Day 15, 16 & 17:  Rest, Go, Colorado!

On day 17 we passed into Colorado! But we have had a heck of a time in the last few days and haven't properly updated the blog. So I will catch you up to date. BUT FIRST:

On Day 15 we needed to recover from the desert disaster that happened on Day 14. So we stayed at a lodge on Lake Powell. We watched the Grand Budapest Hotel, drank lots of water, slushies and ate pizza.

Also at the lodge was this cycling pair, Adam and Vajda (pronounced Vie-da) from Oakland, CA. They both have cycled across the US many times. Vajda once went from Oakland to Alaska to the Yukatan back up to Oakland in a year. What?!

Our gallons of water were leaking so Vajda actually jumped into this recycling dumpster and found us new bottles with better screw on caps!

Day 16 was a lot more desert. Jon and I realized that we were longing to see some trees. 

The canyons were still pretty neat though.

We ended day 16 at 91 miles in the town of Blanding, Utah. Blanding was bland. We ate Chinese food from a grocery store.

Then we set off in the morning of Day 17, September 19th. Happy birthday to Oliver Gagnon, Beth Bagwell, and Robin Crabb. 

Unfortunately we got 3 flats collectively today. It was terrible. Wire and glass littered the shoulder.

Fortunately we met these brilliant people! Todd and Stormy. You can follow their blog here: 2smart2herd.wordpress.com. They are doing an INSANE trip that most go through a majority of the states. They are from Oregon, Todd studied forestry and Stormy studied Exercise and Sports Science (or something to that effect). You'll notice she is also riding the same bike and same saddle as me, with front yellow bags! 

Then we passed into Colorado! We made it to Dolores for a 91 mile day. We got some new tubes as the Lizard Head Bike Shop, and we are about to climb Lizard Head Mountain. We hear they are FREE HOT SPRINGS IN RICO! which is about 30 miles in today, and they should be about 108 degrees! Fingers Crossed! 

DAY 18 Hot Springs, X-Games, & Telluride!

Day 18 started in Dolores, Colorado. We wanted trees, and we got trees. We rode up Lizard Head Pass (10,222') and had a lovely stream with changing aspen trees. 

We stopped at a town called Rico about 36 miles up the mountain. A guy named Felix Snow stopped and talked to us. He had a gruff voice and was excited about our cross country trip. He called us out-of-our-mind. Then we found out who he was.... A parabalegic X-Games Snow Skier!!! 

Check him out, he has taken the lead at 1:30-ish.

Then as we ate lunch we heard a gun-shot!!!

After Jon fixed his tube, locals told us about the free hot springs in town. 

And we ran into Archy (pronounced Arky) who was a prospector of dinosaur bones back in the day. He had a business in which he would make dinosaur bone jewelry. He said it looked like polished walnut. He also ran a tube from the hot spring to a hot-tub in May of 1990.

We summited Lizard Head Pass. 

(picture of Chris looking  serious at the top of a mountain.)

When we got to Telluride we met Angie and Lee. They work on an organic family farm about 2.5 hours away, and they brought the MOST DELICIOUS CREATIONS EVER! Pasta Salad with Green Zebra striped tomatoes, arugula, Jimmy Nardelo Peppers, Lemon cucumbers, onions and carrots. Salsa that had  brandywine tomatoes, and a bunch of different heirloom tomatoes from the farm, cilantro, garlic, siberian garlic, Hungarian hot wax peppers, Zucchini/chocolate chip/cornbread, a delicious fruit sale that had melons, mint ginger, pears, apple & peaches. This stuff was serious so good!

It then rained all night. It snowed on the mountain, and in the morning there was a waterfall. 

DAY 19 To the Hops House!

The morning started with this fine gentleman giving us $100. It was really a random act of kindness. We bumped into him about 4 times around the campground, every time he had a new question to ask about our trip. He would shake his head and say, "That's so amazing. I'm jealous." 

His name was David, and our trip reminded him of canoeing the Mississippi with his son. They did it every year until his son moved to Paris. 

He slapped the money in my hand and said, "Have a good time. You're riding for a really good cause." Really nice and genuine guy.

We started from Bryce Canyon this morning and climbed a mountain.

We saw pretty things.

We biked from Tropic to Escalante along the National Monument The Grand Staircase. It was 40 miles of amazing breath-taking views. 

At the Petrified Forest State Park Visitor Center we ran into two guys who have cycled across the states multiple times. They didn't even know each other! How crazy is that? On the left is Harden who is 68 years old and staying fit. He is in the area writing a book about trails. On the right is Rob, a retired Marine who seems to be almost completely nomadic. They both knew our route better than we did and were able to finish all of our sentences.

We dropped into a canyon, and then flew through some of the most beautiful red rocks. Then we had a monster climb up to this view:

Unfortunately it closed at 1pm. We seriously biked so hard up those mountains to get there by 5. It was so sad. Here's Jon right after the fact. 

My cable I need for editing is in that package, so starting tomorrow I'll start being able to put stuff tougher. But until then, here is a few raw clips from today!

There is 3 motels in the small town of Boulder, and no campgrounds. We called the first two: NO VACANCY. The third? No answer. So we scurried over there. It was a small house and no one was home. On the door though it said, "Take this key and open room three if you need a room. We won't be around until the morning. You can square up with us then." So we took room three, and there were 2 beds!! and it was super homey!

It was a really hard day even though we only went around 78 miles. I ordered this slice of pie: Ginger Berry. It was completely locally sourced. We both got a cup of locally roasted coffee. It was heaven.

We felt like Dale Cooper.

Day 20 Groats, Bearings, Hail and Hills.

First things first. Last night we stayed at Lance and Suzette's farm house. I forgot to mention Lance built it. Look back at yesterday's post and be amazed. Also, it had beds for Jon and I, DOUBLE BEDS! We felt like royalty. For breakfast he made us "Grains and Groats" with Colorado peaches. Who know that Colorado grew great peaches? It was delicious.

We took the morning easy because we had to wait til 10 AM for Cascade bicycle shop to open. Just a reminder, we are in Montrose, Colorado. The mechanic was super accommodating and repacked Jon's front hub with grease, and then trued his wheel. It is so sad that we have come to expect that bike mechanics are pretentious, and that a kind mechanic makes our hearts melt. So refreshing!

After the bike shop, we said goodbye to Lance. All of the other bicycle tour-ers we've met on the trip have explained to us that our relationship with Lance and Suzette has been a cosmic anomaly. We have seen them 8 or so times because their vacation was strangely similar to our bicycle tour, and because they've been gracious enough to stop us on the road when they pass us and give us cold ice tea, pumpkin seeds, and beef jerky. Cold ice tea might seem small, but the desert sun warmed our water bottles up to the point that it was like drinking warm bath water while you're sweating. When water doesn't taste good it is very easy to dehydrate. 

I'm going off on tangents. To cut to the chase, the goodbye was one where we each said "Goodbye" 3 times. When each party says "Goodbye!" 3 times, it means that they will miss each others company. Sorry if I'm construing your feelings incorrectly Lance!

Above is a boring picture of a summit sign. There is no fanfare, clever pose or interesting frame because we had just been assaulted by a pack of dark storm clouds. Along with thunder, heavy rain and hail, we had to climb 2,000'. We then had a decent on this road through a canyon with NO SHOULDERS! It was intense. We later learned that 2 people have died in this canyon this year: a guy on a motorcycle and a cyclist. Scary stuff.

We stopped at a small establishment called Pleasant Valley.

This is a buffalo burger. Yes, it is buffalo meat. It tastes very much like cow meat.

Pie is not something I eat often. In fact, only at Thanksgiving do I ingest it. On this trip though, pie has taken on new significance. Pie represents the crazy connectedness of life. It also represents deliciousness. A guy walked in to Pleasant Valley, ordered 2 full pies, and then asked the wonderful woman who runs the store and home-makes everything, "Why don't you make keylime pies?" she answered, "Well if they have key-limes at the market, I could try it." I then noticed that all of the different kinds of pies she had were made with local ingredients. So above you will see the Mountain Berry Pie. It has all sorts of berries from Colorado.
 

Colorado is still beautiful. We went from Montrose to Gunnison today. It was about 67 miles. An easy day that needed to be short due to the bicycle shop this morning. It's probably for the best. Tomorrow we climb up Monarch Pass. It is 11,500'-ish and will be the highest elevation of the whole trip. It isn't out of the realm of possibility that it could be snowy up there.

As we came into Gunnison we saw these two lovely folks at a campground, Janet and Jerry. They left from Seattle and are slowly meandering their way to The Grand Canyon. 

Jon asked them where they were from. "I'm from Houston," said Janet.

 "I'm from Northern California," said Jerry. 

Jon responded, "Very cool. Where do you live now?" 

"Right here. We live in this tent." After The Grand Canyon they will choose another destination and ride there. These pleasant people are pleasantly crazy.