Day 13 - 9/18 - Riding Day # 11 - Hartsel to Salida, Colorado
Greetings all and I hope you had a relaxing Sunday! Today was supposed to be "an easier" day, but in my humble opinion, it was far from that! I am guessing that I wasn't the only one who thought that today's 52 mile day would not cause much pain. However, I was wrong as after a seat time of only 4:40, my body and legs felt like I'd been on the bike a lot longer. Our itinerary showed a total climb of 3209 feet, but my Wahoo only showed 2933. However, I do believe in the accuracy of the descent total of 4597 feet, because we went from 10,000 feet above sea level down to 7000 feet during the last part of our ride!
The morning started great as we left the ranch in sunny skies around 9:15 AM. The picture I've included will show you my excited face and the very blue sky. To my recollection, it was the first time on my trip that I hadn't begun my trip by wearing a jacket! The first 4 miles were paved, so some of us rode together. However, that changed quickly when we hit gravel as it just got crazy. There were washboards across the roads for miles and at times the dirt/sand got deep too. In addition, there seemed to be quite a few campers and trucks coming by us at breakneck speed and creating little mini dust storms. I settled back near the back of the pack but slowly got my legs and passed 3 or 4 people on the way to lunch at 25 miles. It was interesting, because all of the good riders and the next level of riders were still there, but it was very quiet. The wind was blowing and my buddy leaned over to me and said, "Everyone is tired"! You could just feel it because the first part of the day was just jarring to the body and the wind sapped your spirit.
I ate a quick lunch and left shortly after the better riders left. Of course, I never saw any of them, but my attitude was just to go and get to the hotel. It was different yesterday, but today I wanted my rest day to start early! About 40 minutes later, some of the young guns and other good riders, including Bob, started passing me. But while the wind got stronger and of course was between 10 and 2 on a clock while we were heading for 12 o'clock, the roads actually got better! And it helped that the temps were in the 60s, so all was not so bad. We had a significant elevation gain of about 1000+ feet over 2 climbs and 3 things happened during that time that kind of cracked me up. First, Dana, the rider who came by yesterday and told me to get on the bus, passed me on a climb at a blistering 5 mph and said, "No bus today"! Then there was a section of this gravel road that got to 14% and I could see Goran, another really good OM rider, walking his bike up the hill. I was struggling at the time with my tires not getting traction and my legs being on fire, so I just hopped off my bike! It was the old monkey see monkey do principle. Then at some time during this climbfest, Bob catches me and says something to the effect of, "my legs are shot and I have no energy", yet he then blows on by me to the top of the climb! I finally made it up there and told the 5 guys, including Bob, the story and they all laughed. Anyway, we made it to the top!
The trip down was something like 8 miles long and we lost 3,000 feet of elevation as we headed towards the beautiful town of Salida. We stopped multiple times to take pictures, but they really don't do justice to the views we had on this beautiful day! When I got to the hotel, the soup and other goodies were ready in the parking lot for some calorie replacement and we checked into our rooms shortly thereafter. Tonight, I walked about 15 minutes to a restaurant and enjoyed a salmon sandwich, fries, 3 huge glasses of water, and best of all, a wonderful homemade chocolate milkshake where they give you the metal cup they make it in! Believe it or not, this was the FIRST TIME I have had ice cream on this entire trip! On the walk home, I took a couple pictures of the clouds and I've included one for you to see.
There were no rides honoring anyone today or any great lesson learned, except to be reminded that one should never take what they consider to be any easier task for granted. Extenuating circumstances can change that in a hurry and they did today! It was great to have a long conversation with my wife this afternoon and I am super excited that my son is visiting me tomorrow! Bottom line, I realize that I am very fortunate to be able to be involved in this ride and the fundraiser! Make it a great Monday! Over and out!
