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RR: Colorado Trail (Part 4)
Days 4 and 5: South Park
One thing about bike touring is that it arouses sympathy in just about everybody you meet. The road to Goose Creek is navigable by car, and there are a few other campers at the site. Near where I have pitched my tent is a father with his three sons, who have just moved from Kansas to Denver, and are still full of the wonder of living in Colorado. They are fishing for trout, and pull out a number of small pan-fryers, which they bread and cook on an open fire. One of the teenage boys appears in my camp with a paper plate carrying two small whole fried trout and says they're for me. I accept them gratefully and it takes me no time to finish them off, the first fresh food I've had in a few days. The flavor is sublime. I have nothing to offer in return, so after dark I stroll over and chat with them by the fireside, and I teach the kids the constellations and the names of the stars, which they seem to think is more than a fair trade for the trout. My morning routine in camp, breakfast and packing, takes two hours if I focus and don't **** around. The water in my bottles is frozen to slush, and I pour the icy mix into a pan and heat it for coffee and oatmeal. The experience of the day before has me pretty rattled, and I am facing eight miles of steady climbing to start my day, up to the nameless 8,800 foot pass into South Park. I finish my packing and wave goodbye to my new friends, who look at me with what seems like a mixture of awe and pity, mostly pity. I begin the climb. To my suprise, the switchbacks which had destroyed me the day before are no particularly big deal with fresh legs. I work up a sweat, I am breathing hard, but I settle into a spin and make excellent time. As I climb, I get more and more panoramic views of the burned valley, and I begin to traverse groves of eight-foot high aspens, taking the first steps toward renewal of the land. I make sure I stop to eat at regular intervals, and the miles fall beneath my mighty Kendas. By mid-morning I crest the pass, and gaze into the beautiful, green valley of South Park. The descent is another six miles or so of winding fire road through cattle pasture and aspen groves. At this moment, I am quite certain that I am the happiest person on the planet. I have never seen such a beautiful valley in my entire life. I keep the bike under twenty miles an hour, because the trailer starts to get a little squirrely at high speed, and I roll like a freight train down to the pavement at Tarryall Road. From here it is a road ride through the rolling hills along Taryall Creek toward the town of Jefferson about thirty miles away. Traffic is light, and the only difficulty is a steadily growing headwind, which slows my progress considerably. I am hoping to find a cell signal here so I can call my contact in Denver and let him know I am doing ok, but I have no luck. There are no towns, no restaurants, only a long series of tidy ranches with forbidding NO TRESPASSING signs along the roadside. I finally find a little fishing lodge, and the owner very generously lets me make the long-distance call to Denver on her phone. It's that bike tour thing again. The wind is now ferocious, strong enough that it is kicking gravel off the road and into my face like little stinging insects. I forge ahead as far as Taryall Reservoir, and pitch my tent in the howling wind, exhausted. There are a few other people around, and again I am greeted with offers of food and a place by a warm fire, this time by an ex- Army Ranger named Bud, who seems amazed that I have pulled that trailer all this way. He regales me with tales of his paratrooper training as if he feels I will understand his suffering. I trade him expensive French Absinthe for a couple of cans of cold Bud Light -- funny how economics becomes distorted in the wilderness. I sleep like death. The morning of the fifth day is an easy ride, twenty miles, all pavement, climbing up to Kenosha Pass at 10,000 feet. Or so I think. Absolutely nothing is easy here. It is seventeen miles from the reservoir to Route 285, and then a short climb up to the pass, and the headwind kicks up immediately after sunrise, rapidly growing to a howling crescendo. I cross the last hill before the highway, and I can see the Jefferson shimmering red in the distance like Lago. The wind is insane. I am going five miles an hour on level pavement. My legs are on fire with lactic acid. I finally lose it, and begin shouting at the wind: "STOP BLOWING!!! STOP BLOWING, DAMMIT!!" I am railing at God, impotent. The wind picks up even more. I finally struggle into the little general store in Jefferson, and huddle in the corner over a bag of Chex Mix and a Gatorade. A woman wearing a RAGBRAI T-shirt says something perky, and I just sort of mumble at her. Another miserable ****ing day on the bike. I put on my jacket and head out onto U.S. 285 toward Kenosha Pass. The shoulder is maybe eight inches wide, I am in a forty mile-per-hour crosswind with a trailer, and eighteen wheelers are flying by at seventy miles an hour. Not fun. I take to pulling off and waiting for a break in traffic and sprinting for half a mile, then waiting for the next cluster of cars and trucks to pass. But as the road begins to switch back up to Kenosha, the shoulder widens and what had been a headwind is now a tailwind. The wind takes me up to 10,000 feet as if carried by angels. |
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#2
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RR: Colorado Trail (Part 4)
On Jun 30, 3:53*am, Corvus Corvax wrote:
Days 4 and 5: South Park One thing about bike touring is that it arouses sympathy in just about everybody you meet. {Terrific prose snipped} The wind takes me up to 10,000 feet as if carried by angels. My ISP dropped Usenet access a week ago, and reading via Google Groups is not only boring but frustrating (can't tell who wrote what), but these four tour accounts by CC were simply outstanding. Glad I stuck around at least long enough to enjoy those. Thanks, CC! Bill "still nursing a broken scapula (40 mph front blow out) but road riding again" S. |
#3
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RR: Colorado Trail (Part 4)
On Jun 30, 7:46 pm, Bill Sornson wrote:
My ISP dropped Usenet access a week ago, and reading via Google Groups is not only boring but frustrating (can't tell who wrote what), but these four tour accounts by CC were simply outstanding. Thank you! Really sucks that Roadrunner dumped Usenet, although I think a.m-b is pretty much dead anyway. It was handy to put the text here, because spokejunkies.com filters out the bad words, and I didn't feel like being sanitized. Photos of the trip are at spokejunkies.com in five parts: http://www.spokejunkies.com/forum/in...showtopic=7815 http://www.spokejunkies.com/forum/in...showtopic=7818 http://www.spokejunkies.com/forum/in...showtopic=7826 http://www.spokejunkies.com/forum/in...showtopic=7830 http://www.spokejunkies.com/forum/in...showtopic=7837 CC |
#4
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RR: Colorado Trail (Part 4)
Bill Sornson wrote:
On Jun 30, 3:53 am, Corvus Corvax wrote: Days 4 and 5: South Park One thing about bike touring is that it arouses sympathy in just about everybody you meet. {Terrific prose snipped} The wind takes me up to 10,000 feet as if carried by angels. My ISP dropped Usenet access a week ago, and reading via Google Groups is not only boring but frustrating (can't tell who wrote what), but these four tour accounts by CC were simply outstanding. Glad I stuck around at least long enough to enjoy those. Thanks, CC! Bill "still nursing a broken scapula (40 mph front blow out) but road riding again" S. Ooh, sorry to hear about your misfortune Bill. Ouch! I separated my shoulder earlier this year (too much air off a water bar on a windy day) and that was a real drag too. I'm now back to full riding condition and have a stash of pain meds for if I ever need them again (knock on wood). Hope your recovery is full and speedy! Matt |
#5
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RR: Colorado Trail (Part 4)
On Jul 1, 9:21*am, MattB wrote:
Bill Sornson wrote: On Jun 30, 3:53 am, Corvus Corvax wrote: Days 4 and 5: South Park One thing about bike touring is that it arouses sympathy in just about everybody you meet. {Terrific prose snipped} The wind takes me up to 10,000 feet as if carried by angels. My ISP dropped Usenet access a week ago, and reading via Google Groups is not only boring but frustrating (can't tell who wrote what), but these four tour accounts by CC were simply outstanding. *Glad I stuck around at least long enough to enjoy those. *Thanks, CC! Bill "still nursing a broken scapula (40 mph front blow out) but road riding again" S. Ooh, sorry to hear about your misfortune Bill. Ouch! I separated my shoulder earlier this year (too much air off a water bar on a windy day) and that was a real drag too. I'm now back to full riding condition and have a stash of pain meds for if I ever need them again (knock on wood). Hope your recovery is full and speedy! Matt- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - Thanks, Matt. I was VERY fortunate, really -- helmet cracked in numerous places, plus even my sunglass frame was scraped all to hell -- but my face and head were untouched. (Didn't even know it hit the pavement until a helping rider said, "Well, your helmet sure did its job!") Road rash was pretty light, too, considering. Landed hard on right shoulder (one that's already had two surgeries) and hip -- still have two red "trauma circles" on both almost 5 weeks later. Thought I'd torn up the wing really bad, but had no idea I'd fractured anything. Should heal in place and not need hardware. I'm going in for an "arthrogram" and MRI today. Surgery 50-50 odds I'd guess; would really like to avoid. What's hardest to take was a material defect (bead separated from casing so tube poked through and...BOOM!) causing the crash and not my own "user error". The latter would be MUCH easier to accept. Still, considering I could have easily broken my neck or been run over, I know how fortunate I was. Bill "heck, I was even getting back into mountain biking weekly/ weakly" S. |
#6
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RR: Colorado Trail (Part 4)
On Jul 1, 1:42*pm, Bill Sornson wrote:
Thanks, Matt. *I was VERY fortunate, really -- helmet cracked in numerous places, plus even my sunglass frame was scraped all to hell -- but my face and head were untouched. *(Didn't even know it hit the pavement until a helping rider said, "Well, your helmet sure did its job!") *Road rash was pretty light, too, considering. Landed hard on right shoulder (one that's already had two surgeries) and hip -- still have two red "trauma circles" on both almost 5 weeks later. *Thought I'd torn up the wing really bad, but had no idea I'd fractured anything. *Should heal in place and not need hardware. Yeeks! That sounds highly unpleasant, but I'm glad to hear it wasn't worse. Heal well. CC |
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