Monday, July 6, 2009

Prologue


3GenDivideRide2 high atop Indiana Pass on Day 4

‘Salida’ is Spanish for ‘Exit’, and last year on August 20, 2008 the 3GenDivideRiders Salida'ed our mountain bike trek from Aspen Alley, WY to Salida, CO. The blog site for that adventure is here.

It is now July 6, 2009, roughly 46 weeks after we reluctantly left the trail. We are all excited to be back in Salida, ready to attempt to face the southern half of the Colorado portion of the Great Divide mountain bike route. Hey hey, the gang’s all here, including...

Richie, the youngest (and most fit) of the 3Gen riders. Richie will be a Sophomore in HS next year.
Rich, the middle (and least fit) of our group, and your narrator of this adventure.
Grammi, the Elderest (and most trained) of the 3GenDivideRiders.
SagMan, Grammi's better half, and our indispensible support vehicle driver.
Tavy, the Sag Dog, to soar our spirits when the road is grinding us down.


Parking lot of hotel in Salida, ready to roll!

Tomorrow morning we plan to return to the very spot that we stopped last year, and continue South on the road that beckoned so strongly (to me) at the end of last year’s ride. Our goal is to roll up to the Colorado/New Mexico border in 5 days. Between here and there are 240 miles of mostly dirt roads, and 6 (!?!) named mountain passes, including Indiana Pass, which tops out at 11,910 feet, the highest pass along the entire Canada – Mexico Great Divide Ride.

I am frankly not as prepared as I was last year. While I was not exactly in top shape last year, at least I had put in 400 miles of mountain bike training. This year I am afraid that I have only put in about 100 miles on the saddle, so this could be a difficult five days for Gen #2. One decision we made to ease my ride is that I will not be pulling the BOB trailer this year.

However, working on my side is extreme excitement to be out here again with my son and my Mom. This ride pulls hard at me during the winter, and I am just thrilled to be out here again. I tend to be pretty determined to accomplish a goal like this, so hopefully that drive will overcome my slovenly preparation for this trip. I can't express enough my appreciation to everyone mentioned above (as well as Paula, Jed, and Kirsten back home) for indulging my desire to complete the Colorado portion of this ride.

One aspect of *this* trip that I am particularly excited about is that this entire ride will be new terrain for all of us. Last year my Mom and I had already ridden the majority of the ride (from Steamboat Springs to Salida) on a ride in 2003 sponsored by Adventure Cycling. This year will be the very first time that any of us have ridden these roads. It is exciting to be riding virgin terrain for the next five days.

Our passes (first 5 are dirt, and most are relatively remote/unknown even to CO natives):

Day 1: Marshall Pass
Day 2: Cochetopa Pass
Day 3: Carnero Pass
Day 4: Indiana Pass and Stunner Pass
Day 5: La Manga Pass

It takes a bunch of work to prepare for this trip, and I think we have leaped over the many logistical hurdles. This year we decided to rent our Sag vehicle, and I got a very good deal on a large SUV to support our ride. We have cabins/hotel rooms reserved for each night, saving us the need to pack our camping gear like we did last year.

We had a good carbo-loading meal at a funky wood-fired pizza joint. I also treated us all to some new bike Jerseys at Absolute Bikes, an awesome bike shop that is known to cater to riders of the Great Divide route.

Now we pray for good weather and strong legs. Bring on the passes and Spanish influences of southern Colorado…ready or not, here we come!


View 3GenDivideRide2 Overnights in a larger map
Start and End points of our daily rides. Each blog entry below has a link to a detailed map of our route. Needless to say, we were not riding on those yellow roads in the map above!
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