Day 15 - 9/20 - Riding Day #12 - Salida to Sargents, Colorado
Greetings Everyone! As always, thanks so much for taking your valuable time to check in on my blog! I am just going to come out and say that today was just a great day! I felt somewhat rested after my day off and breakfast was extra special, as I got to introduce my son Billy to some of the guys I'd been riding with and he also got to eat a biker's breakfast. At least he saw how much we eat! It was great spending some time with him, although it wasn't nearly enough!
We rode off from the motel at about 9:15 and immediately started to gain elevation as we left Salida, an elevation of 7083 feet. Once we reached the 5-mile point, the climbing began as we headed up a higher-grade paved road. At Mile 10, we turned onto a gravel road and headed up for another 15 miles. Along the way, I passed a beautiful mountain lake and you can see it in one of my pictures. At Mile 25, I reached Marshall Pass, the elevation of 10,842 feet, at the Continental Divide. While being a long climb, I'd call it fair as we didn't have those big grades of 8 to 15 percent! Along the way, I missed a turn and went 3/4 of a mile down the wrong hill before realizing that it was me and not my GPS that messed up! The climb back to the correct road was no fun, but at least I got an extra 1.5 miles in for the day. One of my friends said, "you got extra credit today"! Due to my mistake, my friend that I affectionately call "California John" had gone past me on the climb. When I came upon him later in the climb, I yelled out, "OH" and I was unrealistically hopeful that he would yell out, "IO". But he has a graduate degree from the University of Michigan (ugh) and he yelled out, "Hail to the Victors"! I guess I deserved that, but it made me chuckle on the climb!
The 17 remaining miles before lunch was mostly downhill and I've included 2 videos for you to watch. I wish they would be better, but I am trying and will hopefully get better with videos before my trip ends! In this segment, the sun was out for the first portion of the long downhill, and for the first time, I saw the aspen leaves starting to turn to vibrant shades of gold! One interesting fact about aspen trees is that they are noted for their ability to regenerate vegetatively, by shoots and suckers arising along their lateral roots. Root sprouting results in many genetically identical trees, in aggregate, called a clone. As several of us were at one particularly beautiful scenic point, one of the riders talked about this and noted that one can see which tree is in what family based on its leaf color at the time. It was educational for me, but maybe a bit boring for this blog!
When we got to lunch at 42 miles (43.5 for me!), it looked like rain was imminent. So the decision was made for everyone to put up their tents, eat lunch, and then ride the last 28 miles. Ten riders were selected to ride out to the drop-off point, where the van that was taking me and 6 others would pick them up after we were dropped off. This was necessary because outside of Sargents, there was no place to camp. I must say, everyone in our van was really quiet as it looked like rain for sure and it was hard to get fired up to ride again after being off the bike for 90 minutes or so. But it worked out, especially for us. It rained a bit when we started, but it stopped quickly and it wasn't too cold. We had the benefit of a huge amount of downhill, but we were going against the wind. Two of the better OM (old men over 60 in case you forgot) got to the paved portion of the trip first and waited for Bob and me to arrive. When we did, we formed a 4 man peloton, with each person leading for 5 minutes before switching and we made it back to Sargents in no time. Our 28-mile trip had only taken us 1:47 and we were enjoying soup by 5:00 PM! Dinner was at 7:00 and Annika served a wonderful fish stew with shrimp and multiple types of veggies. It truly was the end of a wonderful day. I did some texting and then was in my tent by 9:15 PM. I went to sleep to the sound of a nearby creek!
Today, I rode in honor of all of my friends! I have been blessed with so many friends over the years and they have come from various times of my life, whether it be from high school or church. athletics, real estate, friends of the family or other friends, etc. The bottom line, I cherish every one of my friends, but I realize that I must spend time growing and continuing those relationships. I've been fortunate to have many great ones, and it was really fun today to try and think of every friend that I am so lucky to have!