Prologue
Heart fix
In March, 2021 I had a procedure done called an arthroscopic mini maze, to "fix" my atrial fibrillation. This was the fourth surgical procedure I had done to fix it, the first three being normal, internal ablations. None of them fixed it, but this one did. It also seemed to lessen my ability to go harder, have higher heart rates. It felt like it took away my zone 4 and 5, but maybe that was just the long recovery, and getting old. (53 years old in 2022, before I undertook riding the whole CT.) But, the problem was gone. I was looking forward to doing the Colorado Trail without afib!
Planning
Mark retired from his career as a physician in 2021. He was free to ride the whole CT. We'd been talking about it since 2015, and plans firmed up for 2022 in 2021. We weren't bikepacking, trying out gear, getting fit, or specifically planning details, we just planned to do it. Should I have been doing those things? Yes. Did I? No. Work, volunteer work, life took my attention. I just knew I could do it, having done pieces of it before. Hubris you say? Yeah. Mark was free to ride every day, and he did. Covid meant I changed from riding to work and back in San Francisco every day, via ferry, to working from home. My commute went from a minimum of 1100' climbing every evening, rain or shine, to walking from the living room to the den with my coffee. My job involved a promotion, more responsibility, and the work itself got very challenging, as the company grew, reinvented itself and became publicly-traded. I was riding, but as a casual cyclist. In July 2022 I was 6'2, 230lbs; overweight, undertrained, living at roughly sea level. (900', in the Oakland hills) I was not physically prepared for the rigors of the Colorado Trail, and thanks to selective memory, I did not remember how hard it was. Mark and I imagined a 'gentleman's tour,' with stops in towns, days off, swimming, taking our time. I had requested a month off from work starting in 2021, a huge amount of time, but every time I reminded my leadership, they said it was OK. Having not bikepacked in seven years, since our 2015 trip, I was relying on possibly outdated gear.
One week to go
I planned to ride my Retrotec steel hard tail, with 27+ tires, and had a custom frame bag made for it by Outer Shell in San Francisco. I still had all my Porcelain Rocket bags from the 2013 and 2015 trips, originally made for a Canfield Yelli Screamy XL hardtail, but the frame bag wouldn't fit, the rear bag had a broken buckle I'd never gotten around to fixing, and I wanted to try something new, so I ordered Ortlieb front roll bag, and their larger seat bag. The Friday we were to do our first and last practice bikepack before the whole CT ride was hectic at work. Mark was coming around 2PM, when I'd be getting out of work, and I was just pegged with work stuff, but said another way, I had not given this trip, its planning, the gear selection enough of my attention. I quickly threw the new bags on the Retrotec, learning how they worked, then. I pulled my box of bikepacking gear - last used or evaluated in 2015 - and put various items in my bags. As Mark was loading my Retrotec on his car for the drive to Mill Valley, he told me to come, look at something. There was a big crack on the chainstay. That bike wasn't going. I had another hard tail, an XL Yeti ARC carbon hard tail that I'd bought used, earlier in the year. It had the GX build, the more affordable build. I used it for fun, and for riding with the middle school kids on the team I coach, Oakland Devo. It is light, stiff, fun. I quickly put the old Porcelain Rocket frame bag on it, it sort of fit. I switched the handlebar and seat bag to it. Mark and I did a trial, overnight bikepack (Fri, Sat) from Mill Valley to the Pantoll hike-in, bike-in campground on Mt Tamalpais the weekend before we were to leave for Colorado. I felt out of shape, felt like we went up Railroad Grade too fast, got to Pantoll pretty late, found all sites full, shared a site with some friendly strangers, and the next day, returned via the Coast View trail, Muir Beach, and the Diaz Ridge and Miwok trails to a road descent to our car. Bike, bags and gear worked OK.
Food
I had ordered dehydrated food for both of us. Mark had done some rough planning for numbers of days, miles, resupplies, segments and towns. We had a boxing evening, where we created four boxes full of food for our four resupply points; Frisco, Buena Vista, Cathedral Ranch Cabins and Silverton. Spoiler; we sent way too much food. I was relying on a dehydrated breakfast and dinner every day, Mark on regular instant oatmeal and additions for breakfast and a dehydrated dinner every day. I had these six salamis - about .5lb each - from a sampler I bought, these cracker + tuna, cracker + salmon snacks, a bunch of bars and gels. Mark used my bars and gels, and augmented with his favorite gorp mixture, salted almonds, some granola bars. He shipped them general delivery to post offices, except for the one specifically meant for Cathedral Ranch Cabins. He communicated with the lady at Cathedral Ranch to ensure it was OK.
In Thoughts about the Colorado Trail I digest how the food went.
Sleep
Mark's general planning for mileage, segments and resupply points made sense. Our rough plan was 15 days of riding, with three zero days for breaks, unplanned stops, totalling 18 days. I had one more obligation - be Coach Mentor and host at a Downieville Coach Retreat for the NorCal League of NICA the weekend before our trip. That also had me busy, along with work, coaching and a van project (fix roof water leaks) which had been consuming all my spare time. My one month vacation began with the Coach Retreat, which went well, but for one thing. I began having insomnia about a night or two before we left for Downieville. I was stressed, and didn't sleep well. Common lately, in my 50s. I was going to sleep in Downieville in my bikepacking tent, a one-person Tarptent Moment DW, using sleep gear I'd last used seven years before; Thermarest NeoAir pad and pillow, Marmot Hydrogen 30ยบ bag. I didn't sleep at all, in either. I was able to do two rides in two days with the coaches, at Downieville, but I was starting to unravel from lack of sleep.
The journey to Durango
Our plan was to leave right after the Coach Retreat ended, Sunday afternoon, driving Mark's Subaru with my hitch rack to somewhere in Nevada, then Monday to Durango, then Tuesday to Denver, starting the ride Wednesday, 2022/07/20. We had two full-suspension bikes for Downieville that we sent home with a coach from Oakland, Nathan, gratefully. We had two bikes remaining, our bikepacking hardtails - Yeti Arc for me, and a Chinese-made hardtail for Mark. We got to Battle Mountain, NV, pushing forward through bad smoke in Winnemucca. Insomnia continued at a motel there, I think I might have gotten some sleep. Mark and I both snore, and I just don't sleep well, even with earplugs, in motel rooms with someone besides my wife, Lauren. We listened to a library audio book Mark had selected, The Echo Maker, by Richard Powers. It was good, but as passenger, I always chafe a bit at not having control over the drive, what I'm listening to. The audio book was not stored locally, so between sections we'd have to wait for cell signal to continue. We got to Durango, where our friends Liza and Matt had agreed to let us store Mark's Subaru. I wanted to get some missing gear; a belt, some fuel, a missing strap, I forget what else. We did some last-minute shopping, got a motel room at one of the lower-priced motels. We segregated our gear - what we'd be bringing on the trip, what would stay in the car, so that in the morning we could rent a minivan, drop the car and drive to Denver. Liza was home, Matt was at work. I hadn't seen Liza, but once, since she and Matt had moved to Durango quite a few years before. We promised to visit on the return. We dropped the car in their driveway, visited for a bit, I gave Liza my wallet, keeping an atm, credit, health insurance and drivers license card in the little ziploc bag my derailleur hanger had come in, we said goodbyes.
We continued driving to Denver, listening to the book. We got there, found a place to stay near the trailhead in Littleton, at the Home 2 by Hilton, and had dinner across the road at a strip mall restaurant, while a thunderstorm belted above. Foreshadowing.
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