Five days to go

Rambling thoughts

I've managed one more 50 mile ride since the trip to Aspen. I've ridden a number of shorter rides. I think I'm good to go. I have a new metric to measure my readiness. Wayne plots out his elevation gain per mile. Hmm. I've never done that. Roughly, based on the two overall maps I've published here in the journal, we will ride an average of 55 feet elevation gain per mile. That is not as high as I expected. I've been using that as my target during training rides. I've even ridden some hill repeats! I have never done hill repeats before, and probably won't be making it a habit.

Ten hill repeats!

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I've also entertained myself by checking on our food availability. Does it surprise anyone that food is at the front of my mind? Our first leg of the trip is nine days to Gunnison. Of those nine, three of the towns have only one place to eat. Red Cliff, and Twin Lakes, we can get dinner. But not breakfast. At Taylor Park, they are open weekends only, due to lack of staff. It is unfortunate that we have to carry food on the arduous climb up Cottonwood Pass to Taylor Park. Beef jerky and instant potatoes, anyone?

Good bicycle friend, Oren, is joining us for the entire tour! This is his first tour since COVID. We are delighted to tour with Oren again. Jacinto has a beer companion!

I started our reservations in October. By January, some of the popular places were already sold out for summer. Oren will be bunking with us in a couple of spots. Amazingly, those are places where we had cabins with two bedrooms.

Oren approved of my lodging decision in La Sal, Utah. We have a big climb that day. Going all the way to Moab, UT from Naturita, CO would be 80 miles and almost 5,000 feet of climbing. That is on the far side of my fun zone. Instead, I rented an airbnb in tiny La Sal. It had a two night minimum. We plan to stay just one night, forfeiting the second night. Instead, we will take a well earned day off in Moab. Jacinto wasn't too happy about wasting the second night in La Sal. He would be stir crazy long before noon. I would be fine with wi-fi and a cushy couch. Jacinto needs places to go and people to see. La Sal has none of those things. We would keep moving. Oren thought that was a fine plan. The amenities of town are a draw, especially a town like Moab!

It is raining and cold again today. We spent the day getting ready. Jacinto had some minor excitement - his Rodriguez touring bike has another broken spoke. The last one was in Green Bay, WI while on tour last summer. We took the wheel to our local bike shop. Troy said he would replace the spoke and get Jacinto on the road. I did express my concerns about having three broken spokes in three years. Troy didn't think that was too many. He comes from a mountain biking background. Texting with Alison reinforced my thoughts that, given Jacinto's preference for pedaling standing up, and carrying pounds and pounds of pistachios, that he should have the wheel rebuilt. I've left Troy a message requesting a full rebuild of the wheel.

In the meanwhile, we put a new tire on my rear wheel. We discovered a loose brake pad at the time. That could have had a bad ending. I'm glad we caught it. I have new pedals and cleats. I took off the Rockgeist panniers. You are going to laugh at me. I took them off for two reasons. 1) The dry bag fabric is not soft, it rattles. 2) There's one clip closing the dry bag, and then a second strap threads through the dry bag to hold it in place. Thus, I need to close two clips each time I get in that pannier. I tried really hard to convince myself those things didn't matter. They do. I put my Arkel Dry Lite panniers back on. They are a slightly smaller capacity, but the fabric doesn't rattle, and they take only one clip to close.

As a side excitement - we are hoping that the bike path through Glenwood Canyon will be open on Day 2. It was closed since last summer, due to a giant rock slide. I've called CDOT. Lonnie told me that the plan was to open for Memorial Weekend (now), but that was not a promise. I could not find any mention of the path opening. I will double check on a weekday when they answer that phone line. We've had an entire weekend of rain. I hope that doesn't cause the river to flood the path, and close it just as it opened.

There are so many little things to think about. It's a wonder I can sleep at night! It's time to get pedaling and work off some extra energy.

Energy - I might not have much left after all of the climbing. I have gone through the maps, figuring out how many high elevation passes we have. One pass over 12,000 feet - Cottonwood Pass on Day 5. Lucky us! One pass over 11,000 feet, Slumgullion Pass. Five over 10,000 feet and five more over 9,000 feet. Utah isn't very generous with pass names. They have summits, and don't even name them. Cyclists are lucky to get a summit sign with the elevation - but they seldom have a name. Just, 'summit'. The climbs in Utah are generally lower elevation, but that doesn't mean they won't take work. Our highest pass in Utah is Wolf Creek Pass, at 9,485 feet.

Looking at it another way - we have one day of over 5,000 feet of climbing. That's a ride Ben Meyerson highly recommended in Payson Canyon, Utah. Jacinto will be happy that day. Oren and I might take a flat route around. The day over Cottonwood Pass is a 4,000+ climbing day. There's eleven more days of over 3,000 feet of climbing. I didn't even bother counting the 2,000 foot days. Those will feel easy.

I told Jacinto all of these numbers. You know the part he was interested in? He wanted to know if I had added up how many nights we have king size beds! That's his concern.

I called Oren and talked about nothing - just excited that we are getting close. The roads around home are not near as exciting as those heading for new locales. Ready or not, I want to hit the road!

I’ve added a few spring training photos from close to home. I like all of the old farm equipment at this equally old farm house.

Lambs near Harvey Gap are a sure sign of spring.

Spring flowers! Bill has researched them as Pasqueflower.

Harvey Gap is full of water. Neighboring Rifle Gap is alarmingly low.

As I cycled past, I initiated a conversation about the grass must be greener outside of the fence.

I do not know what sort of bovine this is. There were no others in the field. Bill has researched it as a highland cow, originally from Scotland.

Spring has been long and cold this year. Even the girl with a fur coat likes to stay by the fire.

I bought Rockgeist panniers. The dry bag slides easily in/out of the holster. That would be extra convenient for tent camping.

The sign behind my bike says to use CB channel 2. This road must go to a gas development pad. Those roads are very narrow, steep, and dangerous. The drivers communicate by CB, so they know where the other drivers are and can pull over at a safe spot for passing. Note that my bike has a memory foam pad on the seat. I think it’s a keeper. My sciatic nerve doesn’t always play nicely.

I have new pedals and cleats for the tour! I use Bebop pedals. They were a 90’s item, popular with recumbent riders. Bebop is long since defunct, but I found some old stock for sale on EBay. This is a very special occasion, to have new Bebops.

Officially, a serving of pistachios is 1/2 cup. That isn’t sufficient for a hungry cyclist! Jacinto has a total of six pounds of pistachios he is bringing. Accompanied by a beer or cold soda, that is his favorite post ride snack.

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Scott AndersonI’m excited for you guys and look forward to following along. Great that you roped Oren into joining you. Good luck with the weather.
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2 years ago

marilyn swettI'm looking forward to reading about your adventures. Just reading about all of the climbing you are planning makes my legs hurt! Think I'll stick to flat or rolling, and skip the mountain passes!
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2 years ago