Day 19: Gunnison to Salida, CO (Montrose pass, lemonade girls, wine tasting and gondolas)

I'm going to miss the big climbs.

Today's climb over Monarch pass - 11300 feet - was the last good long climb till we get to Vermont.

Don't know why I like the long multi-mile climbs ... Maybe because it's meditative to just settle in to a low gear and crank up a mountain. Rhythmical. Usually beautiful scenery. Mentally challenging - acknowledging that your legs are tired but keep going anyway and thinking about your pedal stroke and keeping a steady cadence. You know you've done something most won't even try and it's a big rush to look back down the valley at how far you've come. It's fun to talk to normal people at the top who come over to confirm that you did actually ride that bike up the pass... and then they pass you on the way down with a big wave and thumbs up.

Today started out on the right foot ... With a proper cup of coffee. Not easy to get out here where instant rules. Yuck.

So properly caffeinated, we headed east towards the Pass. The first 35 miles of our ride were all a gradual climb as we'll followed the Gunnison River up a beautiful green valley towards the higher peaks.

On the way we saw a herd of big horn sheep hanging out in a pasture with some llamas. I assume the llamas were part of the ranch and the sheep were crashing. The big male sheep with the curving horns was standing and watching all of us carefully, while his ladies lounged on the grass oblivious.

The 9 mile climb wound up a valley and then up the side of the mountain that had been blasted into just enough room for a road. A thousand foot drop on the right with narrow shoulders ... This was not a climb for those with a fear of heights.

The river ran below and you could still hear it as we climbed higher. I watched my garmin ticking off the elevation - we climbed over 3500 feet in 9 miles.

The air is noticeably thinner after 8 or 9000 feet. I have a good tolerance for high altitude, but I found that when I would take a drink from my water bottle just disrupting the rhythm of my breathing left me gasping to recover enough air to sustain the climbing. Passed by several riders and gave them all the positive words - looking really strong, we're almost there, took a photo of them as I passed to document their climb.

The summit had all the tourist trappings we could desire, complete with T-shirts that said I made it to the summit of Monarch pass on a bike, a Gondola you could take to the mountain summit for great views (of course I went), and a fudge shop. Yep had some fudge, too.

The down hill was great. Fast but not so fast you had to ride your brakes to stay in control, unbelievable views and downhill all the way into town.

I met up with Marilyn on the way down and rode in with her. She was a willing accomplice for a pit stop by an ice cream stand recommended by a rider from an earlier trip (very tasty chocolate malt which I also justify serves as my chocolate milk-like recover drink) and further down the road a little wine tasting.

When we rolled into the hotel we we're greeted by four very cute little girls with a lemonade stand. They were making a killing at $.75 a cup. But I don't mind ... Go girl entrepreneurs.

Tonight we wandered around the town of Salida (pronounced Sal eye da). Very cute town with the river running through it, lots of shops, pubs - it's clearly an destination/resort area that draws outdoorsy crowds.

A great day. 66 miles ridden, approx 4500 elevation

Day 18: Montrose to Gunnison, CO (cue Rocky Mountain High)

My Mom reminded me that when my sister and I were 9 or so we had a family vacation at a Dude Ranch outside Gunnison in one of the canyons. We would tack on family vacations to Dad's business trips back then, and I remember this one as a highlight.

I was horse crazy and the Dude ranch was my idea of heaven - and it meant a trail ride on an actual horse. I remember getting all dressed up complete with boots I think and then being too shy to talk to the cowboy (or probably college kid on a summer job). But the best spending days building a fort by the Gunnison River in front of our cabin.

Grubby and outdoors ... my idea of fun then and now.

Today was spectacular. But we had to work for the reward today.

We were still riding with the Tour of Colorado folks. We had two significant climbs today - and the first 15 miles - - including most of one of the climbs was in a "put your head down and pedal as hard as possible and be thankful you're making 10 mph on the flats for your efforts" headwind. Trees flapping, grass laying sideways, riders grumbling. But as we eased up the first pass the winds slowly died down, and we passed through terrain that became greener and more lush as we climbed to the first summit at just under 8000 feet.

After a 2 mile gorgeous descent (where we lost almost 1000 feet of that hard won elevation gain) whizzing through mountains and bigger snow capped peaks in the distance, we started the next climb to summit # 2. No wind this time but it was hot. Winding up a little steeper grade to the second summit, riders were definitely feeling it. I even had to crack open the Cliff blocks which I save for emergency fuel to add electrolytes and a little caffeine push. The second summit got us to over 8700 feet. It was glorious at the top. Wildflowers, views and one of the best descents ever. I bet I stopped 3 or 4 times to take photos and just look around. Incredible.

At the end of the descent we passed through a narrow gulch where the red rocks closed in overheads and the river ran strong next to the road. And then ... oops ... a sneak climb switchbacks up and around the side of a mountain out of site. It's one of those where you look up and see riders several hundred feet above you climbing where you will be going soon enough.

OK ... one more climb. Up we go. Now finally around the corner and ... could it possibly be something even better than what we've just ridden through? Yep! ... Blue Mesa Lake - gorgeous and huge and actually blue. Boats are on the water and red rock mountains are rising from the dammed Gunnison River. OK ... stopping a dozen more times for photos and admiring the views ... I can't believe some of these folks are whizzing by without stopping to see what's around them. What's the hurry?

We keep following the damned river/lake and head into Gunnison. Relatively flat and fast. Interesting company on the ride in with Gary from Cleveland in for the Salt Lake Pueblo leg where I talked him into trying the ice bath. We'll see if he's still talking to me tonight. A trip to the local pizza joint for lunch before heading back to the hotel. That pizza was good ... and we're going back tonight for dinner. May have another :) Because I can eat 2 pizzas a day now if I want. Love that.

Tomorrow if a big climb up and over Monarch Pass and then down to Salida. Over 11000 feet ... it will be interesting to see how the altitude impacts climbing. I know the air was thin enough at 8700.

Day 17 - Grand Junction, CO to Montrose, Co and riding with the Tour de Colorado

You've got to love a town that takes enough pride in it's community to invest in making it a little special.

After dinner last night I took a cab downtown with Chuck and Bob to check out Main Street. They had whimsical and fun public sculptures and plantings everywhere. Including a big bicycle you could climb on. Lots of bike and outdoor shops - this was clearly a center for outdoor recreation. A brew pub with a mighty tasty Stout on tap. And a gelateria that made their gelato daily using a recipe handed down from a fourth generation Venetian gelato maker. Yum.

When we were riding into Colorado yesterday we were greeted by Grand Junction resident and 7 time cross country rider Sue who met us under an overpass with frozen ices . She also showed us a network of trails leading through town that led by the Colorado River and even marked them with indicator signs .... A real luxury and a wonderful host.

So that's how our 72 mile ride today started, winding around 15 miles through a maze of bike paths to the main road that led to Montrose to the South East. We then joined the 1600 plus cyclists riding the Tour de Colorado - a 7 day event that is on the same route as we are following today and tomorrow. It was pretty fun to ride with other cyclists ... They were very curious about us and it was fun to chat. Their ride is pretty intense - 100+ miles days and 8000+ feet of climbing ... Tomorrow we get to stop in Gunnison and they go on over another mountain pass and for another 40 miles to Crested Butte. But then they haven't been riding for 17 days either. Does make me think it could be fun to come back and do this ride or Ride the Rockies one year down the road.

Today we did some long gradual climbs and passed through range lands and dirt roads leading off to places called Rattlesnake Gulch complete with rattlesnake road kill within 50 yards of the road. You could look down and open canyons snaking below. Cyclists stretched for miles in front and behind us. We noticed we were passing a lot more often than we were passed.

It also turns out that Colorado has wineries ... Who knew. We biked past several wineries ... Tasted a little of the local vino tonight which was pretty good. Hopefully can try some more in the next few days. Finally this afternoon we headed up to the rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. In the van - although Brian biked up there - what's another 2000 feet and 20 miles? He got style points for that. The Canyon is impressive - 2700 feet deep and narrow walls. I'd never been and was glad to see it.

Tomorrow we head on to Gunnison - some real climbing and around 65 miles. I'm looking forward to it, even though I've noticed it takes me longer and longer to warm up and my legs protest as I get going again after a stop. On the other hand I'm riding a lot stronger now ... Holding 19 and 20 mph is very doable and climbing is faster. Probably because I've been chasing faster riders for a couple of weeks now. So that's encouraging ... Wonder how fast we'll be going by the end of this trip?

Day 16: Green River to Grand Junction CO ... 97 miles and 97 degrees

Well, the heat finally caught up with us. It was well over 90 today. Heat introduces additional challenges when cycling ... you need more electrolytes, more water, there is more stress on the body as it has to use extra energy to cool itself. While everyone in our group did OK, riding in heat generally gets folks in trouble faster than anything else.

We've been lucky so far. Usually it's 100 degrees in many of the areas we've been cycling through. At most places so far when I've talked to the locals they've been complaining about the rain and unseasonably cool weather. In Green River they are famous for their watermelons, (I was told the sweetest and best in the world and too bad for me that I missed it) and the talk was that this year they would be lucky to have them ripe by the end of August instead of July as usual.

But despite being hot, the ride over was beautiful. All of this country is on the Colorado (river) Plateau, part of the Rocky Mountains. I've always thought of the Rockies as being in Colorado and North and South, but our friendly ranger yesterday pointed out that they actually start with the Wasatch mountains near Salt Lake and end east of Denver. The Plateau with it's buttes are technically part of the Rockies.

Today's ride was mostly desert range with canyonlands to the north and south. White sand, sagebrush and red and pink bluffs in the distance. We did a bit of climbing today ... over 4000 feet. A lot of it was in the first 30 miles in very slight grade climbs that went forever. I kept forgetting I was actually climbing and kept thinking I was just tired and wondered what was wrong with me for feeling so draggy. Then the terrain turned to rollers with relatively gentle climbs and descents and our pace picked up as we rode through range lands. Lots of gophers and saw another antelope. When we crossed the state line to Colorado, the terrain changed quickly. A long climb and then we entered another plateau. We biked along the Colorado river which was muddy brown and the dark red cliffs rose behind the river. The land was green with more grass and trees and red with the dramatic cliffs and canyons. I'm going to like Colorado.

Tons of our riders have had a lot of trouble with flats ... Chris who I ride with often had 3 and others have had multiple flats. I feel badly for them - it's no fun changing a flat in the hot sun. Cross my fingers that my luck holds - I've only had one so far. Now I've probably jinxed it ...

Tomorrow we bike to Montrose and we'll cross paths with Ride Colorado where there are several thousand riders on the same course. Should be fun to talk with other riders and swap stories ... and chaotic with a lot of cyclists on the road.

Day 15: Price to Green River and Shirley on her Schwinn

When we left Price this morning we were not even 5 miles out of town when we saw the
most beautiful view of mountains with the sun filtering through clouds in visible,
vertical white rays. After at least the 3rd photo stop we were speculating: Could
these mountains already be the Rockies in Colorado? They were huge and dominant.
But as we got closer you could see that these were bit peaks - some over 10k feet -
but they were huge buttes with exposed cliff faces of multicolored rock. Gorgeous.
We were seeing the north end of the Canyon lands and heading to Green River, the
traditional crossroads for the old Spanish Trail, the railroad, pioneers and western
explorers.

It was a 67 mile ride today, and the first half was stop and gawk. We even saw an
antelope.

Then the landscape widened. We could clearly see the striated buttes on the left,
and the lower canyon lands beginning on the right. There were four of us who rode
in together in a good paceline against a strong headwind - Chris, Seattle Bob, Chuck
and I. We have a good system down at this point.

We rode on into Green River, a tiny town of 900. The plan was that I was going to
go with a group to Arches National park, but due to having a mental lapse and
forgetting that the time on my cell was Seattle I missed it. Oops. That's OK. I've
been and it turns out that a white water rafting trip was cancelled due to heavy
rain yesterday that caused mudslides that wiped out the road.

So instead I walked next door to the local city run Green River museum. Tons of info
about the first river exploration down the Green and Colorado Rivers. Very
enthusiastic and bored volunteers running the museum ... I was the only one there.
Chatted with them afterwards and they were helping me figure out the maps and
answering questions about the area. Like it's called the Green River because even
though it's muddy and red now when the melt and rain ends the mud settles and it
becomes Green.

Then walked down to the state park about 1.5 miles away. The ranger was a hoot and
talked with him for a while. Lots more info on the area - nice guy. Headed down to
the water and sat in he shade for a while and then headed back. And met Shirley
coming towards me on her Schwinn.

She had been sitting quietly while the friendly ranger had been talking. But we
went over to the shade and Shirley - who with her husband was volunteering as a camp
host for the summer - is an avid biker. She put over 2000 miles on her Schwinn from
Walmart last year, mostly between 5 and 7 am near her house. That's more outdoor
miles than I put on my new bike training for this ride. GO Shirley GO! She wants
to ride across Missouri for her 65th birthday and needs company. I hope she makes
it. She was awesome.

Dinner was another feed at another restaurant the specialized in quantity over
quality. Which was fine with me - I was hungry. Met a woman at dinner who was
taking a bus from New Jersey to Las Vegas to gamble for 4 days. They were stopping
along the way to check out the sites. She took one look at my legs - the bike tan
line - brown with a 3 inch strip of Seattle pasty white before the shorts start and
said "Oooh baby ... What did you do to your legs?". So then I had to show her my
even funnier glove tan lines with white hands and brown finger tips and wrists.
It's pretty clownish ... Think about how it will look when I'm done.

Right now we are sitting watching the first three days of video of the ride that the
Korean TV station ran. It was so nice of them to give us a rough cut. It's also
1.5 hours long otherwise I'd figure out how to load it up. But they have pretty
much everything on there - eating, riding, climbing. Getting lost.

Tomorrow we hit Colorado. 94 mile ride with some climbing.

Day 14: Provo to Price, UT

Tomorrow we will break 1000 miles.

I was just looking on my Garmin stats and it says I've been riding over 64 hours, burned over 45000 calories (that's around 112 bacon cheeseburgers) and climbed almost 48,000 feet. Granted there is occasional operator error and sometimes the data just looks off with too much elevation showing up on the Garmin but still ... not bad.

Today was pretty challenging. A ride some called technical and others called dangerous. We left really early at 5:45 to minimize traffic. The route had a ton of construction that left narrow or no shoulders in several places. We got it all today: Strong headwinds as we entered the canyon ... at least 30 mph ... there were several windmills at the mouth of the canyon. Crossing cement barriers and riding on dirt roads in construction zones (they weren't working). Rumble strips in the middle of a narrow shoulder that left sometimes a 6 inch strip of pavement to ride on without going into the lane. A cold rain after Soldier Summit on the descent. And we pretty much agreed - Utah drivers can be really rude.

Despite these challenges, the ride itself was beautiful. Long climbs up Price Canyon through green mountains and the beginnings of canyon lands - including the famous Utah red rock. Then after the summit the landscape became pure canyon badlands with rock pinnacles and deep narrow rifts. It was beautiful and stark. The stone was grey, pink, red and shades of brown. The descent was steep but I kept stopping to take photos, despite the rain that had already caught me at the summit fast on my heels. I got in just in time before the rain set in ...

After getting cleaned up some of us went to the Dinosaur and archeology museum. Huge skeletons of a mammoth and others extinct critters that were found locally. We'll bike pass several dig sites tomorrow on the way to Price. Should be a pretty ride tomorrow, and relatively easy. Then we can head out to Arches National Park or go white water rafting ... nice choices for a fun afternoon.

Day 13: Salt Lake City to Provo

I think most of the Salt Lake area is under construction. Is this our stimulus $ at work? Today was slow going - lots of navigating, convening with a GPS to find alternative routes and we even had a bridge to nowhere. The route sheet had roads that were shut down for construction and routed us over an overpass that had been knocked down. Seattle Bob has a GPS so he's great to ride with - besides his wonderful company - it lowers your chance of getting totally lost dramatically. Maybe it's time to figure out that GPS application on my blackberry ...

But it was a beautiful day. Sunny, 70s, and ... a good 20 mph headwind the first couple of hours. But the wind didn't matter too much as we were stopping every few blocks in Salt Lake suburbia and heading south through neighborhoods and subdivisions for the entire 68 mile day. The Wasatch mountains were on the left rising sharply. Tons of the neighborhoods we rode by had amazing views at the foot of the mountains. There is still a lot of snow up there. We rode right through Brigham Young University Campus ... a beautiful campus. Huge stadium ...

I did get a hotel flat this morning ... always mysterious ... like little hotel imps run around and let the air out of your tires. You wake up in the morning with a flat tire ... mine was caused by a piece of copper wire that are apparently all over the sides of the interstates from blown out tires. They sneakily work their way in and you have to use tweezers to pluck them out. Luckily Wonderful Shawn our mechanic changed it in all of 3 minutes. Not that I can't change my own flat, mind you, but it takes me closer to 20 or 30 minutes and usually a fair amount of dirt, colorful language and the occasional bruise (my tires are super tight on the rims - really difficult to get on.)

Our 13 new riders were with us much of the day. Seem like a great group of folks. There are 4 more women now ... I find this exciting for some reason (don't know why - I often seem to ride with the boys though I miss my Heidi and Emily and Christina and TNT gals for training rides.) Based on today it looks like I'm faster than all the new gals, too, so maybe no gal ride buddies on this stretch either but we'll see how they climb. I may well take this back after I get left in the dust.

Tomorrow sounds really challenging. Beautiful if we can take our eyes off the road long enough to see. Tons of construction. We leave at 5:45 am to try and avoid as much traffic as possible.

Day 11 and 12: Wendover to Salt Lake City and a Hooray Rest Day

If you haven't discovered the maps featured under the Garmin Data and Stats on the right hand side of the blog, the entry from Wendover to Salt Lake is a great time to check it out. If you look at the map and change the view to satellite view, you can see the huge expanse white that is the Bonneville Salt Flats and then Great Salt Lake. It's a crazy piece of our planet.

In bike terms, riding that day meant 40ish miles across salt flats which looked alternatively like a moonscape of pure shimmery white or yellow sand and a huge shallow lake. Many of the flats were covered in water because of all the rain and storms that had come through. We passed through the flats just after dawn ... we had a 118 mile day and an early start so extra time was important - especially for slower riders in our stops-a-lot group.

We also had a wicked headwind that lasted for at least 60 miles, and then picked up again even harder the last 20 miles of the ride. Headwinds can be the hardest part of riding ... downright discouraging. To me worse than climbing mountains. To cope with the wind, a bunch of us formed up in a double paceline which had been perfected by a smaller group of riders the day before, including Bob from Seattle and Chris from Ohio - (you can see their blogs listed on the right side of my blog if interested in another take on this trip and photos - I just linked them onto mine). For non-bikers, a paceline is basically where you follow a rider in front of you closely enough to benefit from the draft. You rotate regularly to share the work ... the front of the line "pulls" and the back of the line "drafts". A double paceline is basically two columns that rotates clockwise, so you take a turn front left, a turn front right, and then fall back down the line as the paceline rotates every 1/2 mile. It's obviously important to be a very steady rider with good bike handling skills to do this safely. While I've done single pacelines frequently, doubles were new to me but really effective in an otherwise soul sucking headwind. Plus you had ever changing folks to chat with during the rotation which makes 118 miles go a lot faster.

Anyway, we made decent time given the winds. It was incredibly beautiful out there. After 40 miles the scene changed back to high desert and sagebrush. And as we closed in on Salt Lake City the snow capped Wasatch mountains rose in the skyline. For the last 40 miles we were pretty much running from an ugly black storm that slowly chased us into the city. Luckily we were moving faster than it was, but it was motivation to move along and avoid a drenching. There was nothing out there - no services, not even a bush if you had to take care of a necessity. Made for some entertainment for passing truckers, often celebrated by long honks. SAG vehicles stopped frequently for water, though official SAG stations were 40 - 45 miles apart - that's a long way for sag support.

Coming into Salt Lake I was riding with Seattle Bob and Gerard one of our ride leaders and we ended up not being able to get through and exchange and were forced off the road early. This turned out to be a good thing as we charted a better route the the frontage road by Salt Lake that went past the Kennecot Copper mine, which is a huge plant and looked pretty interesting to check out on any day when you hadn't been in the saddle forever.

A challenging biking day on already tire legs, but real teamwork made it a fun and successful day and I think helped pull the group together tighter.

And, one of the highlights of my day was the surprise gift of chocolate covered strawberries and cookies from Tracey and Neil and the 3 little Snyders waiting for me at the hotel. THANK YOU!!! Wonderful surprise and quickly gone.

The HOORAY REST DAY

Let's just say SPA. Many thanks to Gary King for the great recommendation of Kura Door Spa. I went with another gal doing the ride and had a fabulous massage and pedi, sat in the steam bath and otherwise recovered. Wonderful way to get the body back in shape for another 8 days of the (gulp) Rocky Mountains. Then we went for a nice lunch and to visit the Mormon temple and genealogy library. You'll be happy to know I did not convert. But I did look up some of my maternal ancestry at the library and found the 1930 census records for my maternal Grandparents which was very cool. Turns out my grandmother married at 17, they could both read and right and speak English. Pretty interesting look at those times by what questions are asked on the census.

Today we lost 5 wonderful riders who were just doing the first leg of the trip. But we have 13 more joining us I'll meet at breakfast. Looking forward to our next leg. It's another huge cue sheet which will mean some slow navigation out of Salt Lake to Provo tomorrow, 64 miles with hills.

Day 10: Elko to Wendover, NV

A long ride today and our first century - 107 miles. Folks are getting tired -
including me. You see a lot more shifting around in the saddle trying to get
comfortable ... Derrieres are starting to complain. Rear ends become dinner
conversation with favorite remedies offered up with extreme confidence. We have a
doctor with us who has offered to examine any suspect spot ... Don't know if anyone
has taken him up on it.

Today's ride was just exquisite. The Ruby Range to the south was snow capped with
sagebrush and pasture land leading up to it. Just one beautiful view after another.
It never stopped all day ... Mountains in the distance, ranch land, and sagebrush
and wildflowers. And we'd keep going and it would just get better. We climbed up a
canyon over the Pequot mountains - about 10 miles to around 7000 feet. These
mountains had beautiful rocky outcroppings and the canyon felt narrow after riding
in the huge open spaces. At the top we had a long and fast descent into yet another
gorgeous dessert vista ... This time more sandy and spare. Clearly it had missed a
lot of the rain. But maybe not for long - to the right was a massive black storm
and you could see the grey where rain was falling. I missed the rain, but some
riders coming behind me were pulled because of lightening. The bike is a bad place
to be in a storm ... Hit the ditch. The final descent into Wendover was amazing.
You crest the final hill and a huge expanse of white stretches out in front of you.
White salt flats as far as the eye can see.

Wendover is a scruffy looking stain on the salt at the base of the mountains ...
Dotted with neon from all the Casinos. Gary - totally agree with you and stayed in
the hotel. Because why should you leave? The rooms have one wall that is all
mirrors, black lacquer furniture and fake tortoise shell walls and doors and 3 big
plastic plants. The casino down stairs is mirrors walls and ceilings with blue and
pink neon lights everywhere. And there is a fake rain forest in the all you can eat
buffet. They lost money on us ... I had 3 plates of food and dessert and I was
eating light compared to my table mates.

Tomorrow is our last ride before a day off. We are riding across the salt flats to
Salt Lake City. Right now the winds don't look promising ... It's a 118 miles day
and we're hoping it shifts to a tail wind.

Day 9: Battle Mountain to Elko, NV

I can tell everyone is getting tired. Nine days of cycling in a row takes its toll. Tired legs. Sore behinds. A bunch of us started in a large group meandering along at around 14 mph, chatting and generally lallygagging. But the problem with riding so slowly is that it may be easier on the legs but it means more hours in the saddle. Hmmm - dilemma. Brad from Ohio and I did the breakaway after around 10 miles.

The day was beautiful. Mostly sunny, cool. The ride was mile after mile of large green expanses of sage brush, wildflowers and greenery framed by mountains. We are still at around 5000 feet elevation in the high desert - the sky is huge. We climbed Emigrant pass and had a fun 10 mile descent. Probably the highlight of the ride today was a 4 mile stretch through Carlin Canyon - which was a key route for the first railroad, road and before that the pioneers going over the California trail on their way to the gold rush. Beautiful with dramatic rock formations and steep walls and wildflower covered riverbanks.

On the ride in the Canyon we met a guy who is the head of the Elko Velo club ... he was marking the road for a time trial coming up. He was telling us how unusual the weather was ... I guess it's usually 100 degrees and brown. I'll take the random rainstorms over that anytime. He was also saying how lucky we were not to have these crazy huge crickets that I guess come out and are everywhere. Bikes smash them and the pop cricket guts everywhere - ugh. They can be so bad they make the interstate slick and the highway patrol puts up warning signs. Funny that's not in the tour literature ...

We're in Elko getting ready for a long day tomorrow 107 miles with some climbing and a long descent to Wendover. Then another 100 + mile ride into Salt Lake. Long days ... hopefully no headwind. Make an offering to the wind gods for me ...

Day 7 and 8: Lovelock to Winnemucca to Battle Mountain ... and Jerry the Cowboy

Lovelock is in the DESERT. It gets an average of less than 6 inches of rain a year. That is probably less than 10 days of rain?

So lucky us ... we got cold rain on the 72 mile ride between Lovelock and Winnemucca. Despite being from Seattle where I should know better, I didn't dress quite warmly enough for the ride. Needed the arm warmer layer under the jacket. See, I had this Pollyanna delusion in my head reinforced by chirpy weather channel talking heads that it would clear off. And it did ... about 2 hours after we arrived in Winnemucca. So despite what was no doubt beautiful country for riding, I was pretty much pedaling as fast as possible with my head down, shaking water off my visor and wiping my glasses so I could see the road. It was one of those rides where you can feel the water sloshing in your bike shoes. Stopped briefly to top off water, pedalled on. Too cold to stop - warmer to keep moving. Needless to say made great time on this ride and arrived before noon.

So the staff at America by Bike pointed out that usually this stretch of the ride was 90 to 100 degrees, and at least we weren't burning up in the desert. Which is true. The locals were ecstatic ... it had been a while for rain.

Rooms weren't ready till 2:00 so some of us headed over to the laundry mat to catch up and then washed off all gear: bike, helmet, jacket, pants, booties - it's all covered in road smooge.

Road smooge is grimier than just mud. It's a toxic mixture of dirt, oil, and whatever else is deposited on the highway since the last rain. Your bike kicks up a trail of it from the rear wheel which goes in a cold mucky streak right up your back. It's up your legs and embedded in your bike chain and derailleurs. If you were at home you might be tempted to ignore it a while, but having to ride the next morning means it's all got to be cleaned up and dried out. But I'm becoming much more zen like about my bike and riding as it's pretty clear on this ride we're going to do things that I never considered possible before and 72 miles in the cold rain is just one of them. Overall that's a good thing.

At the laundromat (a happening place on Saturday afternoon) we saw a large number of cowboys doing laundry. They looked like real cowboys. So I was chatting with a couple while waiting on the spin cycle and they said they were in town for the Nevada State High School Champion Rodeo. Folks from all over the state had come in. SCORE! Gotta get to that while I'm here.

Dinner that night was a a place called the Flying Pig and it had neon pigs in flashing lights and what my roommate Judy calls "beefcake" (cutouts of sexy scantly clad men) taped up around the top of the ladies room. I got the smokehouse which had 3 kinds of meat and was an unbelievably huge platter of food ... scary. No, I didn't eat it all.

The next morning we were riding on to Battle Mountain. (If any bookclubbers are reading, Battle Mountain is one of the towns in The Glass Castle where whatshernames family lived.) Anyway it was only 55 miles today with one decent climb, pretty easy, so we slept in till 7 AM and got a late start. On the way out of town we pass the the fairgrounds and ... SCORE - there is the rodeo. There are 4 of us and in we go.

Now 4 spandex clad cyclists in our tighty shorts and neon jackets and helmets do not exactly fit in at the Rodeo. But it took about 2 minutes to be approached ... "So where are you going on that bike?" That's how I met Jerry - a real life cowboy, movie star handsome who was originally from Longview Washington but ended up in Hollywood working for 30 years as a stuntman in movies. Really! He was great. We chatted for a while and he gave me the lowdown on the area and the rodeo. We were eventually joined by other cyclists and overall it was like the circus came to town. We saw the bareback bronc riding and some calf roping, and then had to move on up the road. It was a blast.

Heading to Battle Mountain turned out to be a harder ride than anticipated. We had a pretty good climb - about 3.5 miles - and some bad road. Bad like - I didn't know you could ride your bike over 6 miles of this. So rough it shook my water bottle cage off and I had to put it back on the road. But now my perspective of "bad road" has been exponentially altered.

We are still doing a lot of interstate riding. It's literally the only way across Nevada and we'll be on it all the way to Salt Lake except for stretches on rural roads when possible. Otherwise no place to stay. It actually isn't bad ... wide shoulder and not that much traffic. And you can go REALLY Fast ... which is kinda nice. Trucks give you a lot of room and the roads except for the 5 miles today are in excellent condition. John - who's doing this ride for the 4th time - gave some great advice about putting an earplug in the traffic side ear ... you can hear easily but it cuts down the roar.

day 6: sparks to lovelock

Stories from Lovelock
Taking an ice bath is part of my daily post-ride routine now. Not my favorite 15 minutes of the day, but boy does it pay off in spades. When my friend Rose (ironman and fleet footed marathoner) first described the ice bath routine after her hard runs I thought she was crazy. Then when I was telling my friend Tim (who helped me train for this ride at his multisport center) about my fear of just being exhausted after 10 days with no rest he suggested giving it a try. Basically what you do is immerse your lower body in cold water for around 15 minutes. It pushes the swelling out of your legs and it's amazing how much better they feel.

In other towns the cold water in the hotel pool has sufficed. So I bring all this up because the pool routine changed dramatically in Lovelock. First, this town has one stoplight. Our hotel is also a casino, as most things in Nevada appear to be casinos. Even the gas stations have slot machines. So when I get into the hotel I see the speedy crowd sitting on the raised stairway in the shade having a beer. Normally we sit by the pool. I join them and then they say go check out the pool ... I head in there and open the door and am hit with heat, chemicals and cigarettes. A note on the door warns that "some colored hair and our pool chemicals don't mix - proceed with caution". I stick my head in and there are about 8 older ladies floating on floaty things. Apparently the hotel pool is also a community pool where they hold water aerobics classes. They welcome me in (all the men had been kicked out earlier)- and let me know the water is quite warm and comfy. So while bobbing in the pool with the Lovelock ladies would have been interesting, I go get a trashcan full of ice and fill up the tub for my ice bath.

Tonight we had dinner at the Cowpoke cafe. It was fabulous --all homemade family style. Our Brit asked if he would get to poke a cow there. They were psyched to have us ... Even took photos.

I think Nevada will be a string of little towns like this. Not much to look at but a lot underneath the run down buildings.

The ride today was beautiful. We were riding through the Great Basin and salt flats. Big expanses of flat earth - much coated by salt that was white and reflecting light. Mountains rose in the background. We even passed some wetlands. I could swear I saw a pelican ...

It was 90 miles today - and relatively flat compared to the last few days. I made good time averaging almost 18 mph. It was the type of territory that you would drive through as fast as possible but when you slow down its really beautiful.

day 5: Truckee to Sparks NV

65 miles

It was freezing this morning - low 30s. Time to break out the winter riding pants, jacket, long fingered gloves, shoe booties and complain a tad.

But it was beautiful and the light was white and the air was clear and pure. We headed south towards Lake Tahoe and got on a great bike trail that followed the Truckee river. I've ridden this route several times before with TNT, but we had to share the trail with a few thousand other cyclists and try not to run over each other. This time it was empty. The river is so clear you can see the fish. Their was mist rising off the river, and it was beautiful.

On the way out of Truckee I met a guy named Butch cruising along on his bike with a trailer, a rear rack and 2 front paniers. He estimated it weighed about 60 or 70 pounds. So apparently he biked the exact same route yesterday we did - same climbing - with and extra 70 pounds. Pretty amazing ... No support, nothing. Rode with him a bit. He was going on to Carson City. Just to keep things in perspective ...

I think Lake Tahoe is one of the most beautiful places on the planet. Blue water and mountains and trees ... We biked around the north end to Incline Village and then headed north hover Rose Mountain. Hit a bakery in Kings Beach before we started the climb and. Had doughnut the size of my head (yum). The lake is high - at 6200 feet. The top of the summit is 8900 feet. It was an 8+ mile climb ... We climbed up through the forest to sub-alpine thinning trees and finally to alpine meadows and snow fields. It was freezing up there and even got a few snow flakes. This was one of the few rides where the descent was longer than the climb. 16 + miles of descent and ended up outside of Reno at around 4500 feet.

It was amazing how the landscape changed on the other side - the desert came immediately. Bare sand, sage brush ... It looks a lot like Eastern Washington. Reno and Sparks are like one big strip mall with casinos.

This was a great day - lots of poking around and picture taking. Tomorrow will be completely different - desert and highway.

Day 4: Auburn to Truckee

Today's ride was incredible. 72 miles and over 8000 feet of climbing. It was 55 miles up hill. That's a lot. But it went great. Beautiful day. Gorgeous country side.

We started out at 5:15 AM loading luggage and then off to Dennys for the Grand Slam ... Great pre-ride food. I'm becoming partial to eggs and pancakes - stay away from the pig. Then road out and started climbing within 5 miles. We were in rolling hills through woodland - parts were pretty steep 10+% grade but most were gradual climbs of around 6% grades. Tree lined roads reminded me of some of Washingtons big trees, huge ferns and wildflowers.

We wound through woods for the first 30 miles and then got on Interstate 80 East. Now riding your bike on the interstate is clearly not ideal. But it was the only route. We were on it for around 18 miles. You don't realize how loud cars and trucks are till they are whizzing by you at 80mph. Feel pretty vulnerable out there. Lots of incentive to climb (cause it was all uphill) as fast as possible.

We had a little excitement, and had to get off the highway and re-group due to construction. The Forman walked us through the site, but it took almost an hour to get enough riders collected there to be sent through. Then more interstate. I amused myself by making a movie which I'll attempt to post on what it's like to be an idiot and ride your bike on the interstate.

Now there is not much to look at on the interstate other than glimpses of whatever views are peeking through and observe the garbage and debris. What I want to know is what's up with all the plastic bottle full of pee by the side of the road. WHO DOES THAT?! Nasty. If you do it - quit!

So we survived teh interstate and headed up for the best part of the day. The last climb was up Donner Pass Road, and it wound through beautiful woods and lakes and near sub alpine forests and wildflowers all the way to the top of the pass 7200 feet. Gorgeous. Heaven. Worth the climbing. Spectacular views, and just a great feeling to have accomplished that climb and be rewarded with that beauty.

Then the Decent. Even better views of Donner Lake, the valley and the snowcapped mountains. And going down is fun. Especially going down steep curvy mountain passes (in a safe and controlled manner of course).

A long 12 miles to the hotel by the lake and through old town Truckee. One thing is with the riding you are tired and may or may not have energy to be a tourist ... cest la vie.

Tomorrow we go around the top end of Lake Tahoe - familiar territory - and over Rose Pass (not Spooner) to Sparks Nevada.

Day 3: Sacramento to Auburn ... And Congratulations and THANK YOU TNT

First - a quick Congratulations and Thank you to all my friends with Team in Training. They just completed a fund raising ride around Lake Tahoe on Sunday and raised thousands of dollars for Leukemia research. As many of you know, I trained with them when I first started distance riding in 2005, and Tahoe was my first Century. Tomorrow I'll be thinking of them as we go into Truckee - part of the Tahoe Century course - and then around the north part of the lake the day after. They were so great in answering all my dumb questions and encouraging me. And they continue to offer that opportunity to others every year. TNT changes lives ... Really. So big congratulations to all the first time TNTers, and a thank you to everyone from that program I've ridden with over the last few years and let me ride with them again this year to help train.

Today was another beautiful day. The ride was fairly short - around 50 miles. This is probably good because tomorrow will be a beast of a ride ... 70+ miles and over 8000 feet of climbing. Everyone is a little freaked out about it - especially the Floridians who don't have anything but overpasses to train on. For perspective, it will be the equivalent of a 55 mile hill. Ok but more on that tomorrow ...

Today the first 30 miles were on a great bike trail that hugged the American River between Sacramento and Folsom Dam/Lake/Prison. Trail was in great shape ... If only the Burke was so well maintained (hint if any of my city of Seattle employee friends are reading ...). It meandered by the river and then started to roll as we entered the foothills. Lovely country. We stopped by Folsom lake with the prison in the background ... I wanted to hear some Johnny Cash - got to get him on my blackberry ...

The ride into Auburn was basically one long climb ... A wake up climb for tomorrow. We were entering the foothills of the Sierras. We followed a highway that was dotted by McMansions, horses and dog breeding farms, subdivided 3 acre lots ... You know the type of place. When you are climbing long distances you are moving pretty slowly so there is lots of time to observe what's around you. I thought it was hysterical and pretty indicative that the most common road debris were golf balls - counted at least 5.

Auburn is a really great little town. Tons of history. The first gold in CA that kicked off the Gold Rush was discovered 20 miles from there. It was the first capital of the state, the railway came through there and claims the oldest post office in the West. Very cute with old buildings still intact. We had lunch at a little place and chatted a while with the owner who came over after we told her we were doing the xcountry ride. Turns out she (Alex) runs a lot of endurance events in town - including a killer bike ride in September. Auburncentury.com or wildestride.com. They rival RAMROD in length/elevation -if anyone's interested. She offered to find housing with locals ... I guess Auburn is know for it's endurance events. One of the premier ultra marathons - 100 miles from Tahoe to Auburn - is in June. They apparently have the hardest half iron man in the country. Anyway ... If anyone's interested I would be up for having a little vacation/biking/hiking time down here - it's gorgeous.

Then we wandered up to the old capital and found a county history museum in the basement. Interesting arrest warrants, the women's jail, actual gold in it's unrefined form that was found in the area and other stuff. And funnily there was a couple with the last name of Pate who have an amazing Indian basket artifact collection - they were doctors and took goods in the place of payment and were big advocates for Native Americans at the time. Distant relatives ? Gotta research it ...

OK - we're riding out at 5:15 tomorrow ... Going to be a long day

San Fran to Vallejo to Sacramento (with candy heaven added bonus)

Day 1 - San Fran to Vallejo

75 miles

During orientation, they made the point that this ride was called the Cross Country Challenge, not the Cross Country Easy.

Day 1 was fabulous. But definitely through in many things challenging about cycling into the first day.

We started in Burlingame and rode into San Fran to the beach just south of Golden Gate Park. Madronas all along the route. Gorgeous sand beach with the coast snaking off into hills to the north. We picked up our bikes and hauled them 1/4 mile to the ocean and dunked the wheel in the pacific. Photo. Haul the bike back. Then ride north through the city - fabulous and quiet at 8 am on Sunday morning, and to Golden Gate Park and over the GG Bridge. That was a blast. Photo. Then north and East through Saucilito (photo photo) and hugged the bay inland. We hit the burbs where we counted 5 plastic surgery offices in about a mile. Considered getting a little "work" done so you could all tell me how this ride took off 10 years. Then outside of the Bay metro area and into farmland. Past San Quentin Prison ... Dang that is one huge compound of badness. Complete with big vultures hanging around outside. And then a fast ride with a great tail wind down a highway into Vallejo.

This was challenging because it took forever. Lots of climbing, regrouping, photos, etc. Tons of foot down for the first 50 miles. My average speed was 11 mph ... That's a long day. Everyone is nervous, and it was when you could really tell who had basic bike skills. Navigating was very time consuming and took a committee and an occasional Garman. There were 2 crashes - one sadly that ended with a cyclist dislocating his clavical and being sent home. Both were due to inattention ... A good reminder about how important it is to err on the side of caution on a ride this long (the odds start to be stacked against you I think with multiple days so control the risks you can).

Day 2 Vallejo to Sacramento

75 miles

Today was comparatively easy. It started with some climbing -including a couple of nasty steep hills a few hundred yards from the hotel. Warm up hills. Then we dropped into a valley with gorgeous fields and mountains in the distance. Perfect weather.

Some of us took a detour to tour the Jelly Belly Factory. That was a blast. Did you know it takes 7 to 21 days to make a Jelly Bean. Or that you can mix a chocolate with a cherry jelly bean and have a recipe. for chocolate covered cherries? Very fun stop. Then pedaled on through farmland till we went right through the UC Davis Campus. Then a stop at the In and Out Burger for what many swear to be the best fast food burger ever. Then smoked back in with another nice tail wind. Decent pace on this ride - 16.5 mph average. Fun and pretty low key. Beautiful country. Gorgeous sunny weather. Fresh local strawberries at the SAG stop. A quick swim in the river before dinner.

the lowdown

Well, my clever idea of blogging via blackberry has had its challenges. But I'm back ...

We all arrived at the lovely Holiday Inn Express in Burlingame, just outside San Fran on Saturday. Lots of organizing and orienting.

There are 23 riders total. Only 4 of us are women, which really surprises me. Cycling still is about 2/3 men to women, but this is pretty low proportionately. But the good news is with so few women I paid for a three to a room and got upgraded to two and it's pretty amazing to see the men lined up for the restroom while the women just breeze on in. So that's good.

We have to ride leaders who deal with logistics, hotels, solving problems, etc. A wonderful bike mechanic who is also a professional bike racer and pretty interesting to talk to. My room mate is on staff and she is helping run the SAG (support van), etc. She's a former participant who has a real job doing IT. And one of the directors 20 year old son who is the gopher and bag loader. And I think along for the ride. All are nice and very capable and fun.
We are staying in hotels - Holiday Inn and Best Western types. Food is all about quantity and variety - not necessarily fine dining. And that makes sense, too given the quantities we are already putting down.

Folks are getting to know each other and naturally grouping together for rides by speed and ability. It's interesting to watch it happen. There a some guys who are bent to get in first, and a group that's already named itself the "stops a lot" group. I'm in the middle ... We can ride hard but take detours and photo and milk shake breaks.

The group is settling in. Trying to remember names. I keep getting confused with the other youngish woman :) and I can't keep all the white haired guys straight yet. But as I get to know them individually it helps. Most are pretty interesting
And have a story to tell. Most are going all the way across. We have 2 leaving in Salt Lake and are picking up more along the way. Around 40 riders total.

The routes have been beautiful so far - I don't know how they have strung together this crazy rides of bike paths,, highways, abandoned roads and country roads. Our first cue sheet was 8 pages long. I'm really happy with what were seeing and riding so far ... It holds we'll be in for a great trip.

San Fran and Lookin good

Arrived in San Fran without a hitch. Interesting group of riders - a Swiss, Brit and S. Korean with his own film crew raising money for a charity in Korea. And a group of Floridians who swear their hill training consisted of hill repeats up overpasses since FL is so flat. Only 4 women. Staff seems nice. We start tomorrow. Biking to the ocean for the official rear wheel dunking and then inland to Vallejo. Bike is ready and unscathed from shipping. Weather is gorgeous - hope it holds.

very cool geeky Garmin feature

I finally figured out how I could use my Garmin forerunner to capture each day of the ride to map out the route via GPS and link it onto the blog. Mind you I've had this Garmin for over 2 years, and it's taken this trip to actually get beyond the basics of what it's capable of doing.

Providing I actually am disciplined enough to do it regularly (this is a long shot), I can download the exact route we take each and also capture nifty but not necessarily useful information like elevation gain and decent, heart rate, pace, etc. Sort of an online archive of the exact route with GPS mapping and fitness benchmarks. And it can be exported into Google Earth where you can do everything from take a simulated flight to zoom down to see the terrain.

There is a link on the blog now with some earlier training rides if you want to check it out ...

Getting ready

Amazing how many little tasks before heading out of town for seven weeks. Talk the postman into holding my mail beyond the 30 days allowed. Last minute aphid infestation kill in the garden. Trip to Home Depot to buy pipe insulation to protect my carbon fiber bike from the TSA folks who are notoriouosly careless when they repack your bike box after opening it. Trying to identify and prepay all the bills. And hooking up and testing my new keyboard for the blackberry so I don't have to bring my laptop on the trip ... A good idea for not working and not ruining my work lifeline at home. So this is the first test of doing an entry using just my blackberry and the keyboard ... Pretty nifty. More later ...