Wednesday, August 3rd - slept somewhat fitfully in the trailer at Cathedral Ranch Cabins. I wonder if perhaps I was imperfect in my water filtering methods, as I had a lot of gas in the night and then an urgent need to go poop in the morning. This happened yesterday morning as well. Alarm went off at 5:00. Quickly prepared, was nice to have clean clothes, made oatmeal and coffee in the trailer with water from the bike packer lounge. I think I was prepared and ready to go at 6:30. Brad pointed out a moose in the valley, I shot a short video of it. It was beautiful. Hugs and handshakes with Annette and Brad, then rolling out after goodbyes, I had beautiful sunshine and a downhill start. Soon I was riding along the beautiful valley floor, flat terrain, wondering at the beautiful sights. It really is a pretty country. Then I began to climb. It was a long dirt climb. Saw another moose. Put my thumb out for any cars or trucks coming from behind me, there were three, all politely declined. I was about 10,000, then 11,000 ft I felt no stronger but surprisingly, I didn't tire as much. Maybe I am getting acclimatized. After a long time, 3+ hours I reached highway 149. There's no shoulder on the highway. I waited for about 10 minutes, figuring I would put my thumb out for the first three cars that came by, and if none of them picked me up, I'd start pedaling. Well no cars came from the direction I needed them to come, so I just started pedaling. Because the traffic was so infrequent, I didn't feel unsafe with the lack of a shoulder. I crested and then descended, losing all of that elevation I'd worked so hard to get on the dirt. Whenever a car came behind me I would put my thumb out, but none offered to pick me up. I surprised myself by pedaling, very slowly, to Spring Creek Pass. I paused and one of the people who had declined to give me a ride was there, I think his name was Paul. He apologized that he had no room in the car, and I could see that the whole Subaru was full of boxes and containers. There was another guy, Scott. They were both in the parking lot standing by their cars, they didn't know each other but we all started talking. One of them, I believe it was Paul offered me freeze dried food, and I told him I had a lot of that. He offered me freeze-dried cheesecake, which tasted nice, but required a lot of moisture to enjoy, moisture I didn't feel I had plenty of. Apparently, all of that stuff in the back of the Subaru was freeze dried food. The other guy, Scott offered me a mini Coke, and boy did that taste good. I don't know why, but Coca-Cola is so good when you are tired, thirsty, out in the middle of nowhere. I never drink it at home. We had nice chats, Scott was talking about climbing some 14ers, Paul was talking about the Colorado Trail, and segment 22, and the wilderness bypasses. I let them each pick up my bike, and they were impressed with how heavy it was. Then I began the slow grind up the jeep road. Even though the elevation was high, 11 and 12,000 ft, I was able to pedal a surprising amount. There was a little trickle, not quite a creek across the road and it ran down one side of it. I filtered water there, filling up my bag, bottle with the Nuun tablet, and keeping the filter bottle full. I figured the storm could come at any time and I wanted to have enough water to dry camp. I leapfrogged with a guy named Peppa, I asked him if it was like Peppa Pig and he said, same spelling, but different. Funny guy. He kept talking about pineapples just around the corner, tequila, malteds. He would get ahead when it was hike-a-bike and I would get ahead when it was pedalable. We reached Jarosa Mesa, I believe it is called. It got really rocky. I had to push uphill on the rocks, then I got to level ground and was able to sometimes pedal over the rocks, sometimes push. There were lots of sheep hoof prints, some horse footprints and a lot of sheep poop. It was hard to dodge both the sheep poop and the rocks. Eventually I got a little bit of a downhill and discovered that by bringing my speed up and sort of running the rocks like a rapid, I could keep some forward momentum. My bike and I were bouncing like crazy over these jagged rocks. The rocks look different than the previous segments, like maybe basalt this time, where before they had been what I might call slate, or chert, or some other form of rock. These were different. There was also a bit more dirt and grass, and when the rocks would give me a break it was nice riding. I caught up to Peppa, who was FaceTiming with his mom. I didn't realize what he was doing at first and was talking to him. I guess he had signal, I did not. He was showing his mom these thousands of sheep arrayed across the Mesa.
In 2013 I had an experience with a sheep dog protecting its herd that was pretty terrifying, until the dog realized I wasn't a threat and leaned hard against me. I had AFib at the time and couldn't have gotten away if I wanted to. It was a moving moment when this animal that had been threatening me, realized that I was not a threat and just leaned on me so I would pet him or her. I'll never forget that. That was also on this part of the Colorado Trail, segment 23, which is where I'm headed next.
I was poised to take a downhill run toward the herd. I was a little anxious that there might be more of these sheepdogs, they're very fierce, but I had no choice. I told Peppa that I would run D for him and so I went forward, with my timber bell dingling, and the animals dispersed. I found it humorous the way they all sounded like they were saying 'Meh.' I shot a video of the experience on my phone, until I hit a rock and almost tipped over. No sheepdogs. I made it through the end of the herd and then continued on the jeep road. I was able again surprisingly to pedal much of the jeep road. This segment, 22 is so much easier because there's some hike-a-bike, but quite a bit of ridable trail. I gained some altitude and then found a single track which brought me to a broad meadow with some creeks in it. I was eager to find the yurt, because in 2013 that was the furthest west we got, and it was also a critical point.
In 2013 we were soaking wet, tired, hypothermic, I had atrial fibrillation, it was a rough period of time, but Mark knew the yurt was ahead of us and so when we found it, we got inside, nobody being there ahead of us, and we fortified ourselves with hot chocolate and recovered. The next day Barry joined us. minus Chris, and then we returned to Silverton, again in a significant rainstorm.
So the yurt was a big deal for me, and I wanted to see it again, take a picture of it. I somehow missed it in this valley. I kept going past it, confirming with two hikers that I had passed it, and so decided to continue climbing. This was a critical mistake because that was the last water opportunity before Coney summit, and while I did have a full filter bag and a bottle, my packs hydration bladder was probably 2/3 or 1/2 full. I should have filtered, filled my bag, drunk a bottle, filled a bottle. I climbed above the tree line to a kind of scrub landscape at about 12,000 ft. At this point I could see Coney Summit, the highest point on the Colorado Trail, six miles in front of me. Sun was out, it was warm, but there were also clouds. As I progressed I saw a few tents. It was about 2PM. I figured these people were sheltering for the day before the storm came, and I thought about joining them. There were some nice flat spots and some trees. But then I saw some hikers in front of me going up the slope, I debated with myself whether I should continue. There was sunshine, and also dark clouds. The variety of clouds in the high country of Colorado is immense, varied, fascinating. I did not know how to read them, I don't. I had again found myself climbing away from water sources without a refill. I saw my third moose of the day, this time only about 50 ft away in the scrub. I had the timber bell dingling, shook my bars to make sure it heard me, it looked over at me, I looked over at it, neither seem to care very much so I continued, head checking regularly to make sure that it was not following me or charging. I had enough water for a dry camp. I debated with myself, until I felt the first raindrops. This time I did not delay, like I did two days ago when I got cold and wet. I immediately threw the tent out on the nearest available flat ground, I think on some moose droppings, but flat space or nearly flat space is hard to come by in this spot. I grabbed all the gear off the bike and got in the tent. This was a much more successful strategy.
My day ends here, in the tent. There has been much lightning and thunder, some of it very close by. Hard rain, maybe some hail. The tent is doing a great job. I do occasionally feel a tiny droplet of water, I think the tent needs to be resealed, it actually had a small puddle that I put my mini towel in. I'm in here with all my belongings, a few are outside of the mesh portion under the rain fly, but the food is in here with me, everything is in here. I'm quite happy with how far I got, the rest of the ride from Cathedral Ranch Cabins to Spring Creek Pass intimidated me, it had a pretty big climb, actually two climbs to a high point of 12,000 ft, I really was thinking I would just get to the first campsite at mile 2.7, potentially the second campsite at 5.7, or ideally the yurt at 8.7. I think I'm about 9 miles in now, and if I wake up early I could knock out Coney summit, descend and I think get all of 23 done tomorrow and get to Silverton tomorrow by end of day. It has rained off and on since I stopped riding at about 3PM, this is going to be a cold, wet start tomorrow. I have an energy bar and a leftover chicken bean stew two-man dinner for breakfast. I don't have a lot of water in my bag, and I have to go at least 9 miles to refill, unless I want to go off the Colorado Trail to some possible water options beforehand, but I would have to do that in the dark because I'm setting my alarm for 4:00 a.m.
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