Author: Paul Rito (Page 24 of 27)

A couple days without big mileage have been a nice break. Still riding, just not at the same lengths as last week.

Friday (day 27, Sept 2, also 1 month of retirement!), I rode over and up to Boulder, CO to visit with old friends from State College, Chuck and Susie Anderson. It was a 25 mile ride up and I picked a route that was the most direct and mixed between on road and trails. Can’t say enough about the great cycling infrastructure in Denver and Boulder, and Colorado in general (at least what I’ve seen so far). I rode most of the way on low traffic streets and most of those with bike lanes or shares, but half of the ride to Boulder was on the US 36 trail which runs between the outskirts of Denver into Boulder along the highway. Under-and-over-passes made for a conflict-free 14 miles.

Ahhh. Mountain air and cool temps. I had a lazy morning hanging around the motel and just relaxing. Had a short day planned with a round trip to Breckenridge and then meeting Aaron to head to Red Rocks.

I headed out about 11 and Aaron called and told me there was a Pearl Izumi (cycling clothing) outlet in Dillon. Oooooo. I have some older shorts with me and they’ve seen better days. I ended up with a mountain bike short that has pockets, a little longer leg, and built-in chamois. A better choice for urban riding than ruining my civi shorts, and/or putting on full cycling gear. In other words, I can look almost normal and still have the riding comfort of a chamois pad.

Dillon to Vail Pass today, and the views were spectacular. As I look at the photos, I realize that most of them don’t really capture what was also an emotional experience. It’s really hard to convey in 2D what is going on all around you, or experience the vastness of a steep, rocky, tree covered escarpment. So, I can only hope to trigger some memories if you’ve seen some of this area, and encourage you to come see for yourself if you haven’t.

I had to remind myself to ease up on myself when myself was berating my lagging performance on the littlest climbs with only the bike and no panniers. I’m at 9,600+’ and have only been at this altitude one day, and above 5,000′ for only 4. Duly noted, self. You made it over Loveland, and up to Vail Pass today at 10,000′. Chill.

With a head start to Indian Springs provided by Aaron, I climbed over Loveland Pass today. I was able to leave the camping equipment at Aaron’s, too, so I was half-loaded, with only rear panniers. Was probably carrying 25-30 lbs vs. the 50+ when fully loaded.

The ride to the top of the pass was 29 miles, 4656 ft up, 254 ft down. More than a little unbalanced. Most of the day was climbing and I was happy that I was able to make it without any altitude problems. I took a lot of breaks, esp. when my heart rate was soaring, but breathing was OK. I’m guessing my body said, “Oh, you did this to me when you climbed Grey’s Peak a couple of years ago. I gotcha!”

Well, I handed Papa Hobo over to the baggage agent in Lincoln with a flat in the rear tire. Sometime between getting to the station and boarding, it went flat. The California Zephyr was an hour and a half late, so we finally got underway about 1:30 am. It was a long night’s ride and I did catch some fitful naps and got into Denver around 9 am. Almost lost PH as the conductors directed me to baggage claim (PH was checked to Denver), and baggage claim didn’t have the bike and directed me trainside. Fortunately, Denver was a 20 minute stop or PH would have been headed to California without me. I had to get a conductor to open the baggage car and get the bike out. Close call. So far, Amtrak’s been great for hauling the bikes along, but policies aren’t quite the same everywhere and I’ve yet to master the process. Learning as I go though.

Let’s see where did I leave off? Oh yes, at Dinty Moore’s with John, Laurie (or, Lori, I forgot to ask for spelling so I’ll use them interchangeably) other Jon, and a new venue with Papa’s flat repaired.

A modest 58 miles today over hill and dale, but much more friendly hills and dales than I’ve been following. I think this might be the first day that was all on pavement. At 14 miles in today, I hit 1,000 miles on the trip since leaving August 7.

I had a really restful night in Falls City at the Stanton Lake Campground. I had Shrimp Salad ala Dole Bag, a nice juicy peach, hit the pad and slept until 7:30. The shelter kept things dry so I was all packed up and ready to go by 8:30. I forgot to mention that PH’s front wheel had a slow leak and with water to test the tube, I found and patched that leak before I headed into town last night.

As good a night I had yesterday, today’s was not so great. I was camping at Warnock Lake in Atchison: streetlight in the camping area and I somehow managed to site the tent so it was right in my eyes replete with a barking dog until 3 am which earplugs only somewhat dampened, So I tossed and turned and tried to block it out, but didn’t get much sleep. The good part of all that was, about 5:30 am, I heard two owls hooting to each other In a call and response. That was cool and actually very soothing and I fell asleep listening to it.

Had a great night’s sleep and a good breakfast with Mark, and he escorted me out of town. Good to have a local perspective on the routes that the mapping tools pick. We didn’t go that way.

Mark is also an LCI as I am. LCI being League Cycling Instructor, sanctioned by the League of American Cyclists. In his retirement, he’s been going to elementary schools in the Kansas City area and teaching cycling skills and traffic law. So we had a lot to talk about, including the progression of the great infrastructure in KC.

The train ride let me catch up on some bill paying and paperwork for Medicare, and writing the earlier blog post. On arriving in Kansas City, I was glad to see that Union station was still in almost pristine shape, and that many of its nooks and crannies are being used for active businesses. There was an informative display on the railroad mail workers. I rode up to the World War I memorial and then headed to my warm showers host Mark.