Radio Silence Broken
Telluride, CO > Cimarron, C0
Miles Ridden – 87.0
Mileage to date – 1,386.2
He is alive! I heard from John this morning. They camped out last night in Cimarron and had no internet access. They are headed towards Sapinero, CO now. This mileage data is for yesterday 9/12/17.
John’s Location at September 13, 2017 at 08:36AM
To Hell U Ride?
Dolores, CO > Telluride, CO
Miles Ridden – 64.3
Mileage to date – 1,299.2
Oops, sorry for the typo in the title…. should read “Telluride”. Speaking of the four letter words, one four letter word that we discussed at length when planning the trip was… rain. When you plan to spend 6 to 8 weeks riding your bicycle nearly everyday, you are bound to get rained on at some point. For John, that some point came today. Luckily, John is well prepared for rain. His bike has fenders which helps reduce the spray off the wheels. He has a really nice Gore Tex rain jacket and pants. Despite all of that, when it rains and you are on a bicycle you get wet. Period. Throw in some mountains into the mix and you get wet and cold.
John’s account –
“It was beautiful when we started and had a great lunch. We pulled into lunch in Rico and it started raining hard. After about an hour lunch it started to lighten up a bit. I put on my rain gear and we started up the pass. After a few miles or so it started raining hard and hailing. Jamie and Heather got in the car (Ethan’s) and I kept riding as my stuff is gore tex etc. after about 4 miles it let up and mostly stopped. I got to the pass and waited for them and it started raining again. I descended and road into town because it was cold.”
I have never been to Telluride, but it has a reputation for being one of the most beautiful ski mountains in the US. It is in southwestern Colorado. John ascended nearly 4,300 feet today the bulk of the climbing was on Lizard Head Pass. How cool a name is that? John describes it as a “long, but gentle climb all the way from Dolores”. It tops out at 10,222 elevation above sea level.
Here is a photo of the pass –
Photos from today –
Cool spot for lunch –
Delicious watermelon juice-
John’s Location at September 11, 2017 at 03:48PM
John’s Location at September 10, 2017 at 03:54PM
No Rest for the Weary
Blanding, UT > Dolores, CO
Miles Ridden – 82.3
Mileage to date – 1,234.9
John and crew were back in action today after totally crushing it yesterday. Today’s destination was Dolores,CO (population 938) which probably felt like a metropolis after all the small towns in southeastern Utah. One thing nice about Colorado is that the services will be a little more plentiful. Colorado will require more climbing and today was no exception as John did nearly 4,700 feet of climbing.
John’s account of the day – “The climb right out of Blanding was pretty mellow grade-wise but difficult because of yesterday’s ride. Fortunately the temperature was very comfortable all day, making the ride easier. The traffic was quite busy with many 18-wheel trucks. The scenery has changed pretty quickly from the classic Utah red and sandstone vistas to rolling farm land. Didn’t have interactions with anyone outside of the group. We were all relieved to get here as the ride was made more challenging due to yesterday’s activities.”
Tomorrow’s destination is the Telluride area.
A couple of photos from today –
A Long Day
Hanksville, UT> Blanding, UT
Miles Ridden – 125.6
Mileage to date – 1,152.6
What were you doing at 5:35 this morning? I doubt very much that you climbed on your bicycle in the pitch dark to begin a 100 or 125 mile ride across one of the most remote stretches of highway in the US like John and his 2 partners in crime did.
From John – “We left in the pitch dark this morning and the temperature was perfect. My head light died right at sunrise. It was just beautiful all day…..some head winds, clouds helped keep us comfortable. We didn’t meet or talk to anyone else all day. There were very few cars on hiway 95”. The very end of the ride “was incredibly difficult for me”.
John rode again with Jaime and Heather. Ethan provided sag support which I can only assume was a huge help on such a challenging ride. They previously decided that once they got to the turn off for the campground at 95 miles they would collectively decided to stop or go for it. They climbed 8,100 feet today with 3,000 of it coming after mile 95! Just a long, hard day no matter how you slice it.
This particular section of the route has been on John’s mind since he decided to take the Western Express. Now that it is past him, I am sure he is relieved. There will be some challenging days ahead, but nothing will come close to today. Just an amazing effort.
Tomorrow they will be in Colorado and John will have completed more than 1/3 of his trip.
Cindy and I enjoyed our last day at Capital Reef. We awoke to cloudy skies and cool temperatures at our hotel in Torrey about 12 miles up the road from Capital Reef. After breakfast, we drove down to the Gifford Homestead in the park to pick up some pies (peach and apple) to snack on later. We hiked up to the Rim Overlook and continued on to Navajo Knobs which made for a 9.4 mile hike. The overcast skies helped keep us cool. The 5 hour trip back to Las Vegas was very beautiful as well. What an end to a great vacation.
Some photos from John’s ride today-
Some of our photos from Capital
We hiked up here!
View on I-15 on the way to Las Vegas –
Maybe my bike is in one of these?
The end.
John’s Location at September 09, 2017 at 06:08PM
Beauty in All Directions
Boulder, UT > Hanksville, UT
Miles Ridden – 84.0
Mileage to date – 1,027.3
John had an awesome ride today despite more climbing. The scenery was non-stop, drop dead gorgeous all the way to Hanksville. He climbed 4500 feet, but due to the change in elevation between Boulder and Hanksville he descended 6700 feet. Most of the climbing came early in the day and the rest of the day was on flat or descending terrain. The excitement of the day came on Boulder Mountain when 2 cows ran out in the road in front of John. He hit the brakes and came to within 30 feet of them. They engaged in a staring contest for a while and the cows ran off!
Cindy and I spent the day in Capital Reef which is a really nice National Park. It is not very well known, but it incredibly beautiful and I highly recommend it. It is not as developed as Bryce or Zion, but there is still quite a bit to see. It was established as a park in 1971. This area was originally a Mormon settlement called Fruita and was settled in the late 1800’s. This is an incredibly remote area and the settlers were very self sufficient. They established a number of orchards that still exist to this day. In fact we had a fresh baked pie today from the fruit in the orchard.
We visited an old homestead, the school house, took the scenic drive through the park, and did 3 small hikes – a very busy day.
Tomorrow we plan to do a longer hike in the morning, eat more pie, and then head to Las Vegas where we will fly home from on Sunday.
John is still cycling with Jaime and Heather. Tomorrow will be a huge riding day for them. The next town from Hanksville is a Blanding and is 125 miles away with no services on the route. Their plan is to ride 95 miles and assess how they feel. At 95 miles they can travel about 5 miles off route to a primitive campground. If they do the full 125 miles they will do 8000 feet of climbing. They plan to start at 5 am. Due to the amount of riding and poor internet connections I don’t think we will have much of a detailed update from John tomorrow.
Photos from John’s ride-
Photos from the Park-
Old Fruita school house-
