Bikepacking the Colorado Trail: Part 4
Day 6: Just below Searle Pass to Leadville
Stats: 28.95, Elevation Gain: 3,238ft, Moving time: 4h51m, Elapsed Time: 9h03m
We were on the trail at 4:50am, soggy as could be with almost all of our layers on. I’ll tell you what: one of my least favorite things about adventuring in weather is putting on wet shoes. I can handle most things, but wet shoes in the morning makes me grumpy. But so does having to wake up at 3:00am, so either way, it wasn’t going to be the best morning for me. The rain had ceased at some point in the night but everything was dripping and damp. We still had a bit to go before the tree line so riding through large wet roots was a thing. My headlamp wasn’t in a spot that I could really see over my baggage on the front of my bike so I was having a heck of a time.
Also, we had chosen not to eat breakfast, but just have a snack/munch as we rode and have a proper breakfast with coffee later. So, here I am, no good lighting, no breakfast, no coffee, 3am wake up call and wet cold shoes. How do you think things went? Aliza kept on trucking, which was great because it forced me to keep doing the same, even if I was crying just a wee bit. (Shhhh… don’t tell her). Finally I stopped and had a snack, which put a little fire under my tushy and I rode/hiked my bike a little faster to catch up with Aliza.
As the sun rose and we began to be able to see without lights, we were also cresting above the treeline and my mood lifted immediately. It was like we had transported to Ireland, or somewhere with rocky crags and spotted green patches of grass and I’m sure there were mountain sheep somewhere out there (though we didn’t see any). We got to Searle Passe at around 5:20am and celebrated with an obligatory summit dance. We crushed Kokomo Pass, which was our highest point of the trip so far at 12,022 ft. I think we did another dance, but it was short lived because it was friggin’ COLD up there! The wind about blew us over and it made us so glad that we had not ventured up there during a storm. We did talk to one rider who had been up there during hte storm the night before and said it was huge hail and scary lightning and thunder, which just validated us that we had made some smart decisions! Go team!
The descent from Kokomo was a blast. It was mostly rideable, as far as I can remember and it went pretty quickly, which was good because once again, the thunderstorms came right on time. The trail pops out on the road where the bike Wilderness detour leads toward Leadville. Though the pavement was fast rolling, the wind was strong. Aliza’s energy was waning quickly and her ability to put the pedal to the metal was long gone. We tried to motor together, but she wasn’t having it, so we needed to take it slow and steady. We were starting to realize that we would not be able to get to Buena Vista via our own two wheels unless we rode through the night because of how long everything was taking. So, we called ahead to the awesome Patty Sag wagon and he met us in Leadville just as the rain started pelting down. We hopped in the van and rode the rest of the way to Buena Vista where to our Airbnb where we would be spending the next day as a much needed Zero day. At first, I will admit that I was a bit disappointed by having to miss some of the trail and felt a little blow to my pride for getting some rides to specific points on the trail, but going into this adventure, Aliza and I had agreed that no matter what happened, we were in it together and we would make decisions together about what we needed to do to complete it together and that’s what we did! We went and grabbed dinner in Buena Vista - a cute little fresh foods place that I can’t remember the name of. Loads of laundry were done and we relaxed like nobody’s business.
Day 7: Zero Day: Buena Vista
Stats: 0 mi, Elevation Gain: 0ft, Moving Time: 0h0m, Elapsed Time: 24hrs
Our rest day was magical, but as with all rest days, I felt very restless. You go from pedaling your bike all day every day to doing absolutely nothing besides eating, resting, laundry, a quick bike wash and check and then going back to resting and eating. We ate Casa Sanchez Mexican restaurant and it hit the spot. This cute little joint had outdoor seating in their covered patio area and the meal included the most delicious sopapillas for dessert! We hear they sometimes include a shot of Tequila with the meal, but we didn’t order drinks in the first place, so they didn’t offer. We saw another table that got shots delivered all around, though, so I think the rumors are true!
We also had to make an obligatory stop to the bike shop in Buena Vista. My derailleur wasn’t shifting properly after a couple spills and some mud and grime, so I had them check that out. Aliza also got her crank looked at again. They got us in quickly and our bikes were ready to go in a couple hours. In the mean time, we treated ourselves to some mini belgian waffles in the little cafe that is attached to the bike shop. GET THESE IF YOU ARE THERE! They were only $3 or so for one and I could have eaten 10! (though I did a great job of restraining myself!).
We also ventured over to Cottonwood Hot Springs to have a soak.
The mineral hot springs in man made pools were a much needed reprieve for our tired legs. There’s also a little area where you can scramble down to the river next to the springs to take a quick cold soak, so of course we had to experience the thrill of immersing ourselves in cold river water. I’m a wuss with such things and while I soaked for a bit, I got out pretty quickly. Aliza was a champ and stayed in quite long. Patty even submerged his head under! His bravery would prove futile later though, because he started to feel under the weather and after some internet research, we “diagnosed” him with cold shock, which apparently can happen when going from one extreme temperature to the other. He felt very out of it and a bit dizzy and nauseous for the next couple of days, poor guy.
Anyway, I was glad we were only resting for one day and was anxious to get back on the trail. My grumpiness and tummy start to act up on rest days, though I know it’s so good for me, so I tried to just chill and headed to bed early after a good stretch session.
Patty in pure sopapilla bliss!
Day 8: Avalanche Trailhead to Shavano CG
Stats: 29.11mi Elevation Gain: 4688ft, Moving Time: 5h38m Elapsed Time: 8h54m
Ready to Roll at Avalanche Trail Head
Patty Sag drove us to the Avalanche Trailhead, which is where the bike wilderness detour meets back up with the CT proper. This way, we avoided a generally boring road/gravel climb out of Buena Vista. It was overcast and a little chilly and we assumed we were in for some weather that day.
The trail conditions in this section of the CT were spot on! We could actually pedal our bikes, it wasn’t too soggy and the ups and downs weren’t horrible. We did have to cross a couple of creeks, some of which had little bridges and some did not, but we were already sort of soggy anyway due to a misty rain, so it wasn’t a big deal to get our feet a bit wet.
Not too far into the ride, I managed to slide out a bit on a wet section and banged my derailleur again! Ugh! All the $$ out the door and now I had a derailleur that wasn’t shifting properly. I tried to adjust it on the fly and it helped a bit, but was limited in my gear options.
After descending off the ridge, we popped out on a road, so it was pretty quick riding for a while. This part of the trail is for both hikers and cyclists, and bypasses around private land. We saw a couple of hikers on this section, going the opposite way. I vaguely remember having a bit of a hard time mentally on this part, but I don’t quite remember. We stopped for a bit for some reason, but then obviously kept on truckin after a quick snack and a stretch.
At one point, after we returned to trail, we were on the 6.6 mile section where there are several water sources and good camping areas, though everything was just a damp soggy mess and we weren’t looking to stop here anyway. We did see quite a few hikers through this area. We decided to hunker down in a little shire area for some nom noms and ran into two day-hikers, young guys, who were out looking for mushrooms. The damp, moss and aspen covered hills definitely seemed like prime mushroom housing, and they showed us their bounty. They had foraged all types of mushrooms, some of which were definitely chanterelles, some lobster and some that they weren’t so sure about. They offered some of the chanterelles to us, and I took them up on it, but after riding with them for a bit they became a little too moist and broke down a bit so I ended up tossing them, but dang, they would have been good with my dindin!
From the end of this roller coaster trail, traversing down into creek crossings and up again and again, the rest of the trail was climb, climb, climb. From what I remember we could ride most of it, with small areas of hike a bike, but could be rideable if you had the legs. Somewhere in this area of the trail it had started raining profusely and we were soaked to the bone. We didn’t know how far we were going to get that day and decided to ride until we couldn’t any more. I think both of our morale was low and our rested legs wanted to rest for longer. We descended down a ways and the trail reaches the Angel of Shavano trailhead. Here, it was raining so hard, we could hardly see anything, so we pulled over at the day-use area at Shavano CG and joined some through-hikers in the pavilion in having a hot drink to try to warm our weary bones. The longer we sat there, it was very apparent that Aliza didn’t want to go any further that day. I probably could have made it happen, but we also knew that we had already done almost 5k ft of climbing that day, our legs were tired, and we had another big climb in front of us, which would lead to higher elevation, colder temperatures, and a chance of being exposed in a thunderstorm.
The rest of the through-hikers had decided to call it a day too and ambled their wet selves over to the campsites. We went and looked at the campsites and realized we were a bit late to the game, with no campsites open, we returned to the pavilion. It did say no camping, but we figured that we’d just go ahead and set up and if someone kicked us out, we’d let them deal with trying to find us a spot in the campground. We put our belongings in the outhouse, which was rather warm and we hoped it would dry things out a bit. Having the overhang at the pavilion as well as tables was a treat and we stayed pretty dry and warm for the rest of the night. We set up a tent on the pavement of the pavilion and stayed pretty warm! It was a great set up! And bonus! We didn’t get kicked out, though I do think we had a friend that visited us in the night and tried to munch our food. I always travel with a critter/bear proof Ursack and scent-proof bags, in which our food was stashed, so this staved away any critters that attempted to feast on our food.
Trying to find my mojo somewhere…
Bikepacking the Colorado Trail: Part 3
Day 4:Jefferson Cr. CG to Miners Creek Trail just past Breckenridge
Stats: 29.25mi, Elevation Gain: 4045ft, Moving Time: 5h14m, Elapsed time: 11h47m (including dinner stop)
The morning started out beautifully. We had a lot of climbing to do in a short amount of miles, most of which were single track so we knew we were in for a big day. We were on the trail pretty early with some refreshed energy, which we would definitely need. We immediately started climbing up towards Georgia Pass. The clouds were grey and it was chilly, but not too bad as we got started. We expected that the climb would be difficult, but it was actually pretty rideable…until it wasn’t.
The trail turned from turned into baby heads, turned into goat heads, turned into boulders, even on the descent. From what I remember this didn’t last forever, though, and once started the descent proper down into Breckenridge, things turned for the better. We flew down the flowy descent, making all the switchbacks (for the most part) and had views for days. Our energy was pretty good, from what I remember, I think boosted by the fact that we’d have a good dinner in Breckenridge. At some point Aliza’s bike crank started having some issues, so we were in a rush to also get into town to make sure we could get to a bikeshop.
As we got off the trail to hop into town, it wasn’t obvious which way we needed to go right off the bat. We spent a bit of time faffing around because the bike/pedestrian path that is supposed to be the easiest way to get into town was closed for construction, so we were unsure what our options were. We connected with Patty Sag and made our way to Tiger road where he met us and we piled in the van. We were lucky that we made it when we did because sure enough, the thunderstorms moved in and the sky grew dark. We made the stops we needed for Aliza’s bike and to try to find me a handkerchief (failed attempt), and found a great spot for dinner, a couple of blocks off the main strip so it wasn’t as busy and we were able to immediately get a seat. As we were filling our bellies, the rain started to pour! I felt so glad to be inside and not shivering out there in the rain. Both Aliza and I knew, though, that from here on out we would be chasing storms for the rest of our trip, which we were not excited about!
It was getting late, so we picked up Aliza’s bike from the shop and Patty Sag took us over to the Peak’s Trailhead. He had suggested this way as the best way to get over to Miner’s trail where we would be camping. “It’ll be fun,” he said. “It’s not too climby,” he said… Half way through the up and downs of this “fun” trail, Aliza and I had cussed all the cuss words we could muster. Our legs, after spending a few hours at dinner, no longer felt the need to do what we needed them to. Plus the jump line we encountered on the trail wasn’t that spectacular on a hardtail 70lbs bike.
Either way, we finally made it to our camp just before dark. Tired, full, but warm, we set up camp quickly and fell asleep just our heads hit the pillow. The next day, we knew, would test our grit and stamina, so we needed to sleep well and get up early. As I was drifting off to la-la-land, I heard quiet voices and the sound of free-hubs next to our camp. Some of the racers who were traveling the opposite way as us were riding through the night. Glad to not be one of them, I drifted away and didn’t wake again until morning.
Day 5: Miners Crk to just below Searle Pass
Stats: 15 mi Elevation Gain: 4094ft, Moving Time: 4h32m Elapsed Time: 10hr05m
The weather had officially arrived. This day, we knew we needed to try to get over the pass and up 10-mile before the thunderstorms came in for the afternoon. We also knew that there would be much much hike-a-bike, but what we didn’t know is really how much hike-a-bike there would be. A lot of the 10-mile section is very technical and very steep. (See pictures below). At one point, there is a spot where the hill is literally straight up - I don’t even know the grade, but it was unrideable, shit it was un-hikeable unless you paperboy’d your way up.
So up we went, pushing and grunting, a tremendous heave with our loaded bikes. We saw one hiker through-hiker going the same way we were. Most of the hikers we had passed/run into along the way were generally good natured, easy to talk to and generally have a sense of the same passion that we have for being outdoors.
This one man, on the other hand, had a different countenance. From the onset, nothing but grumbles spilled out of his mouth. Grumble this, and grumble that. He was complaining about the steepness of the climb, and explained that whoever built this trail didn’t know what they were doing and that, “on the Appalachian trail, this never happened. There were always nicely cut switchbacks up the steep parts..” etc. etc. So, he didn’t appreciate the way that the trail followed basically the only way up this stretch of mountain, and he was letting everyone that passed knew about it, which at the time was only us, so we got an earful. We acknowledged that yes, it was steep, but just kept on going. Of course, we were saying all the cuss words in our minds as well and stopping to breathe every three minutes, but for me, trying to keep a positive mind about things is every bit as important as keeping my body fueled so it could push forward.
Ten-Mile section of the CT ascends 3,300 ft in 8.4 miles. It then descends 3,000 ft in 5 miles through 1.7 billion-year-old basement rocks that cover the crest as well as the valley below. As you travel along the CT on this portion of the trail, you cross under six or seven different passes and crest above the tree line for several miles of tundra riding with astounding views of the surrounding mountains below. You literally feel like you are on top of the world, surrounded by green and wildflowers and you can see for days. The riding through the tundra section wasn’t the worst, but was generally slow going at times with short technical, unrideable sections and some descent exposure (that I don’t deal well with).
Once you crest on 10-mile/Miners and head towards Wheeler, you start to descend down towards Copper Resort. We had staved off eating lunch until Copper because we wanted a proper place to sit, a cold coca-cola and any other fun munchems that the market might have. One part of the rocky descent just down from the crest got a little rowdy.
Aliza is a daredevil, and as I mentioned in a prior segment, likes to do anything she can as to not have to walk or push her bike - partly out of the condition of her knee, but I think also to do with a little with her pride. The trail was getting precariously steep and while I definitely would have ridden it with a not-fully loaded bike, with some suspension, with a dropper, I chose to get off my bike and take a look. It seemed a bit too risky to me, so I got off and started walking. But Aliza? Not to my surprise, Aliza started bumbling her way down the bumpy pathway, trying to navigate her way down without gaining too much speed and not hitting any of the human-head shaped rocks in our way. She got about a quarter of the way down when her front wheel got bumped off course and away she went like a lost cow, stampeding through the brush. I thought she was in for, but she managed to slow herself enough eventually to where she just tipped over into the brush. It was a sight to see! I had to stop hiking my bike because I was laughing so hard and was grateful that I didn’t have to pee, cause I surely would have wet myself. Needless to say, I was very satisfied with my decision to hike my bike and myself down the rest of that part of the trail.
Me, making smart decisions!
As the trail re-entered into the tree line, the descent became more rideable and more fun, flowing into a few switchbacks and more wildflowers. We were almost to the bottom when I managed to take myself out and landed on my tush off my bike. I got distracted by all the beautiful landscape and suddenly I was on the ground. I didn’t get hurt though and laughed about how ridiculous I felt for falling over on such a non-technical part of the trail.
You can see Copper Resort as you descend off the hill, but it seemed to take forever to get there. What I thought would take us just a bit of time ended up taking quite a bit longer because it was up and down and up and down. I was ready for lunch! Also, it was early afternoon and we could see the storm clouds rolling in like clock-work. It was here, on the roller coaster trail that we ran into a couple of other cyclists who were racing and going the opposite direction from us. One especially looked haggard and talked to Aliza for a bit while she waited for me to catch up. Little did I know that two years later, this guy, Mike, would become one of my good riding buddies and would ride the Kokopelli trail with me in 2023! It’s such a small world!
We arrived in Copper resort and made our way to the market just in time for it to start raining. We sat on a bench near the market and I warmed up my dehydrated refried beans for my bean burrito lunch (yay for hot lunch!) Aliza was also snacking on the smorgasbord of nom noms that she had in her pack as well as what we had picked up from the market. Our glorious lunch was brought to a halt as a raging storm blew through. Crazy hail and wind bombarded all the tourists and they scattered like sheep. We hunkered down along with a few other CT racers who had stopped for lunch and a recharge as well. They were contemplating whether and when to go back out on the trail, as they were starting to head up the mountain the other way towards 10-mile. I, personally, would not want to be up there during a thunderstorm, but some of the guys were saying they were going to risk it. All for the race, right?
Calm before the storm. CT racers had made a pitstop as well!
Aliza and I hunkered down trying to decide what to do and finally decided, after the clouds broke just a bit that we needed to make it as far as we could until the next storm system. So we bundled up in all of our warm gear, and our full tummies and started the climb up to Kokomo Pass. On our way out of the resort we ran into one other lady racer so we cheered her on with our words of awe and encouragement! The rain cleared just for a bit with only sprinkles and we were immediately too hot in all of our gear, so we had to stop and strip down. But, as nature would have it, not even 30 minutes later, it was pouring again.
We could tell that there were going to be a few storm systems rolling through, each bringing with it wind, more rain, and then ebbing just a bit before the next one, so our plan was to make it as far as we could get just below the tree line, and then call it for the day. We were wet and tired and ready to be done. On our way up, we kept looking for a site that was somewhat near water that one of our friends had mentioned on his CT trek. We even had a pin dropped where he had stayed, but when we got to that point (or what we thought was that point) there wasn’t really any where to camp, so we kept going. Finally, we found a little spot just off the trail that seemed to be a little covered by trees, which we thought might help keep things a little “dryer.” The only problem was that we weren’t near water, but we didn’t want to risk going any further up and not having a camp spot. So, we pitched the tent in the pissing rain. Aliza agreed to start some hot water if I would go on the hunt for water that was about a mile up the trail. So, I got most of the bladders so that we would have enough for the rest of the day and the next morning and went for a hike.
The hike was actually quite enjoyable. It was all uphill on the way up, but not too steep and it was absolutely beautiful in that area, overlooking meadows, a ton of trees, and even with the rain and setting sun was quite magical. I got to the water source, which was just right off the trail and easy to get to. I was just minding my own business passing the time in my own head, when guess who I would run into at the water source? Our Grumpy Curmudgeon friend from earlier that day. I said hello and at first didn’t recognize him with all his rain gear on, but as soon as he started talking, I knew his cynical voice instantly. He had a lot to say about the rain, and then asked if I knew if there was an open campsite ahead and that “there better be an open site because he’d walked all this way and wasn’t going to go over the *#$% pass tonight…” and other grumblings of the sort. If any of you have ever read Bill Bryson’s book, “A Walk in the Woods” about his Appalachian Trail experience, you could probably imagine that this person is similar to Bill’s friend that accompanied him on the majority of the trail. If you haven’t read it, you should - it’s a great read. Anyway, he trudged on and left me in peace and I hurried my way back to our camp and arrived just at dusk.
We huddled and cooked our food quickly…in fact, I’m not even sure if I ate a hot dinner that night because we had had lunch so late. Either way, our bed time could not come early enough. We planned to wake up before light the next morning and ride in the dark up the hill so that we could most assuredly get over the pass before the thunderstorms hit, which proved to be a very very smart move on our part.
PS: No matter how much I try to remember to get pictures of the grumpy/no good/rainy and cold parts of the trip, I always forget. So, pretty much we had no pictures of our trek after our rainy lunch at Copper Mt Resort. I’m sure you can use your imagination though.
Grand Staircase - Escalante Loop (aka The Loop of Doom) Day 4
3:30am came quickly, and the three of us woke up and hustled to get out of camp so we could climb the morning in the dark. Patty wasn’t feeling so hot because he had been overheated and couldn’t cool down enough to sleep very well. He had doused himself in the creek several times that night in an attempt to cool down, but he still wasn’t very comfortable. I had slept alright and was excited to get this final day of riding in the books.
The stream was, of course, in a small valley that we had to climb out of, so we started climbing the morning. I found it was actually mentally motivating to ride up the hills in the dark. You can’t really see how far you have yet to ride to get to the summit of a climb, and you only just focus on what is in front of you. Plus, though we were trying to hurry and get as far as we can before the heat came, the experience of riding into the sunrise and arriving at the top of the mesa in the morning sun was worth the early morning wake up call.
Ryan seemed to be a bit more motivated than Patty and I to get to the finish line, and so he rode ahead for quite a while. I knew we had to take our time or we’d be scorched and out of energy by the end of the day, especially with Patty’s lack of sleep. I was trying to keep up with Ryan when I noticed that Patty was having a hard time keeping up, which isn’t like him. Every time he’d catch up, he’d fall right back behind. FInally, I let Ryan go ahead and waited for Patty. He had been carrying the drone in the bottom of his back pack and the pressure on his low back had been pressing on a nerve and his leg had finally gone numb and he was in a severe amount of pain. So we unloaded his pack and he laid down for a while, trying to see if he could get the feeling back in his leg and stretch out his back. Ryan eventually came back and took the drone on his pack.
A much relieved Patty was able to get back on the saddle and away we went. At some point in the day, though we were hustling, Ryan kept gaining distance on us and we lost sight of him. We knew he wasn’t having a very good time and wanted to get back to the car as soon as possible, so we figured he just went ahead. We kept motoring, eventually getting closer to town. Finally, after riding the roller coaster generally up rollers that we had been all morning, we got to the top of Kelly grade. This is the notorious steep, winding descent down from the mesa into the valley. The views were out of this world and Patty and I took a few moments here and there to stop to appreciate the scenery. As excited as I was for a descent, this descent is not to be trifled with. I live for descents! I have a history as a road cyclist and my favorite thing to do would be to bomb down the west hills of Portland, OR at 45+ MPH when I could. I love cornering, I love pushing it. But! Here I was, loaded with a 60 lbs bike, hoping that my brakes wouldn’t overheat or stop working, trying not to slide out on the tight corners, catch a tire in the huge ruts running parallel with my wheels all over the road, and keep in control on the occasional rocky-ass goat-head sections. Our short stops for a quick pick were definitely necessary to wring out my fingers and shake out my forearms and give my brain a break!
Just as the sunlight was starting to shift towards evening vibes, Patty and I motored into town. It felt like it took forever to cross the final straights, but we were incredibly thankful that we didn’t have any horrible headwinds, because this part is notorious for taking forever if there’s brutal winds. With a little energy to spare, but glad to be done, we got back to our car. Ryan had already come and gone, mentioning that he may or may not have thrown up when he got done and went directly to the closest service station to get all the electrolytes and coca-colas to try to recuperate before heading home. To this day, I haven’t seen him back on the bike and heard a rumor that he made a purchase of a motobike three weeks later. That’s how much this route sucked the lives out of each of us!
Some of these adventures that I put myself through are bike-cations. And some are definitely Type-2-Fun, where I say - “You know, that was really hard, and I suffered, but I would do it again, or I would recommend it. Then there are those adventures that are Type-3/4-Fun where I would never feel the need to experience it again, nor would I put it on my list of recommendations for folks out there. So, take it or leave it for this one! I know many other people have done it and highly recommend, so I also firmly believe that in any other given season that isn’t right after horrible monsoons and storms, it might be a little more bearable.
Signing out!
Keep calm and carry on...
Where's the Water?
After the first epic day of hot-as-hell riding we were a bit shell-shocked but ready to rock it when we awoke to the chirping birds bright and early the next morning. We made our breakfast, which for me usually consists of 1.5 packets of grits with some powdered butter and egg whites, truffled almonds (special treat), and coffee. We had a meeting about the day's plan and made it on the road by 8:30 am, which, for five people trying to get all their 75 pieces of belongings together and out the door by then is making pretty good time. I will be honest, that I wasn't sure how my legs were going to hold up. Because of all the cramping on day one, I was going to try to avoid anything that I thought had made me cramp. I began the morning by downing a full bottle of water, and then another with electrolytes, I stretched, and then tried to take it as easy as possible in the beginning.
Due to the potential lack of water available on the trail for the entire day, we decided to skip some of the single track and take the road up to Crooked Creek Trailhead via a short detour to Mud Creek CG to fill up on some water. Because all of us were pretty paranoid about the water situation, still recovering from the heat the day before, we filled up extra, so we were pretty loaded with weight as we began our climb. This steady climb eventually dropped in at Crooked Creek trail where we ran into trouble. The trail was awesome, it was fun, it was bumpy, we went through a few dried creek beds, skirted around the lush trees and bushes, and then suddenly Deann's rear seat post bag-cradle snapped clean off her bike. Her husband, Bill and her attempted to remedy the situation by jerry rigging the cradle with zipties and tape, but it wouldn't hold. So, Deann ended up distributing most of her things to Bill and rearranging to rest to her front roll. It was not the most ideal situation, but at least it got us back on the trail.
We continued rolling and found a great lunch spot by a sparkling spring. (Turns out we didn't need to be carrying so much water, but I suppose it never hurts). One of my favorite things is a lunch time near a creek. It means you get to have all the water you want to cook with lunch (if you need that), and you can probably even have an afternoon "iced" coffee! It also means you can take a bath which is such a treat! So, of course we did all those things and started rolling again. That so-fresh-and-so-clean feeling did not last long, as we immediately ran into ALL the cows, which were walking the same trail. This also meant that ALL the cow dung was flinging everywhere; on our bags, on our clothes, on our helmets. It was pretty gross but fortunately we after some glorious descending, we ended up toward the end of the creek near the trail head and got to take bath #2.
During our descent we ran into two hikers out on the trail who worked for the Forest Service. They also had an adorable golden doodle named Sadie. We chatted with them about the OTT alliance and all of the great work they have done. They mentioned being excited that people are using these trails, and I'm hoping that they will continue to see more people out there as the OTT becomes a more well-seasoned route. As we were leaving, Heather casually mentioned our water worries to the forest, to which they said thank you to the feed back and mentioned a few other places that might have water. We said goodbye and finished descending, took our bath and began the next chapter in the heat of the day. (Aliza likes taking her baths by just falling over in the river).
We had a few miles on pavement before turning off onto a dirt road up a horribly long, exposed climb. When I got to this climb, I knew I had to motor at my own pace and keep things steady. (This is usually the key to success for all things Bike-packing - and maybe even life in general). The minute I would start to go into the "red zone" as far as exertion goes, that's when I start cramping. So, I just started riding, and riding, and riding. Just keep pedaling, just keep pedaling. I tried to pull over at the one or two very tiny shady spots on the road but really just had to keep going. I kept thinking, "Maybe there's shade around the next bend." But no....just more sun. And gravel. And uphill.
At this point, Aliza was starting to have a really difficult time in the heat and we were all just sort of trying our best to stay put together enough to make it up the hill. Then as we looked up the road at what seemed to be a mirage, a white Subaru with two guys were pulled off to the side. As we got nearer, we realized that the hikers we had encountered earlier on the trail had driven up to see if there was water at the top in the creek (which there wasn't) and had driven back and waited for us with bottles of ice water. TRAIL ANGELS! OTT TRAIL MAGIC! Whatever you want to call it - it was just another example of people just being awesome people when you are out on the trail.
The descent down to Mill Flat was pretty great, though short lived. We eventually had to bushwhack a bit to find the Mill-Flat lake (pond), but we found it, and were immediately greeted by some folks who were fly-fishing and had a camp set up. They offered us a beer and whatever else we needed, which some people took them up on, and we found a place to set up camp for the night a bit aways from them as they warned us that they might get rowdy. We were able to bathe and wash clothes in the run off from the small lake and bask in an rose sunset before making our way to bed at the end of the a much better day from the day before.
First Impressions of the Oregon Timber Trail: Travel day and Day 1
Nap and rally
The adventure began with a train ride on Thursday, July 13 from Portland. The adventure started as a dream and ended in a nightmare. We were stuck in West Fir for 4 hours due to a freight train vs car collision. Apparently we had to wait for EMS to clear and then for the freight train to be inspected. Needless to say we didn’t make it to Kalamath Falls where we had a hotel booked for the night until 2:45 am. We got checked in and to bed at around 3:15 AM and woke up the next morning at 5:00 to meet our shuttle driver Wes. You see, the start of this trail is not entirely convenient to get to (there is now a new optional start further south in California that you can get to via bus). So, here we were, this leads us to Day 1 of actual riding, very sleep deprived, and anxious to get on the trail.
Our shuttle driver, Wes, who works at Hutches Bicycles in Klamath Falls, instantly won a spot in our hearts as the biggest hero ever NOT ONLY for waking up at the butt crack of dawn to pick us up, AND for making us a communal cup of Portland-style thick coffee, AND for charging our group a VERY affordable price for the shuttle, but ALSO for being a super cool guy and providing the best entertainment on the three hour drive to Lily and Cave Lakes in California. We truly owe him a huge thank you in the form of beer, gifts, favors... whatever he wants, he deserves it! We stopped briefly in Lakeview to grab breakfast at Tall Town Cafe which was more than welcoming to and whipped us up some delicious breakfast to go. And who could beat a $5 breakfast sandwich special that comes with coffee? Total score!
Okay, so fast-forward three hours and a lot of curvy roads, laughs, and chamois cream later and we were on the go. The route begins with an immediate uphill effort, which basically means that I can stop talking about the entire day and and cut to the part where I remember saying, "This day is shit." Needless to say, the ride was difficult to begin with, got more challenging in the middle, and kicked my butt all the way until the end. With the highest point of the route at just under 8.5k ft. elevation and 3.7k ft. elevation gain over 27 miles plus crap ton of over grown single track, to say it was challenging would be an understatement. It took us (me) four hours to go 10 miles and another four hours to go the rest of the way. Why I say it took ME four hours is because I was definitely the weak link in our adventure train.
In my previous post (It's go time!) I may have mentioned that I haven't been doing a lot of training for this adventure because of grad school. Well, guess what? I suffered. I suffered bit time! My lack of fitness (both aerobic and strength cause I had to do A LOT of hike-a-bike, combined with the elevation factor meant that I was gasping for breath most of the time on this first day. My cohorts suffered seemed to suffer a bit less, but actually, they probably suffered just as much, they just went faster at it.
Both of my legs began cramping through my quads followed by bouts of hamstrings seizing up at about mile 12 (after much hike-a-bike). We were close to running out of water and I began to to experience symptoms of heat exhaustion. I took a break in what little shade that was and tried to gather myself while a couple of the others in the group rode ahead to see if the creek really had water or if it had dried up as did many of the other creeks along the way. Once I recovered, Heather and I took a shorter route to the creek and to our amazement, we were rewarded with the cutest and most refreshing trickling stream we had ever seen!
It is truly amazing what a little water can do for morale and immediately our moods were brighter and energies were up! We wisely decided to take the take the gravel road down into Squirrelville Cabins for the night instead of the single track, which was well worth it because we got there right as the sun was setting anyway.
Now, don't get me wrong, I said that this day was shit, and believe me, it was! The riding and the trails were incredibly difficult and there were many times when I pushed my mental and physical fortitude to the limits. But when you descend down that mountain that you've climbed and are greeted by some of the nicest people I have ever met, along with a beautiful sunset and an ice-cold beer, well, that's when you realize that it wasn't really shit, it was just a shit-ton of Type-2-Fun!
Written in collaboration with my fellow bike packer extraordinaire, Aliza Richman