TD 2015 - Colorado

It felt good to get past Horca, where I quit last year. I rode about 6 miles up along the river and camped. Up early in the morning and rode to Platoro, got a great breakfast and then had some serious climbs to deal with.

Stunner Pass was the first one and it went pretty quickly. I then rode past Red Mountain and onto a higher alpine like plain and climbed over to Summitville, which is now a Superfund site, due to some mining company building a cyanide pit for gold refining and then running away when the whole thing started leaking and polluting the water supply. After Summitville there was a few miles of climbing left to get to Indiana Pass.  The day was getting late and a thunderstorm was starting to brew and I could see flashes of lightening as I get to an area with very few trees at 11,910 feet.  No sign was up there to take a picture in front of and I started down on a long rainy descent that essentially took me all the way to Del Norte, where I stayed in their hostel for the night.

Stunner Pass

Red Mountain

Alpine zone

Del Norte Cafe

Del Norte Hostel

The next day was going to be a hard one.  I wanted to get to Sargents about 111 miles and 7000 feet of climbing away.  Got another good breakfast, restocked at a gas station and started out with a sandy climb through a small pass and into a grassy desert like area.  Heard my only rattler of the trip out there and then started climbing toward Carnero Pass.  This turned out to be a pretty hot day and the climb later to Cochetopa Pass took a bit out of me, but I got it done.  On the way downhill, instead of going fast, I got hit with a headwind and that continued for next next couple of hours at least.  I ended up stopping at one of the Dome Reservoirs and rested and stuck my feet in the water.  It felt great and I continued on, but really didn't find a decent spot to camp, so kept riding and riding and finally I was at Doyleville where I stopped for all of 30 seconds before I was covered with mosquitos.  So that wasn't going to be a place to camp, and I headed east on US 50 to Sargents and got there about 10:30 or so.  Sargents is one of those places where cold settles in from higher elevations and it was the coldest night I encountered on the whole trip .. woke up the next morning with frost all over the bike, tent and the rest.

Ride the Divide Movie Scene ( north of Del Norte )

Carnero Pass ( no snow here )

As the Tomichi Trading post opened, Neil Beltchenko. showed up.  He finished in the top three this year, and he came in and quickly gathered up his supplies for the coming day ( as I was sitting drinking coffee ).  I was able to tell him and some of the other lead riders that the passes in Colorado were free of snow and they weren't going to have any problems ( lots of folks were worried about this ).  It was fun to see these guys, they are really strong, had been racing the same amount of time as me and had already covered almost 2000 miles ( compared to my 800 or so ).

Go Neil !

Marshall Pass - Yeah !

Absolute Bikes - A TD must stop !

Marshall pass was next and wasn't too bad.  I had some good energy still in my system, but stopped in Salida to check out the bike shop, get some more GU's and have my rear brake looked at.  Scott at Absolute Bikes took care of that in no time, but I stayed the night, got myself a pizza and to bed early.

Looks like an old gas station 

The next morning I got up early and rolled for Hartsel and at least Como.  The ride to Hartsel was pretty, a long climb out of Salida and then views of the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness, a group of 14000 ft mountains to the west.  I think that was one of the prettiest sections, with all of the snow on them and the morning sun illuminating their eastern slopes.  In Hartsel, I found a cafe and got some food and met one of the racers doing the TransAm race.  Lee is about my age, and was doing Astoria to Yorktown on a road bike, self supported just like TD.  I left the cafe, and headed along another dirt road to Como.  Near Como, I got a phone call from Susan who wondered why I hadn't moved for two or three hours, turns out the batteries in my Spot had died, so I put new batteries in and got that resolved and was back on the tracker,

Como is one of those old mining towns that just has a few people living there and the Como Depot which used to have a restaurant and a bed and breakfast is closed, so onward to Boreas Pass which I got on top of at sundown.  Had a chilly ride down into Breckenridge where I saw a fox as I was parking my bike in front of a Bubba Gump Shrimp restaurant.  I kept going, got onto the bike path and after a really circuitous route finally got to Frisco.  Think it was about 110 miles and 8000 feet of climbing for the day, so I felt pretty darn good about the day.

Boreas Pass

In the morning I texted Coach Jen and met her at a restaurant in Silverthorne for breakfast.  It was cool to see folks I know even if just for a little while and then I was off to Kremmling.  You don't get anyplace on Tour Divide without going over a pass and Ute Pass was next, followed by riding through more forest and along a big reservoir and then a just rained on dirt road.  In Kremmling I ran into Chris and Alex, a father son team who were doing the ride northbound also ( northbounders are rare - almost everyone goes south ).

The Protected Rock 

Colorado River

Next morning, I started for Steamboat Springs.  When I got to Radium I caught the tail end of a little cattle drive, with about 250 cows being moved across the only bridge over the Colorado River.  River rafters and me were all held up as about 7 cowboys tried to get these cows over the river, as they went into some brush and stirred up about a million mosquitos, with me riding in circles trying to keep moving so I didn't get eaten by the mosquitos and cow stuff all over the place.  The herd finally moved along and everyone could get where they needed to go and I started up one of the steeper climbs on the whole trip to get onto a ridgeline above Radium.  That took a while, then I had a bunch of rollers and more forest to ride through.  I got to go around a reservoir on some pretty fun singletrack, cross over a dam and after a few more hours I was in Steamboat.

7 Cowboys, 3 Dogs, 250 Cows, One Million Mosquitos and me

More Wildflower Beauty

Sheep

I thought about taking a day off, but was afraid of inactivity, so left in the morning for Brush Mountain, one of those Tour Divide magical spots.  I stopped at the Clark Store in Clark, got some food and a bottle of water and managed somehow to ride off with the bottle sitting on the sidewalk.

There were some beautiful displays of wildflowers on this part of the ride, along with a pretty hard climb on rocky forest roads, but later in the evening we were at Brush Mountain with Kirsten asking what I wanted to eat and bringing two cheeseburgers and some Cokes and I was all setup.  Kirsten has been supporting Tour Divide for several years and is just an amazing person.  Jeff and I shared a cabin, we got some breakfast the next morning  and had a pretty short ride to get to Wyoming.  Once you get to Brush Mountain, it is generally said that you have a pretty good chance of sticking with it to the end.  And it was cool to meet a lot of the southbound riders who were there.

Resting - Could have stayed here a couple of days 

TD 2015 - New Mexico

It was time to recover a bit from yesterday's hot and bonky ride from Antelope Wells to Silver City, but I got up and headed to a great breakfast at the Adobe Springs Cafe in Silver City, and then to Albertson's to stock up on some groceries to tide me over for the couple of days and nights getting through the Gila.  I discovered that Silver City only allows paper bags in their grocery stores and walked out to my bike with a big brown paper bag of stuff.  I went back in, found the recycled plastic bin and dug around in it for some bags that I could actually tie on my bike, and away I went, up to Pinos Altos and into the Gila.

Pinos Altos is just on the other side 

Was a hot day, and I got onto the CDT alternate trail that we have to take and rode for a while and then discovered that one of the oranges that I had tied in a bag had disappeared someplace on the trail.  Wasn't going back to find it, and continued on.  ( Travis and Norman found it coming up the trail behind me and said "it was delicious" )  When I got to the Sapillo campground, I decided that I needed more real food and so I took an off route detour and headed for the Spirit Canyon Cafe.  An excellent choice, I got some more good solid food in my system, got rehydrated and felt 100% better.  The rest of the day went pretty well, I passed the place where I slept last year and got several miles over that, and ended up late in the day at Rocky Canyon campground where I setup for the night.

Yes !

During the night I was treated to the sound of wolves howling.  I was the only person in the little campground and really got that wilderness experience, lying in my tent hearing these wolves ( not coyotes - I know what they sound like ! ).   Got up in the morning and heard the sound of Travis and Norman rolling down to the campground, we exchanged hello's and they went on up the road as I packed up.

It was 33 miles to the Beaverhead Work Center which has a great water supply, and that went pretty well.  I passed Norman on the way and he came into Beaverhead just as I was leaving.  Norman and I would ride together off and on all through the afternoon, and the two of us got to Horse Springs Church around 10 pm that night.  We would camp near the church, got resupplied with water there and would leave for Pie Town early on a chilly morning the next day.

Plains of San Augustine before Horse Springs Church

Pie Town is such an awesome place.  It represents the first place with real food that you get to after doing the Gila, and the Toaster House is this great little place to stay.  I got there for breakfast, and Norm and Travis showed up a bit later.  We met back at the Toaster House and decided that it was too early in the day to stop riding and maybe the big black clouds to the south of us wouldn't get us, so we headed North with a pretty nice little tailwind.

We had a pretty good ride up to Grants, passing El Malpais Monument, then crossed I-40 and hung around the Subway as they were closing and a big thunderstorm was moving in.  With lightening all around we made it to a hotel and crashed for the night, planning an early start the next morning.

El Malpais

Up early, a stop at Dennys and then off to Cuba.  It's about 125 miles with two possible stops for food and water being the laundromat outside Pueblo Pintado and a bar/convenience store closer to Cuba.  I ran into Travis at the laundromat, which is a combination of laundromat, post office, gas station and convenience store.  Had a couple of microwaved burritos and we sat in the shade and petted one of owner Dennis's dogs ( JR ).

Travis and JR

In Cuba, El Bruno's is still the place to go and the flan was outstanding !   The next morning the whole group of us were together for a bit, as Jeff had slowed up a bit, Travis and Norman and I were there and another rider joined in.  I elected for more breakfast and made a quick stop at McDonalds and then on to Abiquiu.  There is a nice paved climb out of Cuba on 126 and then you are into the Santa Fe forest, climbing up to about 10300 feet or so.  I met Tiana Tallant early on, she was in NM after starting back in May in Banff and she was really happy and all smiles and seemed in pretty awesome condition for someone who had done over 2000 miles by herself !  A few hours later, I rounded a corner and had my first (and only) bear encounter ... a black bear was walking towards me.  But the bear decided to leave the road after walking a few more steps towards me, leaving me a little rattled ( my bear spray being left behind in Tucson ).  Got to Abiquiu, and ended up with the same room I had last year, and a really good meal in the restaurant, where I had the waiter bring me two deserts.

Tiana

Just order both !

After Abiquiu, the next stop is El Rito, where Norm, Travis and I met again at the convenience store while waiting for El Farolito's to open up.  We sat in the shade and waited and were pretty hungry at opening, but the food was worth the wait.  Then off and into the mountains, and a rainstorm.  No dogs in Vallecitos this year, I sailed through at top speed and then got to the Summer Store in Canon Plaza where Joe had the place opened.  Norm and Travis stopped and we talked with Joe for a good half hour or more before leaving.  That night we made Hopwell Lake and found a little campsite.

Aspens and an old cabin, before Burned Mountain and Hopwell Lake

The next morning, Travis was sick, perhaps from dehydration or altitude or both, and he and Norman stayed behind to ride out toward Los Alamos and I went ahead towards the Brazos Ridge and Colorado.  Was fun to get near the top of Brazos Ridge and look at snowcapped peaks to the north that I knew were in Colorado.  There were beautiful flowers all in the valley below the ridge, and then soon I was crossing into Colorado, going down La Manga Pass and getting all you can eat catfish at the reopened restaurant in Horca.

Norman and Travis

Out in the distance, there is snow -- that's Colorado

Beautiful

I felt pretty darn good, having finished New Mexico a day ahead of where I was last year, and ready to get up the next morning and do the highest altitudes on the whole trip going over Indiana Pass,

TD 2015 - The Finish and the Start

I thought the Spray River trail was going to be paved. Yes, seriously, I am not sure why I thought that, but here I am at about 6 pm on a Sunday afternoon and I am climbing a little hill and having to shift into my lowest gears to get up the thing and I was thinking "I thought this was going to be flattish"  Now, after 30 some days of riding along the Divide, I really should know better. The journey that began so many days ago, way down at the New Mexico border with old Mexico was almost over and there were not going to be any give aways.

Rocky Section on Spray River West

And so, as I rode those last couple of miles, the purple line on my Garmin Etrex began to show the words "Start Point" and the little arrow that marked my current position grew ever closer and closer to that spot, until there was a little trailhead area with a parking lot ahead of me, and then suddenly, I was there, at the Spray River West Trail Head at the edge of Banff, and this ride that had taken me 37 days to complete would at last be over.

We Are There !

I stopped in front of the sign, and talked with a couple who hailed from Florida.  I think I said something like "I just finished" and the lady though I was talking about finishing a loop ride that connects some local trails, and I say something like, "No, I just got here from Mexico".  Part of me wanted to be quiet about it, and part of me wanted to shout it from the rooftops.  She took a photo of me, and then I rode a couple of hundred feet and was in front of the lobby of the Fairmont Hotel in Banff with the dirt and cow stuff on my bike, the grizzle on me and a bit of an unwashed and unkempt overall appearance.  I stopped there for a minute or two, posted a FB update and I started to realize that it really was done.

Paul, my son, had driven Kevin J and me over to Deming a few weeks before.  We stayed the night and then left for AW after some breakfast at a Denny's.  We got there about 20 minutes before the 8 am start, pulled the bikes out of the car and off the roof rack, checked some tire pressures and lined up for the 8am Grand Depart.  There were 7 of us, Norman and Travis, Gabe, Jeff, Erik, and Kevin and I.  A countdown was done and sharply at 8 am, our little group rolled out in a couple of small groups heading North on a 2740 something mile journey.

Jeff, Norman, Travis, me, Erik, Gabe, Kevin 

First Few Feet

Happy TD Riders

 Our little group headed up the highway towards Hachita.  Jeff and Kevin stopped for a bit and I moved on ahead and stayed up front until we got almost to I-10.  We were rolling pretty quickly on pavement, and then made short work of the gravel frontage road section and were at Separ at the Continental Divide Trading Post.  I spent an hour and a half last year recovering at this place and today, I felt good.  Went inside and got some liquids and some chips and waited until Travis came up and then we started up the dirt road towards Silver.

Jeff and I rode together for a while, but then I started feeling the effects of pushing way too hard earlier in the morning and I dropped back.  I rode pretty well until I got to pavement and then a major bonk was coming on, and I had gone hard enough that I couldn't eat anything.  So here I am, in a close parallel to where I was last year, out of "gas".  But I managed to get some nutrition in, and struggled into the Chevron station at the south edge of Silver City a bit after sundown.  I was shattered, to put it properly.  Went inside, got an Arizona iced tea, and back outside, sat on the concrete leaning up against the building, trying to recover.  A truck pulled up, with his lights on, idling, about 3 feet from my face, and I just sat there ( the guy finally turned the lights off ).  I went back in, got a Coke and started feeling human again.  Left the Chevron, headed into town looking for food.  I stopped at a burger place, got an order, and took it outside to the patio which had no one else on it.  Excellent call, because I took two bites of the burger and it all came right back up into the paper bag that it had been in.  So that was the end of that meal.  Put the whole thing in the trash and was happy that I didn't make a mess, and I rolled up the street to a small hotel and got a room for the night.  First day was about 125 miles of riding, but at least I was in Silver City and felt pretty good about that and I would just have to deal with not having any food in my system when tomorrow came.

Gear Shakeout

Time to get ready for the Divide. Time to see if all the stuff is still working. Time to get real.

Did a chilly ride up Mt Lemmon on Friday with the GABA folks. The temperature when I got out of the car was all of 62 but it was cloudy and it just felt cold ( that's ridiculous but true ! ) It did get much colder, down into the high 30's by the time we got to Loma Linda, I got my piece of pie and beat feet it back down the mountain.

Up on Saturday and loaded the bike. Didn't end up leaving until nearly 9 am. Rode about 3 miles and realized that I couldn't shift into my smallest rear ring. Figured that the straps on the front bag were restricting the action and redid it and that solved the problem.

I turned off Mission Road on Helmet Peak, thought I would take Santa Rita road towards Helvetica and then jump over to Box Canyon Road. A good idea in principal, but bad in practice as there was a "Dead End" sign after I had gone downhill a ways. I decided that didn't apply to me ( a mostly ok decision ) and went ahead, lifted the bike over a barbed wire fence, got on it and heard a bang as all of the air in the front tire came out at once.  Stans all over the place.  Found the hole, got the tire to reinflate ( sometimes tricky for tubeless ), wasted half of my CO2 by having the valve on the inflator adaptor in the wrong position when I screwed the cartridge in, then had the adaptor blow into the weeds when I unscrewed the cartridge that was not empty yet.  Had to search the weeds to find that sucker, but retrieved it, and got my tire pumped up. One short hike-a-bike and I was on Box Canyon Road.

Sunset

Stopped in Sonoita, got a prime rib and headed to Las Cienegas Conservation area ( along Cienega Creek ) and camped for the night.  Beautiful sunset and sunrise the next morning.

I looked for them - didn't see any

Into Whetstone, stopped at the gas station, had a Don Miguel burrito for breakfast, a quick stop at Fairbanks, and on to Tombstone for breakfast #2.

My Son had Tom Swift Books - this in Fairbanks Schoolhouse

Cruised Allen Street, talked to some folks from Indiana and then out of town and up Middlemarch Rd.  Hadn't gone over the Dragoons on Middlemarch before and it was fun, got to a place that you could accurately call the "middle" of Middlemarch.  Then took a fast steep downhill to Pearce, AZ.

Do You See the Sheep's Head ?

Top of Middlemarch Looking West

Middlemarch Rd going East

Have to go straight some other day

Outskirts of Pearce

Up Hwy 191 past Sunsites, smelled food and turned in a TJ's Bar and Grill and had a great grilled ham and cheese and fries ( it's all about the food ) and then on up 191 to Dragoon Road.

Rest was pretty uneventful, a ride down I-10 with trucks going by at 75 or 80+ mph as dusk grew and a hotel room in Benson with a ride back home this morning.  Think it's about 250 miles for the 3 days and 50 something for Lemmon, so pretty ok.

Rattlesnake Ranch - Dragoon Road ( see the DropBox ? )

End of Dragoon Road, just before I-10

Bike and gear seemed great.  Will fit new tires before I leave.  My new shoes are just fine, just wish the body was 30 years younger. Ready to do this thing.

Letter of Intent - Tour Divide 2015

There are two months until June 12, when I will line up at Antelope Wells NM, with a few others in the pre-dawn twilight and point my bicycle northward, with the expectation of arriving at the Spray River Trailhead in Banff AB in 3 weeks and a few days. Here is my Tour Divide "Letter of Intent"

I have unfinished business. There are miles and miles of back roads to be ridden, magnificent vistas to be seen, gas station food to be eaten and exhaustion to be experienced.  Count me "IN" for TD 2015.

And there you have it. June 12 will be here pretty soon.

Stagecoach 400 - Finish & Analysis

Up and rolling at a little after 6:30.  Got myself a couple of sodas, turned in the key and headed into fog. There was dense fog around the lake, but it went away as soon as I got away from the water.  The ride up to Warner Springs was pretty nice on the road, I could even see Mt Palomar observatory, and then I made the turn onto Puerta La Cruz which to my surprise was paved !

Lake Henshaw Resort

It seemed to have a lot of false summits, but was quite nice.  I managed to miss the turn to a dirt forest road, but figured it out without having to go too far down a steep descent, and got back on track.  There was more climbing to be had and then I got a descent and crossed Chihuahua Valley Road.  Was beginning to feel that I am pretty close to the end of this thing now !

California Riding and Hiking Trail near Chihuahua Valley Road

I was surprised by the California Riding and Hiking Trail.  The piece near Alpine was really sketchy, but this part was nicely rideable.  Had to walk a couple of places and that was more for something to change up the muscles. An OHV driver came by and talked for a while, me explaining what we were doing with this ride and he being a bit amazed by it.  The miles seemed to go by pretty well, the drinks that I had gave me enough calories to run on and other than beginning to destroy my rear brakes, the bike was working well.

By 1:30 I was at the Sunshine Market again getting an ice cream and AZ Iced Tea into myself and feeling pretty good.  The lady at the counter said she was worried about me ... Shelly had asked if I had come by and the lady was worried that something had happened to me. Kinda nice that a complete stranger would be interested in my welfare, she was really sweet !

Just came from "way back there"

Bailey Road  ( long long descent back to Terwilliger Road )

Sunshine Market

Happy at the top of Jim Truck Trail

The rest is pretty straightforward.  The hike-a-bike up Jim Truck Trail was indeed that, getting warm but just something to grind out.  I had a good road ride on 74, did the Keen Camp singletrack, crossed the meadow and then like many others, wondered when May Valley Road would ever end ?  I literally flew downhill back to the elementary school and about a block later wondered why the track to follow didn't show any longer ( reason -- I am done ! ).  Then my GPS said it's battery was low, but it was all ok, I could ride up hill to the HUB on my own.

Well, I clocked in at 5:28 pm, on day 5, rider number 36, about 11 hours past Brendan's 5 day cutoff.  So although I did finish the route, I'm not a real finisher, my being outside the limit.  But it's all ok, I did ride every mile and got it done.

Soooooo  .... what lessons to take away and do better in the future ?

Have to improve my riding in deep sand.  I wasted a lot of strength getting on and off the bike, getting mired.  Maybe experiment with letting more air out of my tires, so I have the confidence the whole thing won't roll off the rim.

I counted too much on the store in AC being ready, should have had more stuff with me in case they weren't there.

Need better lights ( have ordered something that should help a lot )  I had a hard time seeing depth in the trail at night, part of that is old eyes, but better lights would help.

Shouldn't have made that detour to Pine Valley, as I wasted a lot of time and energy getting back on course.  A camp near Lake Cuyamaca would have let me hit that restaurant again, but I wasn't thinking very clearly after Oriflamme.

I need to figure out how to see the Etrex 30 display better.  At night the backlight goes away after 30 seconds and reaching up to press the button to zoom in or out ( making it light up ) was a bit of a hassle.  Maybe carry a headlight also.

The bike and gear seemed to be just right. I had the right clothes, my sleep stuff seemed to be ok, and I only took one Ibuprofen, so no real aches or pains.

I had a great time and was continually impressed with the route that Brendan has setup for this ride.  Just wished I hadn't gotten so bogged down in the sand and tried to do Oriflamme in the heat, but otherwise I think I did a reasonable job of it ( for an old man :-).

Next up, Chino Grinder in Chino Valley in May, then a northbound Tour Divide in June.