EPIC

Yesterday was the most epic day of riding/hiking i have ever had. It all started Friday night when Kiel and I were trying to think of a long ride to do. Well what else to do than look at road on mapquest, right? We ended up finding a connecting road that went all the way to Winter Park. We decided right there that it was meant to be.

The day started off with a 6:45 wake up call. Ate a lot of calories and were out the door by 7:30. The first leg of the ride was up to Nederland. Kiel and I decided that the best way to start a long ride would be to pin it, an hour later we were in Ned to refill bottles and go on our way.


The next leg was a dirt road in Rollinsville. It was beautiful and smooth. Awesome views and things really couldn't have gotten better.



Now, from here on i will not refer to the following set of changing circumstances as becoming worse, but rather more epic. From that awesome road in Rollinsville things couldn't have gotten much better but they sure got ....more epic. As we came to an intersection, we almost didn't stop due to the extreme differences in road surfaces. However after viewing our mapquest directions we realized the rugged 4X4 road was the way to our very distant destination. After laughing and contemplating the ridiculous road in front of us kiel and I decided why not? And so it began.


While navigating through the pot holes and jagged rocks, we did manage to stop and enjoy the views that we Colorad-o-eons? come to take for granted.


But we had places to go and, well that's about it.


The road became worse, the pot holes deeper, the rocks bigger and sharper and we soon found ourselves "in the zone". Going miles without saying anything to each other, simply trying to ride our bikes on this road that was not intended to be ridden by our skinny tired steeds. However the haze briefly settled at we came across this awesome lake.


We continued up and up, until we found ourselves in the barren tundra above the tree line. The air was thin and the beating out bodies had taken were starting to take effect. Little did we know how much more suffering we would endure. As we rode we saw the top of the snow covered peaks and realized that we really couldn't go any higher and the top must be near. The whole way up kiel was becoming increasingly nervous about the fact that if this rode didn't make it through we were absolutely screwed. There was no way our bikes would make it down what we can gone up. Well, with that in mind i about shat my pants when i saw this sign.


Luckily there was a group of campers who informed us that cars cannot pass but if we wanted to, we could HIKE, OVER the tunnel where we could take another road to Winter Park. Well that was really our only option, and so we continued.



We finally came to the tunnel at the top of Rollins Pass, roughly 12,000ft.


Then we found the goat path the campers we talking about.


So off came the cleats and kiel and i started our hike.


Making it to the top was very rewarding. The views were amazing as we could see over the mountains all the way back to the foothills of what i think was Boulder.


It was also easy to spot the beige colored road of hell that we had taken to get this far.


However once at the top we didn't see a road anywhere. Kiel and I wondered around the barren tundra until we spotted a parking lot in the distance.


Thinking the worst was over we headed down, took a breath, slammed the remainder of our water and started heading up the road. That's when we both just about snapped. As we looked ahead of us not only did we see the road still going up, but the road had gotten so bad we couldn't ride it.


Riiiiight............so, what do we do? We considering the grass next to the road was easier to walk on than the road itself Kiel and I b-lined it across the tundra. After about an hour we made it to a section that was ridable again, well...kinda.


Now the next leg of the trip started with excitement as we finally crested the summit and began our descent down but eventually found Kiel and I hating life to the max. At this point in our trip we were at about 4.5hrs plus an hour hike. Our bodies felt like they had been thrown into a fryer full of lead bean bags (don't ask, i just thought that was a good analogy). Seeing the ski runs of Winter Park in the distance we headed down the road. At first the road was pretty smooth, however it soon went to utter crap full of pot holes large rocks and the worst of all, 100yrd patches of washboarded road the spanned the entire width of the road. After 7 miles of this crap i was ready to get off my bike and wait for someone to take me. I really couldn't do it. Kiel and I occasionally screamed as if life had ended. Profanities were becoming part of our language and the thought that i might not ever be able to have kids definitely cross my mind. My hands hurt, my toes hurt from standing up over the washboards, my ass hurt from the beating the road up Rollins had given it, my head hurt, my arms were a wreck we had been out of food and water for nearly two hours now and i was ready to give up. But just then Kiel and I came to a stop and heard the best sound ever. Traffic. We road down the rutted out road another half mile and saw the most relieving sight we had seen all day.


We soon found ourselves in Winter Park, eating overpriced fake Mexican food, but it was so delicious.


Thinking our mission was accomplished, we soon found ourselves in quite the predicament. Our ride back home had fallen though. 7 hours in the saddle ride time plus an hour hike and apparently we had to get home. HAHA, funny. Well the brutal reality of the story was we had to be proactive and since there was no way besides the local taxi service to get us home we were forced to ride. Not dare going back the way we had come, we decided to go up and over Bertha Pass. Thunderstorms were moving in and we needed to get out of dodge quick. We soon found ourselves at the same elevation we had just come from. After about 50 minutes we were at the top and going strong although it was now raining on us.


At about the 8.5 hrs mark we decided to get a "quick fix" from the Empire ice cream parlor. I think kiel asked for everything they had to be put into this concoction.


By this point in time the plan was to get to Idaho Springs and make emergency calls for home as the sun was going down quick. Kiel and I was in a weird delirious mood where almost everything we did or say, or someone else did or say made us laugh. Exhausted and cracked beyond repair we found ourselves in Idaho Springs. We took a bike path that led us right up to town until this happened. Really? Are you serious? Is this really happening? The bike path just decided to stop.


Of course this just led to more laughing. We backtracked and soon found ourselves sprinting all out attacking each other and racing for city limit signs although kiel mentioned that he thought a cat 5 racer could have probably passed us at this point. After making some phone calls and riding around in Idaho Springs we finally caved in and crashed on a nice lawn outside of Micky D's.


9 hours, 11 minutes, an hour long hike, and 12 hrs of chamois time Kiel and I laid on the grass waiting for out savior to arrive. Our phones both died and we could only hope that communication had been adequate enough to make going home a real possibility. As we slipped into a coma like state Kim, our hero showed up! Oh yea, we were going home!


And just as the sun went down, so did I, as i closed my eyes in the car and fell asleep.



NOT!!!!! we rallied and everyone got drunk at CAF, although it only took about one beer.