Nicolette’s Blog

My friend, Kevin, was in town from AZ over the weekend, and he took my bouldering in Morrison. I have never officially gone bouldering before, I have been more into rock climbing, with ropes and harnesses and stuff. This was all new to me. Hanging on the side of a rock, ten feet off the ground with nothing but hard rocks to catch you if you fall. It was scary! There were some spots that I was super afraid of doing, but Kevin was a good coach and taught me how to do certain hand holds and swing like a monkey. It made me realize how weak my arms have gotten! Focusing so much on biking I have neglected my upper body, and I sure could tell when I was hanging on the rocks! It definately made me want to get into it more, both for the upper body workout, and because it was so much fun! I think I will be investing in a crash pad soon…

Once again on the 4th of July I participated in the Firecracker 50 mountain bike race in Breckenridge. The only difference was that this year I completed the full 50 instead of the Sparkler 14 miles. It was a goal I set for myself last 4th of July.

The day started out hot. I got up to Breckenridge early to get my number and calm my nerves before the race. That didn’t happen, because my race number ended up being 666. As soon as they told me that I felt my heart sink. This is going to be a long race, I thought to myself…

I got lots of oohhs and aaahhs about my number as well as many comments, most along the lines of “good luck” with a discomforting look on theire face, or saying I was screwed because the devil was on my side… Needless to say, my nerves were never calmed before the race started.

My friend, Matt, decided to brave the 50 miles with me. I admire him a lot for that! He just moved here from back east, has a 15 year old mountain bike and has never raced in a mountain bike race before. I haven’t figured out yet if he is a superstar or just plain dumb. I think to do something like that is a mix of both! He met me in Breckenridge where we got some Starbucks and people watched for a while before we went off to get ready for the race. The race starts off the 4th of July parade, which has always been fun. The kids love to cheer us on and it is a good way to get pumped up for the race. Once our leader pulled off we were on our own. The race began. It starts with a pretty good uphill on a paved road. I quickly fell to the back of the pack. I had no goals for this race, other than to complete it, so I knew I didn’t want to start out hard- I had a long way to go. Eventually some of the beginner riders passed me, which took a lot to not push harder. It took a while for my legs to get in the groove of things, but eventually the spinning came naturally and I was feeling good. The pavement turned into dirt, and eventually into singletrack. Parts of the trail were very muddy, but still refreshing considering how hot it was. There were some evil uphills, where many people were walking. I thought about the last day of Kokopelli and how I just kept spinning, and used that on these uphills. I wasn’t overly fast going up, but I passed a lot of walkers and other riders, and was not dead by the time I got to the top. Then the steep, loose descent came. Most people walked this section, too. I was able to ride all of it, and ended up catching a few girls while I was at it. The evil descent finally ended at a fireroad where it descended at a much safer pace. I was feeling really good at this point, but this is about as far as I had ever ridden the trail, so I had no idea what was still coming. Well, there was a lot more uphill. An average grade of 16%. It was steep, and there were parts at the top that weren’t even ridable. Eventually I made it to the top, where it then descended down a very narrow singletrack. Thoughts were going through my head that I have to do all of this over again, and I tried my best to push them out and ignore them.

The trail descended for a while on a nice smooth, fast trail. It was so much fun. My favorite part of the course. Especially when there was a larger mud puddle I had to fly through. It cooled me off a lot! There was another steep scary downhill before the last aid station and the final climb. That last climb was not too bad, middle ring at least the whole way, and the feeling that it was the last climb was a good feeling. (except when you know you have to do it all over again…)

The last descent is fun, a fast fire road and then narrow switchbacks through the trees. It was here that I caught up to Matt, who was saying something about a problem he was having with his bike. I didn’t want to stop to chat, so I kept going, hoping he was ok…

I completed my first lap with lots of jeers from the spectators about my number. I had actually forgotten about it by this point. Thanks, guys… I pushed on, though, ready for the second lap. It was hard to ride up the pavement again knowing what I was up against, but as soon as I hit the dirt road I started feeling better. Really good, actually. I was passing people left and right, including the girl that I knew was standing in second in my category. It felt good to catch her, which boosted my mood and energy. I never saw her again. This lap was obviously the same as the first, the only difference is that I felt like I had more energy the second time around. My second lap was definately faster, and more fun than the first. The final descent was a blast, knowing that it was really the end now. I crossed the finish line in about 6:45. I wasn’t dissappointed by time, even though it is slow to some standards. I wasn’t racing for time, or a podium. Just to cross the finish line of my first 50 mile mountain bike race. I did it, and it felt great…

Matt ended up going out for the second lap, even though his bike was not functioning properly. He finished the race as well. Barely, because he collapsed as soon as he got to where I was sitting and it took a lot for me to get him up. Congrats to him for doing something so crazy and for surviving.

I ended up taking second place, and that is with riding with the number 666. I think it is just a myth that gets to people’s heads too much. It was my first ever race where I didn’t crash or have any sort of mechanical issue. Maybe it is my lucky number…

If only that luck could get rid of this darn cough… With still trying to get over the bronchitis, as well as inhaling dirt for the last almost 7 hours, my lungs were hating me and trying to get all the junk out and get air in. It was painful and continued all night and all weekend. It was hard to sleep, made all of my muscles ache and made me nauseaus. I couldn’t take it any more, so I called my step-mom to see if there were any more remedies for it, since the steroids and perscription cough medicince didn’t work… Luckily one of her friends was in town and she is a doctor. She ended up calling in another perscription for me, so now I am finally on antibiotics. God I hope it works this time. I am not sure I can survive another race feeling like this…

After three years of longing to be a part of this series I finally competed in my first Winter Park race. I can’t say it was what I expected, or wished for. I didn’t seem to have much going for me, and was struggling before we even took off from the start. I have been dealing with a severe cough for over two weeks now, that brought on evil headaches and massive lethargy. My doctor Carol said there was a good chance it was pneumonia, told me to take it easy and take lots of Robitussin DM until I could go to my real doctor on Monday. I really didn’t want to miss out on the race, so I downed lots of Ibuprofen and Robitussin, tried to rest as much as I could, and my goal was just to survive the race.

I got to meet up with Scott, Melissa, Brett, Chris, Marni and Cori before the start, so we all wished each other good luck before we headed off. After Chris’s epic ride, he decided to skip this race, and I don’t blame him! He turned into our cheering section and photographer. It was nice because he was at every intersection we came to, so we had a constant cheerleader.

Marni and I lined up together at the start, and headed up the first climb a little after 10:30. I felt like crap from the start. I pre-rode part of the course on Saturday and felt a lot better than I did when I started the race, which wasn’t a good feeling. The climb seemed steeper and longer than the day before, and I wasn’t really able to push taller gears without getting too worn out. There were a few times in that first mile or so that I was about to bag the race and head back down. I didn’t think I was going to survive. I think one of my problems is that my back tire didn’t have enough air pressure in it. I didn’t want to stop to fill it, thinking that would make things worse, not better. So I trudged on, and we finally made it to the single track descent. I used to think I was a decent climber, but now I think I am better at the down hills. I was able to catch quite a few girls in that first down hill, and I was proud that I was able to pass on such loose terrain.

As soon as the uphill started again, the lack of energy came back. I only got passed by one girl on this climb, but I could tell the others were gaining ground fast. I didn’t want to burn out, but I knew I had to push harder if I wanted to stay ahead. When the trail leveled out in between climbs I tried to push a little more to gain ground before the next uphill. Unfortunately as soon as the uphill started and I went to shift down, my chain experienced major chain suck. It was really bad and took a good 5+ minutes to get it out. I got passed by a lot of girls at this point. That didn’t really help my mood. I continued to have problems with my chain the rest of the race, it fell off at least 3 more times, and it argued with me every time I tried to shift into my middle ring.

I think adrenaline from being so frustrated kicked in, because I ended up catching I think all the girls that passed me when I was stopped. The single track then turned into a long dirt road, that I also found frustrating because there were so many small bumps that I couldn’t get a good speed going and I felt I was wasting more energy. Not too long after the road looped back around I got passed by two girls who were drafting each other. So I tagged along for a while, gaining some energy back. It help tremendously, I ended up passing them pretty quick and stayed ahead of them for quite a while. Soon I came upon Cori who was looking really good, so we cheered each other on, and I continued on. There was another girl that had caught up and we were riding neck and neck. I knew it was going to drop into single track soon, and I knew I needed to beat her to it. I did, and had a fun blast down the hill, and through the river. It was very refreshing! Especially since I knew what was coming next…

Lots of uphill. I paced myself, I knew I would be climbing for a long time and again I didn’t want to burn out, I was still struggling with lack of energy. Cori caught back up, but not for long before I heard a bad shift and curse words come out of his mouth as he stopped. I thought his chain probably fell off, since mine did not too far from where he was. I didn’t think he needed help, so I didn’t stop. Another girl caught up to me and told me that he had actually broken his chain. Total bummer, and I wished I could have helped him, but there is nothing I could have done except be there for moral support. The girl was cruising pretty good up the trail, and soon another one caught up and took to her back wheel. I warned them that it went up for a very long time, but they said it was not bad at all, and kept going. I wasn’t bothered, I was pretty sure I would catch them later. Around this point a lot of the beginner guys started catching up, and I was starting to get worried that Scott would catch me soon! I tried to not let that get to me and just kept pedaling. Funny thing is, I think I passed every guy back. They burnt themselves out really fast. I am glad I pre-rode this part…

I did end up catching one of the girls on the dirt road, but she didn’t seem to like that because she pushed hard to get back ahead of me. Not a good move. I passed her again on the single track, I think she was throwing up. I never saw her again. I passed a few more guys on this single track, according to my pre ride this was one of the last climbs before the downhill started. We came out of the single track and had to head up a dirt hill to where Long trail starts the descent. I saw the other girl who passed me earlier in front of me, and knew, again, I had to get in front of her before the downhill started. So I pushed really hard, and made it to the single track before her. Really fun descent. I got stuck behind a slow guy for a while, but was eventually able to pass him. I was cruising, thinking just one more short uphill, my computer was reading over 16 miles at this point, so I thought I was home free…

Yeah right. I get down to the dirt road again, where the day before I went right and down, but now they made us go left, and up. And up… I had spent everything on the last climb that I was hurting. Wait a minute… they said the course was 16.1 miles… my computer is well over 17 at this point and we are still going up, really high on the mountain… Not too cool. I was hating life, but I had gone this far I had to push through and finish. So I kept pedaling up the hill, and finally more single track downhill came. I was tired, my cough was getting to me, I hadn’t eaten anything in almost an hour because I though we were about done, so this downhill was a bit sketchy. It had fairly tight switchbacks and was loose dirt. I had about 4 guys on my butt, but I think we were all going the same speed, the guy behind me was actually saying that I was making him go faster, so none of them passed me. I also did not ride any of this section the day before, so all new terrain for me. Luckily the guy behind me did, so he warned me when there was a tight switchback coming. I did good on most of them, until I tried to make one to the left but didn’t cut it tight enough, and there was a tree that I couldn’t avoid. My bike skid off the trail and smashed into the tree. All four guys behind me had to slam on their breaks to avoid a pileup, since my bike landed across the trail. My right foot was still stuck in the clip, so I tried to move my bike off the trail with that foot to let the guys pass. They were all really nice, making sure I was ok before they took off.

I wasn’t really that shook up, I just wanted to get down! I came to the last intersection and saw Chris again. I told him about meeting the tree, and continued on. The last section of downhill was very loose, with tight switchbacks and lots of rocks and roots. Being so short on energy, it was very difficult. I crossed the dirt road one last time, with another cheer from Chris, and finally made it to the road where I was cheered on by good friends. I pushed as hard as I could to the finish, which unfortunately didn’t turn out to be so hard because my chain was acting up again, but I was finally finished. I had a nice cough attack that had been waiting to come out all race, and then I stayed by the finish to watch Marni, Scott and Melissa finish. They all looked great crossing the finish. We hung out for a while to watch the awards ceremony. Somehow, after all I went through, I came out in 3^rd place. And, both of the girls that I was leapfrogging most of the race weren’t even in my category! Overall a fun course, I wish they would have been more accurate on the distance, but it was so great to finally be apart of this series. Congrats to Shawn for pulling in 3^rd in Expert, both Mel and Marni getting 4^th, Scott and Brett for putting in great times, Cori for his efforts to stay in the race after everything he went through, and then dealing with everything he went through to try to get back to his car, and thanks to Chris for being the cheerleader and photographer. Can’t wait to race with you all in a few weeks! I am now hoping I feel better enough for the Firecracker 50 on Friday…

Nothing hurts more than realizing he meant everything to you, but you meant nothing to him…

And right now there’s a war between the vanities
But all i see is you and me
The fight for you is all I’ve ever known 

Everything i can’t be
Is everything you should be
And that’s why i need you here 

—Warning—

This post is very long, if you need something to help you sleep, keep reading! I wrote it more to keep in my memory. I will add pictures soon, hopefully…

I have always wondered what it would take for me to meet my limit, to find something that is so challenging that I feel like it is nearly impossible. Over Memorial weekend I think I have found it. I experienced something that challenged me both mentally and physically more than anything has in my life.

The Kokopelli trail is 142 miles that starts in Loma, Colorado and ends in Moab, Utah. I had this grand idea only 2 weeks before that it would be fun to do over Memorial weekend. I asked Bill if he wanted to go, and he was game. Not knowing exactly how to go about doing it, I talked to Chris, who has done it a few times, for some advice. The advice ended up turning into both him and Marni joining, with Chris as our tour guide. Couldn’t have asked for better company, or a better tour guide. There is no way we would have been able to pull it off without him.

We all stayed in the Super 8 motel in Fruita on Friday, so we could get an early start on Saturday. Bill and I didn’t get in until after midnight, and I had a really hard time trying to sleep. The wake up call was at 5, although we didn’t start moving till about 6, and I probably snoozed for 2 hours. We ate some hotel breakfast and headed out to the trail head. It was a cool morning with lots of clouds that threatened rain. We loaded up the bikes, both mine and Bill’s with panniers. I saw Chris and Marni’s set up, and to me it didn’t even look like they were going on a 3 day adventure. Obviously they knew how to pack, and I knew then that this was definitely going to be a learning experience, and these panniers were going to be a challenge.

We headed out around 7:30, looking at the cars one last time, rethinking what we were getting ourselves into. We were off. No turning back now.

Shortly into the ride Bill started having problems with his panniers, they kept falling off the rear rack. He had to stop quite a few times to adjust them, and struggled with them most of the first day.

The first 13 miles of the Kokopelli trail are known as the most difficult, technical part of the ride. I don’t believe it was the trail that made it difficult, but the mud. Not too long into Troy Built Loop it started to drizzle. It was actually rather refreshing, until we got past the rocks and hit more of the desert dirt. After rain falls, it is no longer dirt, but thick clay. The mud clumped on our bikes, which made the original 40 pound bike with the panniers probably close to 70 pounds with all the mud! It took us almost an hour to go about 10 feet. We stopped quite a bit to try to get the mud off enough so we can push on further, but it proved helpless. We finally stopped and grabbed whatever we could find; rocks, sticks, pieces of a car, to scrape off the mud. This process was at least another hour, but the good thing was, the sun came out during this process, so it dried out the trail some. Once we got our bikes so they would actually move, we headed down to Salt Creek where we stopped for another while to clean the bikes up more with river water. This whole process put us way behind schedule, and it ended up taking us about 6 hours to do these 13 miles. How discouraging. 6 hours already, only 13 miles covered, still 129 miles to go…

After we dealt with the mud demon, which really put doubts in my head about completing the trip, we then had a long hike a bike up a rocky trail that reminded me of climbing a 14er. Only with a 40 pound bike. It was the first of many thoughts of  “what the hell are we doing?” Once we got to the top we were finally able to get on our bikes and ride for a while. We rode on a dirt road that ran along I-70, and I found that my front derailleur was not working properly and was not letting me shift between my small and middle ring. We had wasted so much time already, that I wasn’t about to put us back even more, so I shifted my bike to the middle ring, and finished the day on that. Thankfully the terrain was never that steep, and it gave me a good workout. We stopped for a short while along the trail to have lunch, and then marched on. The rest of the day was mostly ridable, and easy compared to the start. We crossed the Colorado/Utah border, and everyone’s spirits seemed to be lifted at that point…

…Until we were able to see the LaSal mountain range off in the distance… far off distance… and knew that we needed to get there, and past that in the next two days. Another thought of “what the hell are we doing??”

There was nice roller coaster riding for a while, and then we came across the last big uphill for the day. It was pretty steep, about 400 vertical feet in ¼ mile or so. I attempted it, but didn’t make it very far before I about passed out. But Mr. I love climbing Bill passed me and continued to ride the rest of the hill. With the panniers and everything. I was struggling just walking my bike, and about puked by the time I got to the top. I will say this: age means nothing!!

We cruised on some more dirt paths for a while, then came to a paved road which would lead to where were to be staying the night. I was ready. I was done sitting and pedaling on my bike. We couldn’t get there fast enough. 12 hours on the bike really takes its toll! My left hand was already numb, my knees were screaming at me, and my butt could not sit on that seat any longer. I was very happy when we got to camp.

We camped at Westwater right on the Colorado River. It was beautiful. We set up camp, filled up on water and Chris cooked us dinner. He was so good to us on this trip, preparing and carrying all of our meals, as well as being tour guide. Chris and Bill took a look at my bike to see what was wrong, and found that there was a loose part and all they had to do was tighten it. No big problem, thank god. I was grateful to have my granny gear back.

After dinner I went to lie in our tent. I thank Bill so much for bringing his big down sleeping bag. He was so nice and let me use it instead of my flimsy little lightweight sleeping bag. I got so comfortable I didn’t want to get up and knew I could fall asleep right there. I decided I should go to the bathroom once more, and brush my teeth. I really wish I didn’t do that. I could not fall asleep to save my life. So I listed to the river outside the tent, watched the stars, and even enjoyed getting rained on a little. I was still exhausted when I got up the next morning around 7. I groggily ate breakfast and helped take down camp. I was not ready to get on the bike for another day. There was no turning around now…

Once I got on my bike and started going, I felt great. The first part of the day was awesome with rolling trail, beautiful views and great company. We regrouped around Cisco, and Bill found out one of his spokes broke on his rear wheel. He wasn’t too happy about it, and worried it would interfere with him finishing the journey. We continued on, knowing there was nothing to do out in the middle of nowhere. Bill took it easy and the bike held up for him. After the fun rolling trail we entered McGraw Bottom which runs along the Colorado River. It was not entirely ridable, but the views were amazing. We were cruising along a marshy area when we came across a small mud pile that was not easily ridable because it was more like a large hole filled with mud. I had bad flashbacks from the day before and didn’t want to dig more mud out of my shoes, so I wanted to avoid it as much as possible. There was a rock on the far side of the mud that I thought if I was strategic enough, I could roll to the rock, put my foot on it, and then push myself the rest of the way without touching the mud. I made it to the rock, barely balancing on my right toe, when I realized I was stuck and there was no way I was going to push myself out of there. I didn’t have enough leverage in my right foot, and my left foot was still clipped in and I didn’t have enough balance to unclip without tipping. Which is eventually what happened. I lost complete balance and control and fell over to my left, landing softly in the pile of mud and a tree stump. Bill was right behind me and saw the whole thing. I am sure it looked amusing! I couldn’t stop laughing at my stupidity, while Bill was trying to help me up, worried I might have been hurt. I guess it looked a lot worse than it was. So much for avoiding the mud, I was now covered in it, and I still had to clean my cleats out. Smart, Nicolette.

We resituated and continued to catch up to Chris and Marni. The trail eventually met up with Hwy 128 where we had to make the decision on what Bill was going to do with his bike. He ended up calling Chris’s friend, Fred, who lives in Moab to see if he could help. He works at Poison Spider Bicycles, and was more than willing to help out. He would meet us at Dewey Bridge with a new wheel, but he couldn’t be there till 4 and it was only 1:30. Bill was originally going to take 128 down to Dewey Bridge but I suggested that he continue with us on Yellow Jacket, which would end up at Dewey Bridge. What did he have to lose?

I am so glad he decided to go. Yellow Jacket was probably my favorite section of trail. Very much Moab riding with a mix of sand and slickrock. My favorite. There had to have been some of the best views of the trip so far on this section of trail.

We made it to Dewey Bridge with more than enough time to meet Fred. I was feeling great, enjoying the last part of the trail. We had some lunch, and then decided that Chris, Marni and I would keep moving since we still had a lot of ground to cover, and we would all meet up at the campsite. I was on the verge of staying back with Bill to keep him company, and I am soooo glad I didn’t. We were headed for the worst part of the trip in my book, and the worst mountain biking I have ever experienced. When we left Dewey Bridge, I knew we had about 25ish miles to go, at least 17 uphill. Chris said it was only about 2500 feet, which I didn’t find out till later that he meant elevation gain, not total climbing… and we thought the guidebook said this section was only 3 hours long, and we were doing a good job of staying on that target. So I am thinking, 17 miles of climbing on a dirt road, gaining 2500 feet, and in 3 hours we will be at camp. Awesome! Piece of cake….

It didn’t start out too horrible bad, fairly steep with loose gravel, but if everything that we predicted was how it was, I was fine with it. It was nothing how I thought it was. It was amazing to see how high we were climbing, but it was also amazing how it never seemed to end! Every turn we came around, it was another hill! I thought this was the never ending trail. Marni and I took to walking out bikes for a while, I at least was feeling very discouraged at this road. I said at one point that I knew Bill was going to catch us. He did, not too long after, with a huge smile on his face. Sometimes I think he is a little nuts for how much he craves, enjoys and wants climbs. It was so great to see him, though. I needed him. I needed him more on this last section of the day than I ever had before. He listed to my bitching about the never ending climb, all the while encouraging me, again with a smile on his face. It was cute, but annoying at the same time. I was getting so discouraged; my knees were killing me, and just wanted to uphill to end. Just when I thought I could take no longer, it did finally end. It was a technical downhill, but I didn’t care. I was on my bike and moving. We were making good progress. According to my mind, I thought we were done with the tough stuff, and should be at camp in no time. I was wrong again. My body couldn’t take it anymore, my legs struggled to pedal. In all the complaining I was doing, I forgot something really important that probably would have helped me. I had not eaten since lunch. No wonder my body was failing. I also wasn’t drinking enough water, the water in my camelback was nasty creek water and it was making me nauseous. Bill offered his good water, but I was stubborn and refused. Dumb.

We got to a section called Rose Garden Hill. It was a steep downhill of boulders and impossible to ride. It was getting late, and I was ready to lie down. I looked across the gulley and saw a trail going up the other side. I asked Chris: “We don’t have to go up there, do we?” His response: “Yeah, but it’s not that bad, just have to get to the saddle over there.” My heart sank. I wanted to quite right there.

The next section is what Bill named, and I would have to agree, the Pit of Hell. It was uphill, rocky and again, never ending. Bill was nice enough to take almost everything out of my panniers and sherpa himself. I hated life. I hated bikes. I told myself I am never riding again. (I guess I was thinking out loud, because Bill heard that, and wouldn’t let me live it down) I was losing it. I now know how people lose their minds on endurance rides. I was starting to hallucinate, I couldn’t breathe, and if Bill wasn’t behind me, encouraging me to keep going, I would have stopped and gone to sleep on the side of the trail. We finally make it to the saddle. It was not just right there. It was starting to get dark. We headed down into the valley, and hit a very short uphill. Somehow Bills chain broke. Seriously, can anything else go wrong?? He very nicely lied to me, even after me asking if his chain broke while he stood there holding it, and said nope, it wasn’t broken, he was fine just gonna stop for a second then catch up. I was in no mood for arguing and knew he would catch up. If I stopped, I wouldn’t go any further. So I kept moving. Soon I caught up to Chris and Marni and told them the news. I don’t think Chris was overly excited to hear that, so he told us girls to head on and he would go back and help Bill.

So we did. It was getting even darker, and we had no idea where we were going, or how far. At this point I didn’t even think a camp existed. A while later, in our dazed states, we came across a sign that pointed to a camp ground. Not quite sure it was the right way, we didn’t care. We wanted camp. The only thing the sign was missing was the distance. I thought it wouldn’t be too far in, and we were home free. Not so much. Yet another climb, and another never ending trail. Soon the guys caught up, almost complete darkness by now. We got to the top of the hill and saw it then descended again. We put on our lights, not wanting to risk injury. My light was worthless, just a dim camping light, but I didn’t care. I wanted to get down the hill. So I went, not sure where I was going, and not sure if I was staying on the trail at that point. There was a point that a thought came into my head, that if I crashed, I would be laying down, and how much I would love that… A part of me then was wishing that I would crash. Man, we needed to get to the campsite.

Chris had never been to this campsite before, since he has never camped on this trail, but knew the area it was supposed to be in, and that it was off the trail a little. When we got to the intersection where a sign pointed to the campsite, I was excited but also afraid that the “off the trail a little” was another terribly long climb. I am not sure if we were in the spot Chris was planning on, but we found some somewhat level ground and pitched the tents. I was done being stubborn with Bill, and let him pamper me. It was so nice. He pitched the tent and I got in, changed and lay down in the sleeping bag. Finally. I really thought this would never come.

The wonderful guys that we were with… Chris again made dinner, and Bill went to get water. I don’t know how I would have survived this last stretch of the day if it weren’t for Bill. I was fed in the tent, and soon after passed out. Only a few times did I wake up when I turned, but fell quickly back asleep. I didn’t want to wake up for the next day. I was not ready to do it again…

Surprisingly I felt pretty good the next morning. We wanted to get an early start, since we had yet another long day ahead of us. I had recovered from the bad thoughts I had the day before, and was looking forward to the day. I knew that we had to start with another climb, but I wasn’t going to be fooled this time. I knew it was going to be long, and never ending if I let my mind take over again. I wasn’t going to let that happen.

We left camp about 7:30. It wasn’t long before the uphill started, and I went into my turtle mode. Low gears, just spinning. My knees were shot, so I couldn’t push higher gears if I wanted to. Bill and I rode with each other most of the time, sometimes engaging in pointless conversation, but mostly just enjoying each others company, the great views and the nice ride. The uphill was long, and I chose to even walk in some areas, not wanting to push it too hard. I felt so much better, and started to love my bike, and even climbing again.

The most amazing part was the LaSals. They got closer and closer until desert turned into the smell of pine trees. We were in the mountains. The mountains that were a spec in the distance just the day before. I was high just on the thought of that.

We regrouped at Upper Fisher Creek which was at the end of a nice downhill but the start of the last big climb. The view was amazing, looking down at the valley that we had started in. It was a long ways down! I was starting to feel everything that we had accomplished to this point. It was overwhelming, and we still had quite a ways to go.

The last push to the high point of the trip was a dirt road. Gradual incline, but felt steep considering all the climbing we were doing over the last few days. Bill and Chris took off ahead, and Marni and I slowly followed. She soon had to stop to take off some layers and told me to keep going and that she would catch up. I was grateful for this, just in the fact that I knew I would have a hard time going again if I stopped. So I spun slow like a turtle, all the way to the top where I was greeted by cheers from the guys. We had successfully made the highest point of the trip, around 8600 feet I believe. It was at this point that Chris told us that the overall climbing of the trail was 15,000-18,000 feet depending on what you wend by. I was shocked, and impressed that we did it. I always considered a ride at Falcon to be a good workout. Seems pretty easy now. We had some lunch, and enjoyed the view which again was spectacular. We were so close, yet so far. Chris warned us that there still was one climb left. A paved road, 5 miles long and about 1600 feet of climbing. So fairly similar to Lookout Mountain.

From lunch we started a fast descent on a paved road for quite a few miles. It was cold, and super windy. I almost got knocked sideways a couple of times which made me reconsider my boldness to go fast. Soon we got to the road that led us uphill. It was steep from the start, and the dead legs and heavy wind was not helping. I had to switch between riding and walking just to let my knees and hips rest. This was taking forever, and the wind was putting me in a foul mood. Especially when we came around a turn and saw switchbacks that went high on the mountain. Bill suggested that we try drafting, so he pulled in front of me. I got on his tire and stuck. I looked at nothing else than his tire. I had already enjoyed the view, so I didn’t feel like I was missing out on anything. I had to survive this climb. So we trudged up. Me on his rear wheel, thinking of nothing else but. The wind would knock us to the side a few times, but I stayed focused on his tire. My mood perked up when I realized we were really making good progress up the hill. Such an awesome guy. Oh, forgot to say that he carried pretty much all of my stuff this last day. That, and let me draft behind him. Incredible.

We got to a turn and decided to wait for Chris and Marni. They came up and kept going. We rode with them for a while and found we still had a ways to go. My mind started to take over again, but I fought it, and Bill and I took after it again. My eyes just stuck on his tire.

We finally made it to the summit, to freezing wind. I was on familiar terrain because I did this section of the trail only 2 weeks before. It was on this part of the trail I got the grand idea of doing the whole thing… Smart.

Since I knew where we were, knew the terrain and knew there wasn’t much climbing left, I let go. I wanted to fly down this hill. Too bad my body wasn’t feeling the same… Not too long after I took off, I hit a technical bump which flew one of my panniers off my bike. Bill stopped and put it back on for me. We were in a ditch to the side of the trail, and when I tried to get moving again, I lost my balance and fell to my left. I twisted my hurt knee even more, and got a handlebar in the thigh which caused immediate pain. Bill helped me up, but I couldn’t even put pressure on my leg. He told me I have to take it easy on this downhill. He didn’t want me getting hurt and he knew how little energy I had left. So once my leg stopped throbbing and I was able to put some pressure on it, I got back on and slowly made my way down. It was very painful. It hurt to stand, hurt to pedal and it hurt to walk. I was a mess.

We cruised the rest of the way down Sand Flats road into Slickrock, and then down to Moab. It was a nice relaxing descent to end the trail. We stopped towards the bottom to take off layers since it was once again the desert and not mountains. We took a final group picture then headed to the Wendy’s in Moab where Fred would meet us and take us back to Fruita. It felt so good to sit in that car, and I think I was out before we pulled onto the highway. We got back to our cars in Fruita, laughing that it took us 3 days to get to Moab by bike, yet 2 hours to get back by car.

We survived. We had many obstacles on the way, for some reason just 150 miles on a mountain bike unsupported wasn’t enough of a challenge. I am not sure I can say it was “fun”. It was challenging, especially when the mind takes over. I found how important good people are in your life, for I was with three of the best people on this trip. I know I couldn’t have done this without the support of Bill, I owe him my life and more if I could give. I don’t think I could do anything else like this in my life without him.

This weekend Bill, Mel, Scott and I went down to Buena Vista to participate in the Buena Vista Bike Fest. Mel and Scott stayed down there Friday night, and lucky Bill and I got up at 3:45 Saturday morning to head down. Due to some miscommunication, Mel and Scott weren’t planning on heading out until 8ish, and Bill and I were pumped and ready to go at 7. (well, kinda) So unfortunately we did not all ride together. Bill and I took off from the park a little after 7. The course started out with 30 miles along highway 24 from Buena Vista to Leadville. Only about 3 miles into the ride I was already feeling sore! I haven’t ridden this bike very much, so was not at all used to the seat! I was worried thinking that I still had 97 miles to go! I wasn’t so sure I could do it at that time. We kept pedaling, though.

The first rest stop was 17 miles in. We did it in about 1.5 hours, so a slow pace, but we wanted to make sure we had enough energy to finish. (or at least I did…) They stocked the rest stop very well with anything from fruit to bagels to M&M’s to Goldfish. They treated us well. After a nice long rest, we headed out again. Lucky me, Bill was willing to let me draft behind him. I thought it was nice, but he must have had one too many M&M’s because he just took off. It was hard to keep on his back tire let alone just keep up with him at all! But we made really good time to the next stop, only 45 minutes or so to mile 30. Another rest stop fully stocked, including a poop deck! Yes, a poop deck. The theme of the ride was pirates, or something, so many of the volunteers were dressed as pirates, and they made the row of port-a-potties into the back of a ship, hence the poop deck. Kinda funny.

We are about to head out for the long stretch up to Tennessee pass when I heard someone calling my name. After much confused looks around me, I saw that it was a good family friend, Susan! It was so exciting to see her, she is such a good person and has a way of making people laugh with her goofiness, so it was a nice surprise.

After some hugs, pictures and a brief catch-up, they took off and we shortly followed (although we never caught up to them). The next stretch was fairly long, and had the most climbing up to Tennessee pass. I love climbing, and Bill loves it even more, so we jammed up it, passing people left and right. Even though it wasn’t a race, it still felt good. The summit was beautiful, right on the Continental Divide. We took some pictures, chatted with some strange guy, and headed down. I am not a fan of downhill, especially on this bike, but the road was well maintained, and we cruised down getting up to a speed of 35ish, which is really fast for me!!

This part of the road did not have a shoulder, or not much of one. We had a fairly scary encounter with a semi. Bill and I are just cruising along, when we see a semi trying to pass someone in front of us. So no shoulder, with a huge semi coming right at us. I slowed down, thinking of what to do if it does come down to chicken with the semi, while all I hear is Bill bitching at the driver. The semi gets passed the car, going probably 80mph, and does some nice fishtailing getting back into the lane. He looked out of control, and it definitely got my heart racing, but I could not stop laughing. Bill bitched at the guy the whole time this was happening, and it just made me laugh at how riled up he got. If you know Bill, this doesn’t happen very often. It was awesome. Another good laugh.

We continued into Leadville where lunch was served. More food. Sweet. I told Bill that I could totally live like this. Ride all day, and make stops where people feed you. Perfect. We made it a relaxing stop, not to worried about the time. Once we got back on the bikes, though, I regretted it! I swear I felt every joint in my body. It was getting hard to pedal! And of course, it went right into a decent uphill. Oh well, we like climbing, right? It actually wasn’t too bad, we just took it slow, and a steady pace that was great for me, probably unbearably slow for Bill. We cut off onto the Mineral Belt trail, which was probably my favorite part of the ride. Mostly downhill on this paved bike path that went by old mines and wound through trees. Also had a great view of the Collegiate peaks. The trail came back into Leadville before we turned off onto another road that lead back to the second rest stop. At this point it was 2:30, and our “goal” was to be back by 4. So that meant 30 miles in 90 minutes. At first we thought it could be challenging, but when we took off, we realized it was very much downhill! Averaging over 30mph fast downhill. Top speed at 43.3, another record for me! It was fun, and a great way to blast out the last 30 miles. We got to the park by 3:35, all ending with a spectacular move from Bill…

I am in front of Bill heading toward the park. It is a right turn into the dirt lot, and right after I turned I heard some commotion and turned around just in time to see Bill go flying over his bike, landing on his feet and running about 20 feet to finally come to a stop. Very graceful, especially since it was in front of a bunch of people!! I guess he was wanting to get a picture of me “crossing the finish line,” when he hit the gravel. Of course, one of the first things anyone said to him was “Did you get the picture?” Which he didn’t, but got a good one of me laughing at him. What a great way to end my first Century, Bill’s first road Century. The picture proves how much fun it was, from start to finish.

We hung out at the after party with Mel and Scott, they did 62 miles, which for having not ridden much at all this year is pretty amazing! They treated us good afterwards, with glasses, beer and dinner. As well as quite a few other free drink coupons from all the non-drinkers… Great time, and the weather couldn’t have been better. Other than some wind on the ride, it was gorgeous.

Thankfully, we did not have to drive home after the ride. Bill was so nice to get us a B&B. It was so nice, overlooking the Collegiate Peaks, a really nice home, and great owners. We didn’t do much that night, I think we were both beat! It was a great way to end a great day. Couldn’t have written it any better.

After the third day in a row of going down to Salvagetti to drool over this bike, it is finally mine! I purchased the beautiful Jamis Exile single speed 29er. I am so excited about it, and can’t wait to take it on the trails!! Other than the fact than many people classify female SSers as she-beasts, or something of the sort, I am really looking forward to it, and would love to eventually race it! Oh, and he gets a shark.

Last night I met up with Bill and Cori and Mt. Falcon for a ride. It had started to rain a while before I got there, so I was pretty sure it was going to be a wet ride. We met up around 6:30, Bill had already been up and back, so he was warmed up already. It was one of the best rides I have had on Falcon. We passed a few people that were coming down while we were heading up, but eventually we passed them all and had the trail to ourselves. It was raining steadily the whole time, and every now and then we would hear long rumbles of distant thunder. It was so quite heading up, with just the sound of the rain and my breath. We didn’t spend too much time at the top, we were all soaked and starting to get cold. The fog really rolled in while we were heading down. It was beautiful. Such a different experience.

We were all numb by the time we got back to the cars, and decided to warm up over dinner and drinks at the Morrison Inn. I was so glad that we all decided to go for that ride. Will always be in my memory of one of the best. Thanks guys.

This weekend my friend, David, and I went out to Moab. It has become a tradition for me to make a Spring and Fall trip out there. It was Dave’s first time, and he loved it. I have gone to Moab with many people, and I will say not one of them seems to appreciate it as much as I do. It truly feels like home to me. It feels like I belong there. I love it, and don’t think I will ever get tired of it.

We left Denver around 6 on Friday, and got into Moab around midnight. We went to the Slickrock campground to find it was full! We were ready to stop driving, and weren’t in the mood to drive around to find a camp spot else where, so we pulled off into a dirt lot where cars park for the walk in camping, had a couple beers, then crashed in the back of my car. I will say, that was not the most comfortable thing in the world. It was only a few hours, though, since we were up and moving a little after 6. We had breakfast at the Moab Diner, which, even though the food isn’t spectacular, is another tradition of mine.

It was up to me to find a descent trail for the day since Dave has never been there, and it was a challenge! He just bought his bike Wednesday, as well as clipless pedals that he has never used before in his life. He got this grand idea that he would only put the cleat on one shoe for the first ride and practice on that foot, and then switch on the next ride… Whatever floats your boat!

I decided on Poison Spider, which is by no means an easy trail, but doable. I had done it a few years ago with some friends and wasn’t able to finish, so I wanted to give it another try. It was overall a descent trail, although I don’t think I will do it again. There were soooo many Jeeps and dirt bikes, and very few mountain bikers. We played cat and mouse with the jeeps all ride, and the sound of the dirt bikes really killed the serenity off it all. I haven’t been to Moab this late in the season, and was surprised by all the beautiful flowers in bloom! I had to stop and take a bunch of pictures of them, which led to getting crap from Dave. Sometimes I have a tendency to pay more attention to the flowers than the trail…

When we got to the arch there had to have been 30 Jeeps and tons of dirt bikes. Not really my cup of tea, riding up a beautiful mountain to see a parking lot of cars, so we didn’t hang out, just continued on the trail. There was a lot steeper climbing after that, and David was starting to fade. We got to the intersection where you can either take the Portal trail back down to the car, or continue on the loop. He was beat, so he decided to walk down the Portal Trail, and I continued on the loop. It was really pretty, and there were no Jeeps or dirt bikes… but there was A LOT of sand. I had to walk probably a mile in sand that went past my ankles every time I stepped. As I was enjoying the quite away from all the Jeeps, I was able to notice the smaller, less noticeable sounds. Not sure if this was a good thing, because I ended up seeing three rattlesnakes due to it! And even more snake tracks across the trail. I was ready to get back to a trail that I could actually ride!

It didn’t take too long to get back to where the loop met up with the main trail, and sure enough, I was back in the cluster of Jeeps. I was done dealing with them, so I did my best to get around them and stay ahead of them for the rest of the ride. I got back to the car, thinking I would see Dave chilling in a lounge chair with a beer. No lounge chair, no beer, no Dave. I figured he definitely would have been back by now, and kinda got worried! I had no idea where this trail came out, so I couldn’t exactly go looking for him. I didn’t have my car keys, either, so I couldn’t drive to look for him. So I was stuck waiting by my car hoping he would show up. He did, about 30 minutes later, and I thought he was going to die. He dropped his bike before he even got to the car, and rushed for water. I felt pretty bad for him. He was done for the day, to say the least.

Which, in a way was disappointing to me, until I realized this is a perfect time to take advantage of one of the trails that needs a shuttle. So I decided to do part of the Kokopelli Trail. David dropped me off on the side of the LaSalle Mts and I was off on my own. It was a fast downhill for a while, and really fun! I decided to take part of Porcupine Rim and some of Fins and Things down to Slickrock where David met up with me around 7. It was great riding, and I didn’t see another mountain biker, jeep or dirt bike the whole ride. It worked out great (for me at least) because while I was riding, Dave got a campsite and set up camp, so I didn’t have to do anything! It was perfect, because by then we were starving and ready for a beer. So we headed into town to Eddie McStiffs for dinner. Got back to the tent around 10:30, and I was ready to crash. Good day.

The next day we slept in till about 7:30, then packed up and headed into town for breakfast. The Moab Diner was closed for some reason, so we ended up at the Jailhouse café. I had never been there before and it was really good! We hung out in town for a while, and then headed out of Moab to get some riding in Fruita. On the way out we stopped at the Dewey Bridge that burnt down a few weeks ago. I guess some kid was playing with matches at his campsite and started the fire. It was really sad to see, and you could still really smell the smoke.

We got into Fruita and did Mary’s Loop. It is always a fun trail to do, and I thought it would be a good trail to redeem myself from the decision I made the day before on trails. David enjoyed himself a lot on this trail. It was fun and fast. At one point, I was cruising up this hill when I saw something I thought was a weird looking stick on the side of the trail, so I stopped. Oh, it was no stick. It was a 5 foot long snake! I have never seen a snake that big in the wild before. Gave me the creeps! It was yellow with black lines, and I have no idea what kind it was. It slid across the trail in front of us, and then up the rocks on the other side. I have had enough snakes the last few months to last me a lifetime!

Well, we finished the ride and made one more stop in Grand Junction for lunch. It was a good weekend, although too short! I am already planning on the next trip out there…