Thursday September, 25 2008 - Day 11

Thursday September, 25 2008 - Day 11
http://ultrabongo.blogspot.com/
Pagosa Springs 7AM – Joe and Bo head out in the early morning light. It is 38 degrees and Joe refuses any offer for gloves or additional clothing. There is no wind in the parking lot and this gives Bo a very false sense of warmth. He is happy to be biking today and Joe has agreed to keep a pace that Bo can maintain. Bo doesn’t know the first 5 miles are downhill and fast. The windchill will most likely be closer to 25 than 35. Chet and I grab some melon from the hotel continental breakfast bar and load the truck.
The planned route today gives Joe and Bo some time together between Pagosa Springs and Durango (about 50 miles of rolling hills). I will join Joe from Durango to Silverton (about 50 miles over two steep passes). Joe will ride from Silverton to Ouray (about 24 miles over one pass) alone and during that time the support truck will drop me in Ouray and I will run back towards Silverton. We will eat dinner in Ouray and drive to Telluride in order to sleep at high altitude (Joe’s request).
Bo didn’t get to ride over Wolf Pass yesterday. He missed the suffering as well as the glory of the 10 mile climb and nine mile 7% grade descent to Pagosa Springs. Talking about it over dinner he is noticeably upset to have missed out on all the action. We remind him his support services were instrumental to our success but he has never seen such steepness and is interested in testing himself.
Chet and I catch up to Bo 15 miles out of Pagosa Springs. He is cold and hungry. We give him a small amount of food and a large portion of encouragement. Chet also gives him some winter riding cloves. His lips are purple and his fingers are not functioning. Bo pedals away and we track down Joe who is wearing minimal clothing and has abandoned Bo. We ride up next to Joe and he is frozen. His lips are moving but the words are not forming properly. It is like he has had several well place Novocain shots. We ask him if he wants gloves or additional clothing and he talks about the wooly mammoth he passed a couple miles back and makes other colorful references to the ice age. In the end, he refuses all support and cracks a couple more jokes. I turn up the heater in the truck and we head back to check on Bo.
We pull over and Bo stops his bike quickly. He says he is feeling light headed and can’t feel his fingers. He is shaking and we ask if there is anything we can do. He says “yes”. Load my bike into the truck. We get him in the truck and give him a dry change of clothes. He says that he surrenders. Unconditional surrender. I take a video of it because I know this moment needs to last forever. He says that being part of the riding crew isn’t worth whatever we are deriving from it. He continues to rub his hands together for the next 45 minutes and muttering random phrases.
We track down Joe and tell him we brought him a present. He sees Bo in the back seat and they have a very colorful conversation. Bo yells that he was abandoned and forced to bike without breakfast. Joe, from his bicycle chides Bo up and down and I think a little under the belly also. Chet and I nearly empty our bladders from laughter and then add some additional nitro to fuel the fire whenever the chance arrives. This will continue throughout the day in many forms.
For instance, I am in the middle of a 14 mile climb and Bo is on the side of the road in the support truck telling me the truck is warm and full of food all I need to do is stop and quit. He is yelling this with a heavy Chinese accent while hanging out the driver side window and pounding his hand on the truck door. This is how the days go by.
Joe is unimpressed with Durango. We eat at a local favorite breakfast spot Carvers Brewery. We walk in and are told there is a wait. The host goes to seat us and Joe immediately says “I want French Toast”. The host says, “I am not your waiter”, turns and walks away. Joe says “everyone working in a restaurant should be a waiter”. I explain to Joe that Durango has locals, who don’t like non-locals telling them what to do or how to do it. He says, “Yea, like I don’t know anything about that”.
During breakfast I convince Chet to come and ride with me between Durango and Silverton. It is one of the most spectacular roads in the country. I tell him Joe is going to blow me away like he did Bo in the morning and I won’t have the sense that Bo did this morning to quit. Chet really just wants to take pictures and relax. He agrees to come along but only at a touring pace (he should have had this term defined better). We leave on 550 North out of Durango. Yep, North, due North on the compass.
For any/all of you bothering to following our route let me digress deeply. First, when I was completing my undergraduate work in college an Indian professor teaching “Operations Mangement” explained a technical phrase “path of the cow”. He was doing research at the GE facility in Indiana where they build refrigerators. The first day on the job he was shown the production facility. The production line went left, right, left again, up down, left, right and all over the place without any rhyme or reason. I am no expert but my professor thought he was and he taught us if you watch cows grazing long enough they have the same random pattern, hence “path of the cow”. Second, finding the largest and longest hills possible is a priority in my nightly routing otherwise we would have been in LA yesterday. Third, gas prices are dropping so we figured we would waste some. Fourth, this is only the training ride. If anyone is interested in preplanned routes Joe will be starting a very predictable and planned route on October 3rd which can be found here - http://www.the508.com/route/index.html
The Durango to Silverton segment goes without incidence. Other than starting at 6,000 feet and climbing over two passes, one at 11,000 feet things went well. After the first pass Chet and I catch up with Joe. He is making phone calls on the side of a mountain. He complains about the length of these climbs and says that Vermont is a better place to train. A rainstorm passes nearby and drops the temperature by 20 degrees. We descend into Silverton on fast wet roads. Chet and I go full speed but Joe is not a fan of twisty downhills at 45 mph. This is the second day in a row that I am descending at 45 mph and the speed limit is 25mph. Chet also likes the speed and cornering. This may be the single example on the trip where Joe exhibits more sanity than the crew.
We eat in Silverton and take many pictures. We are wet and cold. Bo is very happy to see others have suffered like he did in the morning. He also points out that he suffered much worse in the morning. Joe loves the town and we talk about Bo opening a Chinese restaurant in North Carolina. The interesting part of the take out Chinese restaurant will be that there is no phone number or address for the restaurant. In fact, the name is BoJoe or JoeBo depending on who you listen to and the slogan is “don’t call us, we will call you”. We determine with a good list of eaters there will be no need to waste our time servicing the general population.
Chet decides Durango is his riding destination for the day. I decide to ride the remaining 24 miles instead of running from Ouray back towards Silverton. Joe and I head out of town and begin a long narrow ascent. The wind kicks us in the face and we gear down searching for speeds to allow some recovery on these steep climbs. Two bikers are flying down the other side of the road and I tell them they are going the wrong way. We climb, we stand, we sit, we climb. This cycle repeats itself until we surrender to the idea that there is not, and will not be any relief.
The downhill into Ouray has to be the most beautiful road in the world. It twists and winds through very steep ravines and the road surface is new. It is like going down into the Grand Canyon. The colors are vibrant and reek of reds and oranges where man threw these mountains innards onto their tuxedos. Deer are scattered and feeding roadside. The air is cool, crisp. I will never be able to find the right words for someone sitting in front of a computer terminal on the Northeast coast to explain why Google maps or any other program would not route any traveler within 1000 miles of this treasure onto 550. It is called the Million dollar Highway and in my opinion should be upgraded to platinum trillion dollar status.
Ouray creates a problem for Joe. He doesn’t know if he likes Ouray or Silverton better. Chet helps him out and gives him permission to like them both. It works. We enjoy all enjoy a Mexican trout dinner and then go to the Hot springs for some relief from the days riding. It is perfect. We go to a place that has a mineral bath in a cave. Bo is a little confused and I get him to put his shorts on before we enter the water.
Joe pedals for 130 miles today. I don’t know the ascent and descent numbers but they are high. We drive through the darkness to find out way to Mountain Lodge. Somehow these days start early, end late and are filled, correction overfilled. We have taken many pictures and movies over the past 3 days. I will try to upload them tonight and send out a link tomorrow.
Here is a link to the kids and cause we are riding for - http://www.lisas810.com/cause_AOR.html
With gratitude,
Chris