Video Updates!

It's been a while since I've done any video updates... so here are a few from the road!

Crossing the Blue Mesa Lake


Canyon ride between Montrose, CO and Gunnison, CO


Then it rained:


Wildlife...



I don't know where this guy came from, I passed him pretty much in the middle of the Utah desert.

Day 21 - On Top of the World - Salida, CO (now with photos!)

[note... I added the photos and video a bit late... sorry if they are sporadically placed!]

Greetings friends, I hope you are all doing well this weekend! Since my last posting (I believe it was in Dolores, CO?) I've covered some serious ground and have broken some records for my ride. A funny coincidence happened. A high school friend (Beth Wurmnest) just happened to be in Montrose, CO as I would be passing through, and her mom back in Sibley, IL put us in contact. It was perfect timing as she was only in town until today, but I was able to stop in and hang out with her on Thursday evening/Friday morning.

But getting there was a bit of an ordeal. Montrose, CO was about 120 miles (over two mountain passes) from Dolores... Well I'd never tried to go that far (with or without a trailer, or with or without elevation) in my life, but hey, I thought I'd give it a go. I got out of my campsite around 7AM and was on the road. Surprisingly, the first mountain pass was over 10,000, but it felt relatively painless since the roads here in CO are far more gradual
than anywhere else I'd been. Also, I think I'd been mentally preparing myself for a marathon day since the night before. I made it over the 1st pass then back down for lunch. I didn't actually have a chance to stop for lunch until around 2:30PM. After a quick stop in Sawpit, I headed back up to Dallas Divide for the 2nd pass which I summited around 5PM, all in all, I was able to make it into Montrose by roughly 7pm. Whew. Beth treated me to a great dinner and I got to hang out with her co-workers too!

The next day was from Montrose to Gunnison (all of these little cities have been awesome btw, would love to come back and hang out). On my way out of town, I stopped by Cascade Cycles in Montrose to get a top-off on air for the tires. I got chatting with Alan, the store owner, and found out that he had spent a good portion of his life in Rantoul, IL (about 20 minutes from Gibson City). Furthermore, he was a land-use planner out in California for a while too. So after a late start, I got moving for Gunnison. It was a beautiful ride aside for the 25 minutes of which I got poured on (in the middle of a canyon btw). It was a bit percarious with traffic, but things turned out ok. After the sun came back out, I rode by the Blue Mesa Resivoir (beautiful) then drifted into Gunnison, which is a cool little town which is the home of Crested Butte (ski resort). I stayed in a small motel run by a Polish guy from Chicago and went over to the Flying Burrito for dinner where I had the opportunity to debate politics with one lady, then talk to another couple's adventures in Ecuador.

Today, was another 65 miler from Gunnison to Salida, CO. The big deal for today was that I'd be climbing over the infamous Monarch Pass (11,300'). So as far as I'm concerned, once I get pass that, the Rocky's are toast. Well during the climb today, I definately could feel the altitude and had to take a few extra breaks, but again, the grade wasn't too steep and I made it to the top around 1:30. The BEST part was the descent back down to 8000' (Salida). I didn't have to pedal one bit for about 22 miles as it was downhill and I had the grace of a 20 mph tailwind rollling into town.

So I just got to Salida and it again seems like an awesome little outdoors town. I'm staying in a hostel (Simple Lodge). My host John seems like a nice guy. I'll be hanging out here in the Library until my stomach tells me otherwise.

(late insertion) - I can't remember the guy's name, but this guy owns this tiny little bike shop here in Salida. I stopped by just in time for their evening get-together where he and his fellow friends offered me a beer and some of their evening bbq! The folks in this town love their bikes!

Also, I looked at the calendar. I want to say the date that I'm shooting to arrive in GC is September 7th.

Hope to chat again soon,
Paul

Colorado is awesome, But got poured on today, staying in gunnison Tonight and will summit the divide tomorrow

Telluride, CO !

Colorful Colorado - Day 17 - Dolores, CO

Greetings friends, I'm writing to you this evening from the cozy comfort.. or something of the type... RV Park in Dolores, CO. I rolled into town around 4pm today just in time for the local farmers market. Dolores is a great little town and I wish I had a few more days to stick around here. Once I got in, I sat down for a drink and chatted with an older couple from Flagstaff who came up to the area for a week of camping. I went over to grab dinner at a local place and had a young gentleman from the area join me. His name was Joe and he made furniture down in Cortes, CO. We chatting about the trip and the area, the weather, etc. Really nice guy.

The place that I'm staying (camping) seems to have it all for camping, warm showers, laundy, internet... maybe I should just hang out here for a few days. However, I wanted to post some video this evening ,but the computer at their location may have been purchased in the elder Bush's presidency.

As for my ride today, things started off great. I got out by 7:30am and was off towards the east with a cool breeze behind me. The day started with a 1000 foot climb out of Blanding towards Monticello. But of course, something came up. My trailer tire went flat about 7 miles into the trip. The trailer tire is a bit problematic since the size is much harder to find (for the tube and tire). But for this fix, the hole was small enough that I was able to use a patch and was back on the road in about 20 minutes.



However, the big excitement for the day was crossing into Colorado. It took me a bit longer than I originally imagined. But I finally made the crossing sometime around lunch and stopped in Dove Creek, CO (which is a big farming town... that looks oddly like the midwest) for a great Denver omlet. Here's me indiciating that yes, I'm in my 4th state.


Also, later in the day I passed through Yellow Jacket, CO. (I wish I would have brought a little BUZZ to take a picture here in this town). It's funny, I passed through on this same highway with my parents in the summer of 2004 and I think I have a picture with this same sign then. I'll have to go back and check. But, I had to take the opportunity to take another little jump photo.
Tomorrow will be a long day. Coincidentially, a high school friend Beth Wurmnest now lives in Montrose, CO which is along my route. I was originally going to try to make it there tomorrow. However, I realize that is going to be a bit of a stretch (120 some miles over two serious mtn summits). So, we'll see how far I actually make it. But it will be great to catch up with her and see her new shop there in town.

All else is well. I am really thinking I need to take a day off the bike soon. Waking up each morning has not been a full recharge. So depending on the weather (it may rain soon), I may be taking a day off somewhere in Colorado.

Greeting from yellow jacket, CO, Death to rolling hills!

Hello colorado!

utah, oh so bittersweet. (boulder, hanksville, lake powell, blanding, ut)

So from my last post, my parents are off and away, safely back in Georgia. But before they went they sent me off on my bike. Here we are enjoying some crisp 10,000' air in Cedar Breaks National Monument (just to the east of Cedar City, UT).

So sorry for the lack of posts over the past few days. I've had no access to a computer and my legs have been in agony over what is the state of Utah. Someone should put a big asterisk next to the welcome sign that says "cyclists: bring lots of icy hot". But despite the big climbs, unmarked cow-catcher things, and hot arid air, Utah still is awesome, and is probably my favorite place of all to camp and be outside.

So I've been on the road for about 3 or 4 days since my last post, and when you're on the bike for about 8-10 hours a day... you keep thinking to yourself, wow. I sure can't wait to talk about this or that, but now that I'm sitting here comfortably in the Blanding, Utah library, with my sandals and non-bike clothes on, I can't seem to remember all of those good ideas. Luckily, I took lots of pictures, which will hopefully help paint an interesting picture of the last few days.

So the trip to Boulder was a doozy, 95 miles and about 4000 feet of climbing that day. Not to mention I was scolded by the elderly postmaster at the post office in Henrieville, UT for "picknicing" on their property... apparently against federal law, but she wouldn't have known that I was even there had I not come in to chat with her to be friendly. strange. Apparently, Boulder, UT was the last town in the United States to have its mail delivered by automobile. Why you ask? Because building a road there was nearly impossible! When they did build that road, they decided to make it absurdly steep as indicated by the photo below. (they should add a yellow sign that shows a guy pushing his bike up the hill)...

Here I am trying to climb the "grand staircase" at Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. There were quite a few summits that day, but the overall riding was really great as we were riding the outskirts of Zion and Bryce Canyon National Park.
Here I just decided that jumping was getting boring and I needed a new approach. I actually tried to jump off of my hands, but as you can see that didn't get me too far. Notice too, that I have lots of layers on in this photo because it was a brisk 40-50 degrees at the top, as compared to my ride today which I was baking in the Utah desert.

So I finally made it to Boulder, UT! (this was on the 8th I believe), it was a great little outdoorsy-earthy town. I met some local hikers on my trek in that evening and that steered me clear of any motels and instead to this little primitive campground just outside of town (literally, an unmarked dirt road off the highway), but it was a great little spot that even came with a small mtn creek nearby (which was my bath for the night)

My next day would be to Hanksville, UT. Which would be about 80 miles away after a monster climb out of Boulder from 6700' to top out around 9600'. I stopped in Torrey, UT on my ride in and chatted with a group of motorcyclists who seemed interested in my ride. One of them even gifted me a beanie (I told them it was cold in Boulder), and then a sticker for my bike. They were both really nice and they interviewed me for a blog site they go to called itsallaboutthebike.com. They headed back to Park City that evening.

People ask me alot if its lonely riding solo. Well, on the ride itself, it can be a bit boring. But even people that go riding together don't usually ride side-by-side. However, I've really had a great chance to meet and talk to a good number of people on this ride so far. In combination with my couchsurfing hosts as well as random people along the way. In Boulder, I met a young guy named Matt who just had graduated from University of Denver and was camping for the night right before starting a 14-day outdoor adventure school in Boulder, I met Mike and Paul, who were from Luxembourg who were on a 3 week adventure through the Western national parks of the US. Last night I met Pete who was from South Africa who was motorbiking with his wife across route 66 and back, then there was Al who was from Monterey, CA who was passing through Utah. Everyone really has been really nice and it's great being out here where there are plenty of other passers-through who are curious to swap a story and have a conversation.

The other day I passed through Capitol Reef NP, which is super impressive, but looks similar in nature to the other NPs of Utah (Zion, Bryce, Canyonlands, Arches), below here I am riding in Capitol Reef with a mere feat of camermanship.... not really, but I just hope that no one runs over my camera as it sits on the side of the road with the self-timer on.

I spent the night in Hanksville, UT, which is a little town of about 400 people. I was pretty beat when I got to town and I was really hoping for a small little motel. When I rolled up to one, the sign said no vacancy, so I proceeded to turn around. However, a woman came out and told me to come in and let me know that they were closed on sunday... but they had a room available, and it would be no charge.. talk about a reward at the end of a long day! (Whispering Sands Motel in Hanksville. thank you so much!) In addition, my friends from Luxembourg of whom I mention earlier were staying in town as well and they came over and we chatted for a bit.

The next day was supposed to be a rest day... but it ended up being a still challenging 55 mile ride down to Glen Canyon and Lake Powell. Here's route 96 crossing over the Colorado River as it feeds Lake Powell (which is held back by the Glen Canyon Dam a few hundred miles away in Page)
I was able to run down to the lake to wash some clothes and take a nice swim for a while. I got there pretty early (around 2pm) and was hoping to take a nap, but wow. It was hot, so there was no chance of that. For lunch, they had a small ranger station up the way with a snack stand. I haven't had a hot pocket in at least 10 years.... but when you're hungry....wow those things are good. (I had the pepporoni pizza kind) Below is a picture of my setup for the evening with lake behind me, it was a great quiet site with a great view of the stars in the evening.


I couldn't help myself but get a jumping photo with the mtns in the background.

So my friends from Luxembourg mananged to pass me again in their travels around the West (I'm pretty slow compared to their ride), so we snapped this photo on the incline on the way to blanding. I think they're on their way to the Grand Canyon, so I wish them the best!

So thats the story so far. Tonight I found a motel for $28 in Blanding, Utah, so I'm taking advantage of a warm shower and a bed to sleep in for the night. I'm pretty exhausted at the moment and am contimplating a rest day (I've biked every day since Carson City on 7/30)... But, maybe I can make a little progress towards Colorado tomorrow. We'll see. It's a slight climb up to Monticello, but then It'll flatten out for a day or two. I hope that the blog has been interesting to read so far, I wish I could post more often and put up more video, but it's been difficult getting access to a computer and better yet, a computer that works properly.

For the moment, I'm still thinking that I can make it to Gibson City around the 6th of September... but who knows what the weather will bring between here and there. The weather so far aside from a day in California has been perfect. I look forward to the days ahead and hope to hear from you. Feel free to email me or txt me if you have questions!