Kiki Bikes Across America

Archive for the ‘Colorado’ Category

Departure on May 26, 2009 from Yorktown, VA

Thank you to those of you who made donations to support Multiple Sclerosis as I rode across the country this summer. I have ridden in 12 MS 150 Bike Tours since 2000 and this marked my 13th ride to support MS.

The trip was a success as I completed over 4,263 miles from Yorktown, VA to Portland, OR and then down the coast to San Francisco, CA between May 26, 2009 and August 19, 2009 (86 days). I met lots of amazing people along the way and pedaled through 13 states and saw lots of beautiful scenery. I feel like I’ve now seen some of the United States, but I still would like to see more!

I have many memories from the trip and I would love to share them all, but that would be impossible. The easiest way is to skim through my lengthy blog over the past 86 days as I kept a daily journal for all that happened and all those people we met along the way.

The first few states were pretty ‘familiar’ as far as scenery goes – I hadn’t been to Kentucky before, but western Kentucky was quite similar to Virginia with lots of horse farms and open fields and such. Eastern Kentucky was a little more poverty-stricken and lots of trash on the sides of the roads, poor road conditions with holes that you had to be really careful not to hit! I picked up a staple from the road in eastern Kentucky and wound up with my first flat tire of the trip. We only briefly saw Illinois (I think we spent 2 days biking through southern Illinois), but we met some really fun people, namely two motorcyclists who invited us to their home to camp outside, grill, and play in the lake. Also, we saw Superman in Metropolis, IL which was off-route and not planned. As it happened, we had bike problems that day and had to hitch-hike 70 miles to a bike shop to get a new chain for George’s bike. Missouri was humid as anything and had lots of hills as we were crossing in the Ozarks.

About 40 miles outside of Springfield, Missouri, my shifter cable broke and I wound up hitching 40 miles to a bike shop to get a tune-up and get that fixed. I also had seen civilization for the first time since I started the trip – Springfield was the largest city I’d come to since I left the Northern VA area in May. We pedaled through Missouri in 6 days and then reached Kansas where we switched our sleeping and biking habits and started sleeping during the day at fire stations, libraries, and churches so that we could bike during the night to avoid the 115 degree heat and humidity. It worked fairly well, except that I biked the entire state of Kansas carrying a viral infection, only to find out my second day in Colorado.

Just 70 miles east of Pueblo, Colorado in a tiny hamlet called Arlington, I found myself extremely sick and unable to continue pedaling. I stopped and told the guys I was with I wouldn’t be going any further. This was my last opportunity to find someone who could help me – there were approximately three houses and a few trees for shade. I stopped, rested, and when I wasn’t feeling better, I walked to a house to see if someone was home who could drive me to a doctor. A nice man, by the name of C.D. Anderson said he’d give me a ride to Ordway, CO (25 miles west). We rode there and the clinic said I needed to get to a hospital, but the next closest one was in Pueblo. He gave me a ride further, another 45 miles or so to the hospital where I got sick again and admitted myself to the Emergency Room. There I spent the next five and a half hours on a bed in the ER receiving saline and anti-nausea medicine. I slept on and off but it was nearly impossible since it was the ER and there were plenty of people there making noise. By 6:30pm or so, I was released from the hospital and told they couldn’t keep me – however, I was so lucky to have distant relatives come and rescue me and take me home with them to Westcliffe to spend some days recuperating.

A few days later, thanks to the generosity of a complete stranger (Cindi) from Westcliffe, I had a car to borrow and found myself driving to Denver to visit a friend from college. I unfortunately got sick again and at this point was very frustrated and didn’t know what was wrong. This was the only point in my trip where I felt like I wasn’t going to be able to continue if the virus didn’t get out of my system. I slept and rested for another day or two and then went whitewater rafting (already had reservations made) and then drove to Estes Park to see the beautiful Rocky Mountains and take photos.

Riding dirt bikes with Chase in Colorado.

I finally got on my bike again almost two weeks after getting sick and started to pedal by myself for a couple days to meet up with Chase, my biking partner for the second half of the trip. I found myself spending a couple unplanned days in Salida, Colorado where I met Mike, who showed me around town, and then guided me up my first 14er, Mt. Elbert. It was incredible being on the highest mountain in Colorado and one of the highest in the lower 48 states! Afterwards, I climbed 26 miles up and over the Continental Divide at Monarch Pass which was at 11,312 feet! At the top of the pass, I was greeted by Chase who randomly found me and I rode down the other side of the mountain and then hitched back to Pitkin where he and his family had rented a cabin for a few days. A few days were spent in Pitkin and Ohio City, Colorado with Chase’s family before we hit the road again July 14^th.

The adventures really picked up once Chase and I met and started riding together – we found ourselves first riding a short-cut from Telluride, CO to Moab, UT in two days and meeting a really nice woman by the name of Lauren. As it turns out, she invited us to have dinner with her (grilled steak and peppers along with pickled asparagus) and sleep in her camper van just outside of Paradox, CO. We then met Wayne, who gave us a lift from La Sal Junction to Moab and then into Arches National Park, where we wound up touring the park for four hours together. It was a great time and nice since Wayne hadn’t had an opportunity to see the park before so we all benefited! After Moab, we rode down to Monticello (I had to pick up mail) and then onward to Hite, UT (Lake Powell). This was one of the worst days (from Blanding, UT to Hite, UT) as the heat was on and the 88 mile stretch of no services didn’t help. We had to each carry 1.5 gallons of water and pedaled all day to get to Hite where we both felt like collapsing.

Long story short, we ended up catching a ride with Jack and his 7-year old (they were from the L.A. area) from Lake Powell in Utah all the way up to the Yellowstone National Park in the northwest corner of Wyoming! We were basically on their family vacation for 3 days and it was amazing. We had such a great time! Once we parted from Jack and David, we left to go to West Yellowstone where we ran into 5 guys that Chase last biked with in Missouri! Who knew we’d end up on the Transamerican Route in Montana weeks later and run into them! They were 5 guys who graduated this year from JMU and were doing the full Transamerican Route.

So a few more mile of pedaling we rode through Montana to Missoula where I bumped into my best friend’s ex-husband in a bike shop, saw my last chiropractor of the trip (6^th one), got my second flat tire, and did my last long uphill climb of 46 miles over Lolo Pass into Idaho! Just into Idaho, we met a great family from Frederick, Maryland who invited us to eat dinner with them and camp with them. We checked out some hot springs in Idaho before sluggishly reaching Washington where Chase wound up with another flat tire. Thanks again to nice people, we camped with a couple from British Columbia at a campground in Washington, camped on someone’s front porch in Walla Walla, Washington, and found ourselves chased out of a campground after we spotted three large snakes. Needless to say, we camped on the side of the road that night only 6 miles from the campground and exhausted we were after covering 106 miles in the blazing heat with some headwinds too!

Arrival in Oregon!

Finally into Oregon, we were getting exciting for reaching Portland. But it wasn’t over yet! We hit horribly strong headwinds in the Columbia River Gorge (apparently the windsurfing capital of the world), yet no one forewarned us of this! We battled the headwinds for a good 100 miles or so (on and off with the intensity), but once we were within 150 miles of Portland, the winds were really terrible! Chase wasn’t liking it and nor was I. We agreed to hitch-hike the last 90 miles into Portland so we wouldn’t pedal away for 2 more days to get there and instead could enjoy seeing Portland before having to continue down the coast (or in Chase’s case, before he had to fly home).

On August 9^th, we reached the Pacific Coast at Cannon Beach, Oregon. I had 3,570 miles at this point. Our last evening of the ride (coast to coast), we had to camp in a city park as all the campgrounds were full and the motels/hotels were all booked up. So to make our story more fun, we were awoken at 5:55am by two police officers saying “Police Department” multiple times outside the tent. We had camped illegally and they came to ask us to leave and well to check out whether or there were any warrants on either of us. We checked out okay and packed up and went on our way. We hitched back to Portland and spent a few more days there with Alina and Josh (high school friends).

The last leg of the trip consisted of me biking down the coast by myself from Nescowin, OR to San Francisco, CA. It was somewhere around 690 miles that I covered from August 11^th to August 19^th with no rest days. I met a lot of really nice people along the way and rode with several groups of riders as well. I met four motorcyclists from Victoria in British Columbia in Bandon, OR and then met again in Brookings, OR the next day, 100 miles later. It was fun to see the same faces again on several occasions and we really had a great time exchanging stories and hanging out at the campsites.

Arrival in San Francisco, CA - End Destination!

At last, I reached San Francisco on August 19^th around 6pm after riding 72 miles my last day. The ride was pretty easy with a few hills, but nothing major, and the sun was out for the majority of the day – only once I got into the bay area did the fog really begin to surround you. From August 19^th until August 25^th, I spent the time in San Francisco sampling some of the most delicious ethnic food while hanging out with one of my best friends — Iman, who flew out to meet me! We departed on August 25^th on a train back across the country which was just an amazing experience filled with meeting many more people, hanging out with Thane and Brenda from Sioux Falls and playing cards, and joking around with the Amtrak staff. Arrival into DC was mixed – the trip was officially over and I would have to re-acclimate to life back home with a full-time job and deal with the other surprises in life.

Thanks to all of you who helped me out along the way or supported me in one way or another to make this trip happen. The messages of appreciation and congratulations really meant a lot to me when I finished and I’m very grateful to the friends, family, and co-workers who encouraged me, supported me, and helped me make this a reality. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Thanks to you all!

Sunday, July 19th – 4 miles east of Utah to Moab, Utah

Well we didn’t wake up at 5:30am like we’d hoped – the alarm went off and I immediately turned it off. I was exhausted, but thankfully Lauren knew we wanted to leave early and she woke up early anyway, so she came and woke us up about 6:30am in the camper van that we slept in. So that was definitely nice and then she offered to make us a breakfast burrito, so we had egg, cheese, spinach, and tomato in the burrito – amazing! We departed about 7:30am and climbed for a good number of miles – about 14 or so before we were finally able to try and enjoy some downhill, only to be mixed with some really heavy headwinds. The winds were terrible – I was going downhill at one point, but crawling at 5mph pedaling. Finally about 12 miles later and we were at the bottom of the downhill portion and at La Sal Junction where Utah Hwy 46 intersects with Hwy 191 that goes to Monticello and Moab. I tried getting info from Google on when Arches National Park closes, but was unsuccessful (google failed me). It was now about 11:30 or so and I was wondering if we’d make it to Arches in time since the wind was so horrible. I figured the park would close at 5pm or something and we still had 30 or so odd miles to go. Chase and I debated what to do and then I just decided to ask the next person driving out of La Sal and turning right towards Moab if he was going to Moab and if we could get a ride. Sure enough, we lucked out – Wayne was heading to Moab to do some errands and had space to give us and our bikes a ride.

We threw our stuff in the back of his truck and hopped in and rode about 25 miles to Moab and then before we knew it we were at the grocery store picking up lunch items to take into the park and then off to Arches. We were able to convince Wayne to even join us for the park visit, so we just hung out all afternoon with Wayne while visiting all the arches and everything. It was great – the park really wouldn’t have been nearly as enjoyable if we had to bike it – the roads were narrow without any shoulders and it was hilly…and HOT. It was 102 degrees and the sun just blazing down on us, so we were very grateful that Wayne also wanted to see the park and had the time. He hadn’t been before so it worked out well that we all visited the park together. We had a nice lunch up underneath one of the arches in Windows and I climbed up another arch across the way – but it was super hot, I climbed barefoot. Amazing view from above though, but I didn’t climb with my camera – I was just trying to be super careful that I didn’t slip or fall and that no matter how I got up, I had a way down without risking any chance of falling. It was amazing though.

So we spent about 4+ hours in the park and got lots of photos and then Wayne drove us back to Moab and we unloaded the bikes and each ate two snickers ice cream bars before splitting ways.

Afterwards, Chase and I went to the laudromat to do laundry and I started transferring photos to the computer. Once done we rode up to the Lazy Lizard Hostel in Moab and got a bunk in a dorm for $9/night, so not bad. It’s air-conditioned too which helps and cheaper than camping, believe it or not. We unpacked, showere, and then rode our bikes back down into Moab’s restaurant area and grabbed a bite to eat at Hogi Yogi where we had spicy hot chicken on rice, a drink, and ice cream. Back to the hostel afterwards to catch up on photo album stuff and then crashed around 1am.

GPS Stats: (Arches and biking portion)
105.3 miles
66.0 max speed
20.2 avg speed
05:13 moving time

Computer Stats:
25.7 miles
33.3 max speed
9.0 avg speed
02:51 moving time

Saturday, July 18th – Telluride, CO to 4 miles east of the Utah border

Well after last night, Chase had a bit of a slow start this morning. I got up at 7 and woke Chase a short bit later; we had some raspberry coffee cake and hot chocolate for breakfast, then I went into Telluride to snap a few photos since I hadn’t earlier. Chase finished up packing. Justin, a Mountain Films guy saw me taking pictures and offered to take one of me, and then we wound up talking about the route to La Sal Junction, Utah. He suggested we do that instead of go the long way down to Dolores and Monticello and back up to Moab. He helped with telling me about few big climbs and where we could restock on water and food since there was a gap between Naturita and Moab with nothing available to get water or food really. Just one little place on Hwy 191 where one can stop for touristy stuff at Hole in the Rock.

So finally we rolled out of Telluride about 10:30 and went downhill for 31 miles or so (slight downhill grade) and then climbed Norwood Hill which was 2 miles, but not horrible. We rolled into Norwood and stopped at the grocery store to get some lunch. I wound up with an odd concoction just because I felt like it – I bought pita bread, shredded cheddar cheese, ravioli, and some powerade. I heated the ravioli with my stove (just left it in the can) and then once it was hot I put the ravioli in the pita bread and cheese on top. It turned out to be pretty tasty

Back on the road again we had another 20 miles to Naturita which was fairly easy – mostly downhill grade and some pretty easy pedaling with a few small hills. We got into Naturita about 3:30 or so and refueled with water – we each bought a gallon and another bottle of water to carry with us. We filled up all the bottles in preparation for the next 60 miles or so without any services or places to find water. I also bought more Heet for fueling the stove, some yummy soft chewy candy for fueling me and some muffins that we got for the morning.

And more downhill for a bit – about 65 miles into the ride a car passed us (it was rare at this point – such little traffic on Hwy 90. Chase recognized the car that passed us and it turns out they recognized us as well – they camped across the way from us in Telluride and were from Texas and just doing a road trip of sorts. They were off to Moab, or so they thought (later found out Moab was too hot for them and they continued on to Salt Lake City). We had another 15 miles until the climb up out of Paradox. The climb was about 2 miles long and about 1,000 feet or a bit more of elevation gain – it took around 45 minutes to climb and luckily the sun was setting at this point so we were in the shadows and it was a little cooler. We got to the “top” and weren’t at the elevation that I thought we should be at, 7,500 feet, so when we started to go down in elevation I didn’t like that, because I knew we’d have to climb it all over again. We had a good bit of downhill – dropped down to around 6,000 feet and then we passed by a house with sprinklers on and a fire going – I suggested we stop to see about refilling water bottles and the next thing we knew we were sitting around the fire eating steak, roasted peppers, and pickled asparagus. Lauren, who was staying at the house offered to let us stay the night and join her for dinner, so we couldn’t pass up the offer.

It was really nice getting a yummy meal, having great conversation, and not having to pitch a tent and being able to shower. Awesome time there and great time talking to Lauren – come to find out she used to live near Braddock Road and Guinea Road in Fairfax and also graduated from James Madison University, so we had a lot to talk about and compare things to how they were when she was there and when I was there. We finally hit the sack around midnight in hopes of getting up at 5:30 and rolling out at 6am.

GPS Stats:
2,586 miles
06:42 moving time
42.4 max speed
386 avg speed

Computer Stats:
87.01 miles
06:41:22 moving time
13.0 avg speed
44.0 max speed

Friday, July 17th – just a rest day because we can

Felt it was necessary to take a rest day since Telluride’s a pretty cool town and we didn’t get to see much yesterday. We’ve just been hanging out and checked out the farmer’s market this morning with Kyle (fellow cyclist) and ran into another cyclist (Nate) who’s riding from NYC to San Francisco. So we’re just relaxing and catching up on stuff – web junk, and all..

A cute kitten that was up for adoption at the Farmer's Market in Telluride, CO

Nate, Me, and Chase

I just posted more photos and a few more videos as well today. A new album is up for photos and just added 4 or so more videos.

That’s it – hoping to catch Colleen and Dean today since they texted last night asking if I was in/near Telluride….surprise surprise, I am here. So hoping to catch them this evening whenever they arrive!

Dean and Colleen on the gondola to Mountain Village

The group up at Mountain Village

Met up with Dean and Colleen tonight – as well as their friends Shaw and Mark. We rode the gondola up to Mountain Village where everyone had appetizers and drinks and then we went back down and ate pizza at the Brown Dog place (that has an amazing YX Sandwich!)

Dean, Random drunk guy, Me, and Colleen

Thursday, July 16th – Pa Co Chu Puk Campground to Telluride, CO

Today was grueling – we got a really late start. Decided after last night and staying up so late and the fact that it was Chase’s birthday, that we should just take it easy and I wouldn’t wake him up but instead just let him sleep till he woke up. He slept till 8:30 or so and we finally got going.

Last night we wound up just going over to another campsite and hanging out with some kids home from college/just going off to college in the Fall. We had smores with them, ate chips and cherries and drank coca cola… they fed us pretty well considering we didn’t really have a real dinner (just a bagel a piece). So we hung out till 12:30 or so in the morning and then finally called it a night and went to bed.

Downhill for 13 miles now

The ride today was pretty grueling and tiresome – 36 miles of uphill and 13 miles of downhill. The uphill from Ridgway to the Dallas Divide was about 11 miles and pretty much uphill the entire way varying steepness…just long. Once at the top it was smooth sailing all the way to Placerville but first we had to get through a bit of construction that took maybe 20 minutes or so. We stopped in Placerville and grabbed a bite to eat – we intended it to be a short stop, but again, was about an hour or so. We just grabbed some macaroni salad and carrot cake and split a bag of cheetos. Yummy and light enough to continue biking without stomach aches or anything.

Chase with his first birthday beer

We finished the ride to Telluride in 2 hours or so (it was 16 miles) and that was pretty grueling uphill… but we were very happy to arrive to Telluride. So happy that Chase had to stop immediately to get his birthday beer and celebrate, so we stopped at a bar/restaurant. Then on to find a place to camp – we went to the city park which we had been told was free to camp, but as it turned out it was $20 a site and we were feeling cheap sinc Telluride is so expensive. It’s a ritsy town for tourists to spend lots of money in. Entrees here are around $30 to start, a beer is $5, fries are $4-5, and sodas are around $2-3 depending on where you eat. So we were feeling cheap and unsure about wanting to spend $20 for a campsite… so rode up the road a bit to see if we could spot anything on the side of the road to camp. I thought the cemetary would be awesome, but Chase wasn’t digging the idea so much. We went back into town and were standing on a street corner discussing what we wanted to do when a guy (Brent) came up to us and said he recognized exactly what we were talking about (where to camp). He said he was down at the campground and just in a car with a trailer for a motorcycle, so I jumped in and asked if we could camp with him since he wasn’t pitching a tent. What a great idea – next thing we knew we were camping with him as well as Kyle, another touring cyclist who showed up just minutes later.

Kyle, another touring cyclist - he's from Berkley, California

So a fun and successful evening of free camping was had  - we hung around and talked for a short bit and then Chase and I went off in search of dinner. We wound up at this one place (very few were still open at 9:30pm)… and I got an YX sandwich on pizza bread (steak, onions, green and red peppers = amazing). It wasn’t as pricey as the other places, but still $13 for a sandwich and fries + tip. Either way, it was well deserved after a long day of uphill biking.

Chase and Brent at the campground in Telluride

Back to the campsite to crash…

GPS Stats:
51.5 miles
05:41 moving time
9.1 avg speed
35.8 max speed

Computer Stats:
52.89 miles
05:37:04 moving time
9.4 avg speed
36.5 max speed

Wednesay, July 15th – Lake Fork Campground to Pa Co Chu Puk Campground (8 miles outside of Ridgway)

We got a relatively late start again – no real surprise though. We got up at 6:15 or so and packed up, but then ran into some cyclists just before getting out of the park, so we stopped to chat. They were doing a Colorado tour for a couple weeks.

We started the slow climb up Route 50 and stopped to get good water, since we were told by a fisherman at the campground that the water would make us sick – I don’t think it would have, but who knows. I already had drank an entire 24 oz. of it that morning – I felt a little funny, but not sick. So we got fresh water just a couple miles up the road. The ride was very slow going – the first 20 miles were all uphill for the most part, but got a nice downhill just before Cimmaron. Just before arriving to Cimmaron we stopped at a general store to refill on water, but were convinced to try the pie – so we did. I had coconut cream pie with ice cream and Chase had blackberry pie with ice cream. It was delicious:) An hour later we were back on the bikes (after I had refilled my water there – which was a bad idea). the water was pretty gross – from the pipes. Really yellow and smelled bad, so I didn’t drink it. Luckily there was a place just down the road where I bought a gallon of water for $2.00 and it was tasty! No worries about bad water there…

Coconut Cream Pie! Yummy!

Another long climb after Cimmaron and we finally finished that a while later and then it was all downhill to Montrose. We stopped at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison to see if we could hitch-hike in, but the two people we asked didn’t seem interested, so we just continued on to Montrose. We got there about 1:30 and had lunch (Subway for me, Pizza for Chase). Then ran some errands – but first had to stop at the Russell Stover Outlet since we’d seen a billboard about free samples. Needless to say our 5 minute quick run in turned into more like an hour that we were there. It was amazing – lots of chocolate, cheap prices, and even Blue Bell ice cream that Chase knows from back home.

The Russell Stover Outlet in Montrose, CO

Finally on to Walmart where we stocked up on goodies and dinner stuff for the next few days and then we went behind Walmart to repack all our bags to fit the food in. And at 5:30pm we finally got back on the road to continue towards Telluride, knowing at this point there was no chance we’d make it. We made it to a campground about 8 miles outside of Ridgway and called it a day.

Campsite at Pa Co Chu Puk Campground

GPS Stats:
59.9 miles
05:28 moving time
10.9 avg speed
39.6 max speed

Computer Stats:
61.45 miles
05:25:16 moving time
11.3 avg speed
41.0 max speed

On a side note, while in Montrose, I was stopped by a couple kids…

Kids: Isn’t your bike heavy?
Me: Yes, it’s about 100-105 lbs right now.
Kids: Wow (big eyed), why are you carrying all of that?
Me: I’m riding across country.
Kids: Why would you want to come to Montrose? (with the voice implying that Montrose shouldn’t be on my route – aka, nothing there worth seeing/doing)
Me: Because it’s along my route.
Kids: What state did you start in?
Me: Yorktown, Virginia.
Kids: Wow (big eyed again). And where are you going?
Me: San Francisco, California.
Kids: Wow. You’re kind of crazy. Have a good trip.

Tuesday, July 14th - Ohio City – Lake Fork Campground (outside of Sapinero)

Today we got up about 7:30am (somehow the GPS alarm didn’t go off on time at 6:50am), but we got up and going and left the cabin after chatting with the other guys doing a small tour in Colorado. They (Gary, Adam, and John) were doing a trial-run with their mountain bike tires (massive tires) and all their Ortlieb gear. They’re basically staying as far away from civilization as possible, it seems. Doing all off-road stuff as much as possible and climbing passes by way of rocky jeep trails and such. So we chatted with them a bit and then they set off and then we set off about 9:30 this morning.

Adam's monster of a bike next to mine.

We arrived to Gunnison about 1 hour and 20 minutes later (21 miles later) and stopped for a quick ice cream (McDonald’s) and then went in search of warm-weather clothing for Chase. We went to a thrift store, a fishing/outdoors store, and Walmart. With a little luck, Chase is now decked out in camoflage (hunting gear) from the outdoors store. We also stopped at the bike shop to check our chains and they both appear to be in “Good” standing. Chase has ridden 2,400 miles on his chain and still hasn’t needed to replace it. I’ve riden maybe 800 miles almost on my chain since Springfield, Missouri. About 4 hours later and we finally got on the road again just before 3pm after having lunch at Mario’s Pizza. We both got the lunch special of a mini stuff pizza, salad/soup, and a drink.

Bighorn Sheep alongside the Blue Mesa Reservoir

We had 30 miles to go from Gunnison before we reached Sapinero. We unfortunately had a headwind the majority of the way out of Gunnison but the views were amazing. We rode along the Blue Mesa Reservoir/Lake and saw a few bighorn sheep that were grazing on the side of the road. One went up the side of the mountain which was probably at a 80 degree angle – amazing how they can walk up such steep inclines. A couple other sheep jumped across the road and then every other out of state license plate vehicle stopped to take photos, as well as about 4 motorcyclists. We kept on riding and stopped at a restroom on the side of the room and a couple traveling from NC to Wyoming stopped to chat with us for a bit. We debated as to how far we wanted to ride today and ultimately decided to stop for water at Lake Fork Campground, which is where we decided to stay for the night – it’s a nice little campground and we set up tents and then cleaned up and cooked dinner. Chase had his spaghetti and I had butter and herb pasta. Now if only we’d had something for dessert!

The sunset at Lake Fork Campground

Monday, July 13th – Ohio City, CO

Today we’re just resting and hanging out in Ohio City, CO… it’s like vacation. We don’t have to wake up until we wake up naturally – we can eat a real breakfast, and don’t have any set plans. Today’s the last day of this style of vacation. Chase promises we can start riding tomorrow, haha:) I’m completely okay with doing whatever since I’ve got a little more flexibility than he does, but we’ll still make it to San Francisco in time for him to get back to school and for me to come back to work.

I don’t miss work though (no offense). I am sort of dreading the idea of returning to work – it’ll probably be difficult since I haven’t spent 8 hours a day staring at a computer in quite some time. And I’m not used to the idea of having to sit at a desk, but I suppose all of that will come back to me come September when I’m back home.

Meanwhile, we’re trying to figure out our route across Utah and Nevada to California. Our tentative idea is something along these lines: click for map. We’d like to hitch-hike (even though it’s illegal) in Utah to avoid spending so many days biking to go off route… to hitch a ride to some of the national parks like Canyonlands and The Arches. Plus I have incentive for anyone taking us – free entrance into the parks with my National Parks Pass. So that’s our hope anyway, but we’ll have to be careful and strategic with our hitch-hiking… so we don’t get arrested! We’re also hoping to see Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado near Durango and Zion National Park in Utah and ride through Yosemite National Park in California. We’ll see – it’s a long ways we still have to go… approximately 1,500 or 1,700 if we detour to Las Vegas. Either way, we’ll see some nice parks along the way, I think!

For now, I have to sign off and get back to relaxing in the boonies of Ohio City, Colorado and hopefully getting my dirt biking lesson here shortly!

My dirtbike lesson

Tomorrow, I promise – we’ll start biking again. Who knows where our destination will be, maybe Cimmaron or Montrose. It’ll be 70-90 miles depending… but we’ll see how we feel after all our rest time.

Fun riding a dirtbike in Ohio City, Colorado

I’ve added a few videos to http://www.youtube.com/jmukikster as well as some more photos to the album, Colorado.

The Mason Gazette just published an article about my trip across the country. You can read it here: http://gazette.gmu.edu/articles/14095

Sunday, July 12th – Pitkin/Ohio City, CO

Today we’re just hanging out in Ohio City. We had to switch cabins from Pitkin to Ohio City this morning, so we packed up and then rode our empty bikes down 5-6 miles to Ohio City to the new cabin here. It’s really modern with outstanding furniture and low, sagging, crooked ceilings. It’s quite fancy if you ask me. The sign outside said it’s a “modern cabin” – I guess by Colorado standards. It’s nice though – beats sleeping in a tent and having to pack up a wet tent in the morning.

Anyway, we’re heading off to Gunnison this afternoon to run errands and find internet and explore a little. We also want to find a Utah state map so we can try to plan our route a little now. We’ll be heading out tomorrow again on the bikes though, so maybe I’ll have some updates later this week whenever I find internet again or cell phone reception. Right now, Ohio City and Pitkin are complete dead zones.