Colorado Rocky Mountain Bike Tour ( CRMBT )

"Something hidden.  Go and find it.  Go and look behind the Ranges -- Something lost behind the Ranges.  Lost and waiting for you.  Go !"


CRMBT is a week long ride in Colorado, billed as "smaller" and "harder" than some of the other rides there.  I don't know if all of that is true, but it was a great ride, and I had a great time.   I heard about the ride through Larissa from BR2012 and she heard about it from one of her cycle club students ( Louis ).  She mentioned it to the BR group, and Gene from BR2012 signed on as bike mechanic and support with Blue Thunder.  Then I signed on, and Todd from BR2012 signed on, and we were off and running.  

I started thinking seriously about all of the climbing that I would have to do, and signed up with Jennifer Lynn at Desert Endurance to give me a training plan that included a nice mix of hard workouts and rest days.  It worked well, as I ended up doing about 492 miles and 36000 feet of climbing during the week.

So, after a month of training, with some 700 miles of riding, I,  Todd and Gene were in Loveland, CO eating pizza and ready to roll out on a cross Colorado adventure the next morning.

We stayed at schools every night.  I chose the indoor camping option and Todd went with his tent.  CRMBT had an arrangement with a chef who went along with the ride supported by his wife and son. They prepared some delicious meals for us all week, so we were well fed !

CRMBT 2013 Route

Day 1  Loveland to Estes Park

Up at 5:30 am or so, when the lights in the gym turn on.  Breakfast followed by a safety briefing by Peter Duffy, the ride organizer, and off we go.  Gene in Blue Thunder and Todd and I and about 200 other riders on our bikes.  We pack our gear and put it on a truck that carts it to the next site for us.  Then we leave whenever we want, being forewarned that the weather can tank close to noon, so it's a great idea to get'er done and get in early.  Some folks who camped outside got wet when the sprinklers came on overnight ( that also happened to us on the Big Ride ! )

We left Loveland headed north, then made a turn to the mountains and rode past Horsetooth Reservoir, and then alongside the Big Thompson River and through a canyon.  Towards the end we had a section of about 12% grade that tested everyone, and then topped out with a beautiful overlook of the mountains around Estes Park.   A fast downhill into Estes Park, with lunch outside an older school area and a very cold shower.  That afternoon Todd and I rode into town for a milk shake and came back by going over a little mountain ( probably not the best idea ! ).

Todd getting up the climb !

Lots of reservoirs

Big Thompson Canyon

Overlook above Estes Park

Day 2 Estes Park to Golden

Todd and I rolled out early and we headed to Golden.  The ride went pretty quickly, we were about the third or fourth people into the first SAG stop, and did pretty good.   Around Nederland, a faster rider passed us and I speeded up and was following him.   I went past one of the volunteers waving an orange flag.  The guy ahead says something like "what was that about" and I say "I think he's telling us to slow down for the curve ahead"....  About 3 miles later consisting of an uphill and a downhill, I figure out that no one is following us.  The faster guy goes way on ahead and I turn around and head back and find the road that the flag guy was actually telling us to take.  About 6 Bonus Miles added to what was going to be a 70 mile day.  I got into Golden after paying better attention to the cue sheets, and we settled into another gym.

Me

Lots of tents.  The Sherpa Outfitters setup the tents that look like a National Guard outpost.

Day 3 Golden to Fraser

This was promised to be the hard day.  We would do Lookout Mountain ( above Golden ), then Squaw Pass, and then Berthoud Pass.  Mt Evans was completely optional.  The day was going to be some 83 miles and 9000 feet of climbing without Evans, and ridiculous with it.  Todd, Mike from Cedar Rapids, and I rolled out before sunrise and got up Lookout Mountain pretty quickly.

Climbing Lookout Mountain above Golden 

 We spotted a doe and two fawns at Buffalo Bill's gravesite park which is up on Lookout Mountain.  After that we had a short ride on I-70 and got to the Evergreen Parkway, then started up Squaw Pass.

Deer near Buffalo Bill's Grave

 We had great SAG support from a bunch of volunteers.

Volunteers setting up the SAG stop.

 I think Squaw Pass is about 10,900 or so.  Some wonderful views of the mountains, my iPhone just didn't do it justice.

View from Squaw Pass ( the 2nd climb )

 After descending Squaw Pass, we get to Echo Lake.  The official ride did not go up Evans, but I started it.  Some local folks ask "where are you from ?" and when I replied "Tucson", they warned about altitude sickness and getting dizzy and such.   I felt pretty confident having trained and done Pikes Peak a couple of years ago, and the sky looked clear enough to get up and down without getting drowned, so up I went.   The climb was not too hard in terms of grade, but the lack of oxygen does make a difference.  I think I got up in 2 hrs 40 minutes including stopping to take a few pictures, and resting a couple of time.

Goliath Trailhead on Mt Evans ( above treeline )

Beautiful ( no rain clouds yet ! )

A nice dropoff to this lake

A little bit of snow and the road going back down the mountain

DONE !

 The rainclouds are getting darker now.   On the way down I saw Louis and Charlie heading up.  They would turn out to make the summit and get soaked and chilled pretty strongly on the way down.

You can see forever

 So, having made it up Evans, I descended into Idaho Springs, and then on to Empire.  I was starving and got a grilled ham & cheese, a chocolate shake and iced tea at a Dairy King.  It was just about the most delicious thing I have even eaten.   I would not have made it up Berthoud Pass without it, as I had a lot of wind in my face all the way along US40 getting to the pass.

Looking down at Highway 40 on Berthoud Pass

Well, I made it up the pass to the top.  It took a while, and was about 6 pm, so after 100+ miles and 13400 feet of climbing, close to 12 hours,  and with darkness coming and having forgotten my long gloves, I chose a SAG ride down the mountain to Fraser.  I felt really guilty about not doing Every Last Mile, but I did do Evans.   I think about 8 or 9 of us did Evans, and I later heard that only one guy did the whole set of Lookout, Squaw Pass, Berthoud and Evans, and he was a lot younger than me !

Day 4 Fraser to Steamboat Springs

Well, Day 3 took a lot of wind out of me, and I was looking forward to having the next day off.  When we left Fraser, it was really cold, and I was glad to have brought my Woolistic baselayer and face cover, long gloves, knee warmers and the Showers Pass jacket.  It's August after all !

Out of the mountains

 We rolled out of the mountains into more of a high plains area and we went alongside the Colorado River for a while.

Colorado River watershed

We climbed through the Muddy Ears pass, and then Rabbit Ears pass before a long and very high speed descent into Steamboat Springs.  The next day was an off day, and everyone was glad for it.

Day 5 Off

Steamboat Springs is a pretty little town, lots of tourist related things.   I used the time to rest and eat.   Stuffed myself at breakfast, and then we hit a steakhouse with a group of guys and did the "cook your own steak" deal.  I had a buffalo steak and it was delicious.    The lights were on all night in the big hall that they assigned us to, and someone found that they had left a door open to the library, so some of us were in the kids library when the school staff came in and shooed us out the next morning.  ( But they did figure out how to turn the lights off  for the  second night ! )

Flowers at Steamboat Middle School

Hanging above my sleeping bag

Chef Gene

Great bunch of guys, at Steamboat Steakhouse

Day 6 Steamboat to Walden

We rolled out of Steamboat with a long climb up the west side of Rabbit Ears.   It wasn't that bad at all, about 7 to 8 %.   Training here in Tucson by riding up Mt Lemmon is a good thing !

Todd at Rabbit Ears SAG stop

 There are lots of Continental Divide places and this wa

Continental Divide

On the climb up Rabbit Ears

We got into Walden early enough that a group of us went to the Antler Inn and had lunch.  I ordered the large chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes, and then went back to an ice cream place after supper and got myself another chocolate shake.   ( See the repeated references to food ! )

Day 7 Walden to Loveland

Our last day in the mountains was going to be a 107 mile ride back to Loveland.  Another early morning start.  I got up and went outside for breakfast and quickly decided that I did not have enough clothes on, and headed back in to layer up further.  We had a beautiful climb up Cameron Pass and topped out again at about 10276 feet.  Then we had an awesome intense descent.   After the third SAG stop, I got passed by a string of about 7 riders, and I tagged onto the back and became the 8th in a really fast paceline.  We picked up a couple more and continued to the 4th SAG stop.    The ride back into Loveland was pretty hard with some wind coming but it all got done and it was good to finish.   

At about 10,000 feet

Cameron Pass

Rushing water, just beautiful

Gene loading up Blue Thunder while Todd looks on

Post Ride

Gene and Todd and I headed off for pizza, and then they headed north back to Washington, and I headed west on I-70.   I was pretty impressed by the engineering on I-70.  The road goes straight up and straight down and the Eisenhower tunnel is at something like 11,000 feet !    I spent a night in Dillon, CO and then drove to Moab, UT to take a look at Arches National Park.

Eisenhower Tunnel, heading west on I-70

 I got up at 5 am and took a really nice bike path out of Moab up to the park and was there for sunrise.  It was pretty amazing.  The sun went behind a bank of clouds after about 20 minutes or so, but those 20 minutes were pretty special.

Arches National Park at sunrise

My shadow riding along...

Another shadow

Hello New Day 

Next up, I will be helping coach our Team-in-Training El Tour Team, going to the GABA Silver City ride, and the big kahuna will be training to complete a double century bike ride in Death Valley in October.

Postscript

Well, the 2012 Big Ride is over and I believe all of our riders have made it home safely.   So,  I will try to set down a couple of thoughts about the ride while they are still in my memory banks.

This ride was awesome.   I know I have said that before, but it really is true.  We would get up at the crack of dawn, pack up, get a bite to eat, and then take off across the North American continent to a brand new destination that almost none of us had ever been to.  We would decamp in a new place, find new places to eat, exchange new stories of what happened to us out on "the road" and then go to bed, only to get up and do it all over again.   America is truly a beautiful place, and getting onto those back country roads, away from the strip malls and the Interstates is the only way to see it.   Our Big Ride organizers deserve a hearty "Thank You" for setting this all up.

There are lots of people to Thank about this ride, and I am going to take the risk of missing someone, in order that I can Thank the people that I can remember.   Yes, I should have taken notes, but I neglected to, so this is just about all from my memory.

When we got to Easton on that first night, we had Noel and Daria from previous rides, going along with us, and then got a great meal on a very cold and wet night, from the Seattle area alums.   Great pasta, a warm campfire, and some cold beer capped off a hard day of riding.   In Missoula, we connected with Cam's friends Leslie and Matt, and they invited the Team over to their home for a great meal, and showed some of us a bar that could only sell 3 beers to a customer on a night.  ( Never heard of that before ! ).

Way out in Harlowton, we all got invited to Todd & Liberty King's home for a great meal.  They are operating Cafe Chinook in Harlowton, and it will be yummy !   We rode on into South Dakota, and in a little place called Highmore, we were treated again to a great lunch stop from Sharon's Uncle Leo and family.   PB&J had begun to wear thin, and here was a bunch of deli meats and pastry to lunch on.   That's a key to a long distance cyclist !  And the Meyers family in Dakota, that was a great morning !

When we got to Viroqua, we were camped out on the fairgrounds in the sun with close to 100 deg temps, and Pastor Jeff of the Viroqua Church of Christ, invited us to come over and sleep in his Church.   The air conditioning made all the difference in the world as Rob and Liz and I fell asleep in the nursery room at sundown while the congregation was still doing some children's services.

Jim Andresen put on a great SAG stop for us, way out in the Illinois cornfields, with ice cream, and came to our camp in Grand Prairie with more ice cream and some Mike's Hard Lemonades.    We got another great meal when Liz's mom fed us home made pizzas and Ohio peaches and fresh fruit at our SAG stop on the way into Cleveland.   Fred Husak from the 2000 Big Ride put on a great lunch stop on the day that we rode to Confluence, along the banks of the Yough River.   Then Tony Cerrone brought his grill all the way from Allentown, and he and his son cooked burgers for us at Cowan State Park on the way to Gettysburg.  Tony came to Gettysburg College with ice cream and peaches and made sundaes for us.   And for all of that, the city of Gettysburg put a parking ticket on his windshield.

Alfred and Laverne fed us more pastry way out in Tracy, MN, and showed some of us a few facts about corn.   That was the morning that we jumped into the little yellow train like a bunch of kids.

At the Flight 93 Memorial, I met Wanda.  She welcomed and thanked us for riding out to the Memorial on our bicycles to see the Pennsylvania countryside and the Memorial.  Wanda was at the bombing of Pearl Harbor when she was a little girl.

We were treated to free entrances to the Cedar Point Park due to the efforts of James Lynne, who also provided the Team with a BIG box of batteries and other goodies to use on our trip.   And the Cedar Point staff escorted a group of riders onto one of the rides when we first got into the park.

And then there is Charleton and his wonderful wife Lynne who guided us across this big country and tried to keep us well watered and safe along the way.   What an amazing job they did.  Thank You Both.   And Gene Nash drove his own car "Blue Thunder" along the way and helped out every cyclist, hauling several of them long miles to the nearest bike shop to get broken things fixed.   With a repertoire of jokes and training as a paramedic, Gene is an awesome asset to have on a big bike ride.

And then my wife, Susan, who had to stay at home and keep the household running while I was off about the country.  I Love You, and Thank You for putting up with my being gone for 7 weeks.

So there were a lot of people helping out along the way, making us feel pretty darn special, and it was really appreciated by all of the riders.

Well, how about me ?   How do I feel ?

There was a great sign up at the Whiskey Off Road event that I went to back in the spring.  It said something like "Mildly Nervous, But I Think I Can Do This".    I believe that was my thought going into the Big Ride.  I knew I could do it, but was nervous about how I would hold up after many consecutive days of riding and of sleeping in tents.   And when we went outside, into the rain, that morning in Seattle, I started feeling a bit exposed by the whole concept... maybe I had bitten off too much.  But then, it was apparent that everyone else felt pretty similar, so we shrugged our inner selves and got on our bikes and rode off.    That's kinda the way life is, I don't really know what is coming around the bend, but the best thing is to just ride off towards it and see what happens, rather than sitting around fretting about it.   So, if there is an "epiphany for the ride", then that is probably it for me, and that's not too bad.

Thanks to all of you for reading my Blog, and many, many, many Thanks to all those who contributed financially to support the American Lung Association in my name.  You really made it all possible, and your support helps ALA fight smoking and lung diseases and supports the Clean Air Act and all of those other things that go to make for a healthier America.   Thank You One and All.

8 August, 2012
Mike

Missoula Ice Cream Social

Well, this posting is completely out of sequence.  I couldn't figure out where I put these pictures, but I finally found them !

Montana is one of the states that is considering legislation that may reduce the effectiveness of Clean Air laws that have already been passed.   And lots of businesses that pollute are upset with the efforts of the EPA to enforce the Clean Air Act.   Which,by the way, was passed by bipartisan legislation from both parties, by Senators and Representatives who saw the benefits to the overall nation by having clean air and people who were not sick from pollution.

But some companies and some legislators believe that emission controls are a hinderance to business and getting rid of them will help to create jobs.  In fact, in many cases, the opposite has been proven to be true.  So Renee Klein from the ALA office in Seattle came out to Missoula, Montana, to meet with some of the state legislators and with the mayor of Missoula, and our Big Rider group was invited to an ice cream social at the "Big Dipper" in Missoula as representatives of ALA.

Big Riders at the Big Dipper

Jim, Reesh, the Mayor, Renee, Rob

Steve, Jeffrey, the Mayor, Liz, Ben, Doron, Reesh, Yugi

It was a rainy day, and we assembled with our Big Ride bicycle jerseys on.   Renee made a short talk and then John Engen, the Missoula mayor, spoke for a few minutes.  In the photos, you can see the red baby carriage, which is a symbol of the American Lung Association's campaign for Clean Air.

Washington !

We made it !

Our little band of 17 riders, and Gene and Charleton and Lynne all got to Washington this morning and we had our welcome ceremony.   Got checked into the hotel and took the bike off to Revolution Cycles to be shipped back to Tucson.   Rob's wife, Beth, drove us back to the hotel, and now I am looking at this thing in the hotel room that I believe is called a bed.   It is so much bigger than my sleeping bag and Therm-a-rest pad.

I think the American Lung Association folks took some very good group shots, so I am just going to post up a few pics that I snapped this morning.   Rob, Sarah and I rolled into Washington around 9:30 or so, and after passing along the Potomac and the Kennedy Center, we got to the Lincoln Memorial.  We walked up and looked at Mr Lincoln for a bit, and then headed off to find the restaurant that was going to be feeding us for the hour or so, that we would wait until ALA had their ceremony at Freedom Plaza.

Costas, a rider from 1998 ( I think ), fed us a wonderful Greek meal.  Chicken, gyros, baklava, and other goodies.   Then we assembled upstairs and rode off to be officially greeted in groups of two.   I rode up there with Rob and Jeffrey.

It all went by pretty quickly... we rode up E street and then we were there, and we got our medals and the whole Big Ride 2012 was over.   Something that we have been striving for, and working on, day in and day out for 48 days ( and a couple more for those who got to Seattle a bit earlier and ran around getting bikes ready ), is completed.  

I think I will wait a day or so, to post a final posting, but I have loved this ride.  I met a wonderful group of people, and value all of them as my friends.   I was loved and supported by my wife, Susan, who had to stay at home and take care of the household, and then I got to go off and ride my bicycle across our great country.  I didn't have any physical problems, no bad knees, unusual aches or pains, and my butt held up just fine... sore at times, but what would one expect after some 40 days of riding ?   Yep, I am blessed at the age of 62, to have been able to do this, and for all of our group to have come through healthy and safe.  Yahoo !

Jim, Jeffrey, Rob & Lynne at our last Checkpoint

Sarah & Rob

The Potomac River ( we have crossed a lot of big American rivers )

Mr Lincoln

Sarah  & Me

Yugi

Rick's bike "Maude" all dressed up this morning with pearls

Sarah behind me on the bike path this morning going to Washington

Me

Molly, Yugi & Jim

Steve Rick & Molly

Reesh, Ben & Rob 

Done !

Our Team

Our Team