstate and not on Frontage Rd.

Rt 34 finally deviated off of the interstate and back to it’s own entity, so I rejoined that and began the grunt of the day – about 37 miles of just lonely, godforsaken, desolate CO Great Plains. Now Brad had warned me that this section of road was rolling – and by God it was. It started out as a fasle flat – like wow, what’s new there? And I could ride at about 12-13 mph with some effort. So that was good. But then the rollers started coming hot and heavy. I mean one right after another for about 10 miles. And I’ll tell you what: those pups had my legs screaming for mercy. I was in and out of the saddle for a solid hour. Good thing was though that on this one climb I was kind of looking off to the west - and lo and behold there, far off in the distance I could see the Rocky Mts That was awesome. To know that I’d just peddled from DC to the front range of the Rockies. It really took the bite out of all that climbing.

Finally the road went from dbl lane on both sides back to single on both sides and the rollers abruptly ended, and I was able to get back up to like 13-14 mph and made it to the outskirts of Greeley in around 4:10 hrs. Next up was Rt 85 N, and this was a grunt, because there was a shoulder that was like this deteriorated piece of *&^&%$ that was nearly unrideable even with my mt bike. I did it for a short stretch and then said the hell with this and just rode on the far right side of the lane. Eventually even that piece of garbage disappeared and I ended up with a berm of about 3 fee in width. Now I’d hoped to do a fountain coke break in Greeley, but I just whipped on through it so fast and onto Rt 85 that there was nothing to be found other than a gas station or two And my mind was dead set on a Micky D’s where the large fountain cokes are just a buck all morning till 11 am. Remember this: NOTHING beats a giant cup of fountain coke filled with ice on a hot ride!! No compromising there. So I figured that I’d just keep riding and find one on 85 up the road. Yet the temp was just going up way faster than I’d predicted, and by the time I was 2-3 miles into Rt 85 it was 92 degrees out. And all around me on 85 was like light industry, grain silos, and cattle feed yards. Hot, hot and more hot.

About 5 miles up on 85, with the temps continuing to rocket up, I found a Mickey D’s in Eaton, CO. Beeline straight into the parking lot. Did my large cup for a buck and refilled it 3x with coke, and then 2x with water. I’d told Brad that I’d call him at Greeley, but once I’d gotten there, and was making good time, I’d figured that I’d call him at my Mickey D’s stop further up the road, wherever that might be. Once filled up and gurgling with fluid filling my gut to the size of a bloody piñata, I called Brad and got partial directions to the Fort. There were so many directions actually that he told me to just ride for a bit on what he’d given me and then call back for more. So that’t what I did. Made it to my next turn, Rt 14 W to the Fort and saw a sign: Fort Collins 19 miles. Now I had thought that this would be like 8-10 miles on Rt 14, but 19? My 70-mile day had just turned into a 80-mile day. No worries though, as I was pretty happy to just be riding my bike right dead into the foothills of the Rockies, which by then were getting pretty damned big in my grill. I was almost out of the plains!

So I’m riding down 14, hitting these rollers the whole way, knowing that I’d have over a 6-hour ride today. Passed a dude on a road bike going the other direction on 14, to the east, and I kind of looked at him to say hi and give him a wave, but the dude just like hid his head with his arm, looking away. Was that dude related to the nutjob I’d met yesterday? I mean did I stink or something? Two bloody flakes two days in a row? So about a minute after we passed each other I was startled by a rider coming up on me from behind. Dude yelled something at me. It was Brad, and Brad had hid his face when he passed me so he could do a U-turn and sneak up on me as he did. Actually dude startled the hell out of me. His goof worked perfectly! I was played.

Brad had ridden about 17 miles out from his apt. to meet up with me and ride me through this maze of roads and bike trails. Turned out to be an awesome ride. I mean just having some companionship on the ride was great, but meeting up with an old friend on the bike, that was pretty cool. I was chirping and chatting like crazy, trying to catch up on the last several years of our lives. I actually started to get a sore throat I was talking and shouting over the traffic so much. Once we got off of the roads and onto this amazing bike trail system it was downright great. Had he given me those directions I’d of easily gotten lost a gazillion times. Many parts of the trail were shaded, and believe you me, after nearly 10 days of nothing but sun, desolation and heat, riding with trees around me and slices of shade every now and then, that was fantastic.

Got to Brad’s place. Do the kit up in the shower and hung to air dry and we headed out for some grub to this great little sandwich shop a few blocks from his apt. Super meal – I got the “Gargantuan” sub sandwich. Back here at Brad’s right now working and having an ice-cold Fosters he’d bought for me. We’ll be hitting a brew pub tonight for dinner and drinks.

Bit later we headed down the the “Old Town” district to a microbrew pub/restaurant called Coopersmith’s Pub. It was super. Sat outside in the shade in this wonderful downtown district where people were moving about everywhere. Very busy and very fun to be back in civilization again. Drank microbrews, ate dinner and did a bit of people watching. Both dinners and appetizers where super. The beer……ahhhhhhhhhh! Next up I needed to get my chocolate jones filled so we stopped at this homemade cookie/fudge shop, and that did the trick by bringing my blood sugar level up to my blood alcohol level. Evening complete. Day done.

No riding tomorrow – my first off day of the trip, and I couldn’t think of a better place to spend it. That’s it for the day. I’ll blog tomorrow and talk about what the hell…who knows on an off day?

Stay cool Ohio……..Pete

Day 35: I am entering the Twilight Zone

2011-07-17T13:54:00.000-07:00

Day #35) July 17, 2011. Yuma, CO to Ft. Morgan, CO: 61 miles in 5:01 hrs.

Last eve the temp had to be about 98-100 degrees out, so I just didn’t feel like making a long hoof to get food. Ended up just walking across the street to a little Chinese place - and it was just so amazingly good. Now, no buffet here. Had to order off of the menu, but wow. So I ordered the Hot & Sour soup, and there was the cup for 2.95 and the bowl for 5.95, so I love that soup and ordered a bowl. And the waitress does this double take, and motioned with her hands in a large circle telling me that the bowl is for groups of 5 or more! I was like, that’s ok, I’m pretty hungry, and then I ordered the House Special Pan Fried Noodles. That’s when she let out a bit of a giggle. I know she was thinking: “this idiot is going to be bagging ¾ of this meal to take home!”

So the soup came, and let me tell you…there was a big ladle in a very large bowl to serve out into small bowls. My only concern was: “I sure hope this is good, because that’s a whole lot of soup!” It was excellent. And then I asked for hot oil and more crispy noodles to put in the soup. Took me about 15 min but I finished that thing. And the waitress came back and did a dbl take with a smile. Next up….this heaping plate of Pan Fried Noodles. And again, a homerun. It had this wonderful brown sauce and the noodles were pan fired just right. Add some beef, shrimp, chicken and pork, and it was just Shangri La. I should have just eaten right off of the serving plate, but trying to be a proper kind of guy I ended up serving myself like 4 complete plates of that.

Now the next time the waitress came back she just starred at the empty plates. I gave here a good tip and then asked if I could have a fortune cookie for the road. Well, she gave me this handful of like 7 cookies. And I scarffed every one of those pups down before I got back to the motel room. I just had a monster in my stomach yesterday – hungry all day long.

Up this morn at a leisurely 4 am for a 5:30 send-off. I figured that since my ride today was a shortie, 60 miles, that I’d get on the road a bit later than the past week. But again, the heat for Eastern CO was still supposed to be above normal, and forecast at 100 degrees. So I couldn’t dilly dally too long or I’d find myself riding into 12 noon. Ate a footlong coldcut combo for breakfast and was on the road just as planned. Good thing about today’s start though was the fact that with the time change to MST, I didn’t need the headlamp nor the reflective vest at 5:30 am. It was really light out. Now as soon as I got rolling I was on a false flat. I mean you can just tell as soon as you take a couple pedal strokes that you’re going uphill. And when you look up the road you just see a mile or two in front of you, not the long ribbon of road stretching off into the distance. But heck, as I said yesterday, that’s pretty much to be expected in that Denver is at 5280. So I still had about 1000 feet to pick up seeing that Yuma is at about 4100 ft.

Kept about a 12 mph pace for a bit…until the wind picked up out of the SW, and it eventually began to blow at a pretty steady average – 10-15 mph. And that just took the wind right out of my average. Suddenly I was moving along at like 7-11 mph – and fighting to maintain that! Started doing the calculating again what with my speed going to hell, and I figured that even at 10 mph average I’d still make Ft. Morgan by 11:30 am at the latest.

So the road did exactly as it did yesterday, stair-stepping up in stages. And some stages were much steeper than others. By 6:30 am the wind was just a big issue, and I’d reconciled that I had finally rode out my string of luck with the westerly headwinds. Now I’ve not said a thing about how lucky I’ve been with riding east to west. But I have – in a big way! This warm front that covering like half the middle of the US, well it’s forced the jetstream way to the north such that air has been flooding in from the south/southeast for two weeks. Makes for some super hot weather, but for nice cross tail and tail winds. Honestly, I’ll take the heat and start early rather than do battle with headwinds as I did last year.

Not so today. And this was a piddly little headwind for sure compared to some of the monsters I’d dealt with last year. I mean hell, at least today I could maintain double digit numbers most of the time – 10 mph. But anyway, it certainly made riding that false flat double or triple harder. This lasted for about 27 miles, all the way to Akron, CO, and I was darned tired by then, and thinking: “this was supposed to be a super easy day today and I’m getting my ass handed to me!” Thought briefly about stopping in Otis for a coke, but I just wanted to get that headwind riding over with. I mean heck, the sun was already way high in the sky by then, and the temp was definitely up considerably from the 74 degrees when I’d started. By Akron the temp was 86 – still a way drier heat than in KS.

The elevation in Akron was 4600 feet, so I’d gained about 500 feet in my ride from Yuma, and I expected the same in my next section of 22 miles from Akron to Brush, CO. Just outside of Akron the road just really went up, and I figured “ok, here we go again.” But then I topped out , the road curved to the NW, and it just descended steeply and then I could see highway in the distance for miles and miles, as if it were flat or slightly descending. It WAS descending – the whole way to Brush! Suddenly I was cruising at like 14-15 mph with the wind ever so slightly at my left side and back. Just amazing how things change like this. And you’d only know it on a bicycle. In a motor vehicle – it’s just business as usual.

Yup, on a bike every little idiosyncrasy is magnified to the Nth degree. But man I was cruising again, and forget that idea of a 10 mph average for the day and a six hour ride. I was back to jamming. So I’m hammering away, just ticking off the miles riding slightly downhill with a cross tailwind and I see this figure way off up ahead of me – on the berm. I though bike rider, but could also be a horseback rider, a ATC, a minibike, anything. But I was closing fast, and withing 20 min I could see that it was indeed a rider, which kind of excited me. So I worked to keep gaining so that I might have some company for the last couple of hours of riding.

Now this is the bizarre part. So I catch the guy, and the dude kind of pulls off the berm and stops at an intersection and waves me on. Now this guy is on a 26in mt bike and it’s just LOADED TO THE GILLS with gear. I mean you think I have a lot of gear…this guy reminded me of Goran Kropp, the guy who rode his bike to Everest with like 250 lbs of gear on a dbl yak. I stopped despite his waving me on as I was in no hurry, and I was hoping to have a riding companion for a stretch. So I slowed and stopped. “Hey,” I said, “how you doing?” Dude just looks at me - kind of mean like. And then I said, “Man, you’re loaded where are you riding from?” And the guy didn’t say a word to me. He gave me a dirty look and then walked his bike over to the stop sign at this cross road. And then he just stood there. And I’m like….”am I just entering the freaking Twilight Zone, because this is nuts?”

And the dude just stands there ignoring me. So I’m dumb, but not stupid, and I could kind of tell that this guy was out there – WAY out there - and I wasn’t about to keep playing Mr. Chatty Cathy. So I just looked at him and said, “nice trying to talk to you, have a great ride.” And I took off back down the road. And I was laughing out loud to myself at how bizarre that was. Now I’ve had bad days on the bike and wasn’t very chatty, but I was civil. Don’t have any idea what the deal was here, but it sure was a new one on me.

Rolled fast into the city of Brush where I got 2 cans of coke to keep the blood sugar up. Tell you what, no way does a can, bottle, or plastic container of coke compare to a fountain coke with ice. So those cans, I drank 1.5 and poured the last half out of the second can. Just not what I’d been fantasizing about. Fountain coke rules my parched world!

The cross tail and the descent continued all the way into Ft. Morgan. Turns out that I lost those 500 feet that I’d gained by Akron, CO. No mind to me. That made this ride as easy as I’d wanted it. So I went by this first efficiency in Ft. Morgan, and it looked super seedy, like there were drug deals going down in the parking lot outside the rooms – reminded me too much of Berea, KY way back when. Nope there. So I rode a bit further and found an efficiency a bit more accommodating. Great price/nice little place.

Ended up eating lunch at ….drum roll….a chinese restaurant where again, no buffet, but an amazing House Lo Mein. Then back here to work for the past 4 hours in the AC. Tomorrow I’ll shoot for Ft. Collins to visit a bud from way back – back when I worked at RMNP (Rocky Mountain National Park) in the mid 80’s. That should be about a 70-mile ride from here in Ft. Morgan. And that’s about the time that I’ll actually see those wonderful Rocky Mts looming off in the distance!

Have a great Sunday everyone……..Pete