Ahhh those all you can eat continental breakfasts are too good. Lindsay and I started the say with two bagels, two packets of oatmeal, juice, an orange and plenty of coffee... Each. I have found it interesting, now that i have become a bottomless pit, to see the reaction of people as we eat all of that food. I don't think that they understand that we can't get full because we are biking so much, even if we tell them what we are doing. Instead, I think they are investing their energy to figure out how two young women can eat as much as a college football player at times. That being said, i would rather make it 15 miles and be judged than make it 5 miles and be tired for the sake of saving humility. (however at mile 4.89 today Lindsay read my mind by asking "why am I hungry?")
Our experiences with continental breakfasts is also that we start laughing at something, since we are full of sugar and carbs, and get on a roll and take forever to leave. Time just won't wait for us to get ourselves together those days. Today, we left at 10:00 am hour later (at least) than we had intended. whoops! It is nice to enjoy ourselves and take our time, especially since we won't have the luxury of the other's company for much longer.
Our day was half hard climbing, half flat.We were trying to make it to Sargants, CO, which is at the base of the highest peak that we will climb in our journey: 11,220 get. Sargants was 97 miles away from Montrose, (little did we know). We could have made it if we started earlier, but i think that doing a century the day before your highest peak may not be one of our most brilliant ideas.
At 21 miles we had finished our descent from our first climb. It was not easy, and began pretty much as soon as we left Montrose, and the last 4 miles were brutal (with a 4 mile descent) the climb was just about 2000 ft, and i think 75% of that was in those last 4 miles. In the middle of those, however, i received notification that with donations we had to mail in and the ones we received over the internet put us over the $20,000. Talk about something sweet to think about for the most difficult mile of the climb. I am pretty sure i have never had a smile on my face while climbing a hill before today. (smiling between gasping for air that is, my legs and lungs were screaming.. Smiling on the inside might be a more accurate, way to put it).Thank you so much everybody's support and generosity. It really does make those climbs and hard days easier.
We stopped for a quick lunch and then we were immediately thrown into another climb. This one was 1500 ft, and just as bad, if not worse. We knew that once this was done, the hardest part of our day would be over (expect one more little pass, but it doesn't count as much after you do the others). Once we finished all of our climbing, it was 4:00 pm and we had only done 35 miles and went about making up for lost time.
I love Colorado; it is gorgeous. It also is the first state in which we have experienced a real tail wind (only teases in the other states), so it pretty much bumps Colorado off the charts. Awwwwesome. I knew this day would eventually come. We were flying, just like last night. I loved it. We rode by a beautiful lake called Lake Fork. It was glistening in the afternoon sun (sometimes it takes us a long time to ride because there are so many things to take pictures of, and thus there is much stopping, but they are important stops to make. I wish i could capture it all... ) and even though we stopped frequently to try to capture the beauty before us, i developed a rubber neck (for those who drove with him know that i definitely inherited this from my father) and kept looking to my left to see how the clouds and lighting had changed and was reflected on the lake. Every time i turned my neck i would ride straight into the rumble strips, (separating the shoulder and the road) and it shakes you so much that it hurts your brain and head. My continuous huffing and puffing and grunting, rather than just learning my lesson, was very amusing to Lindsay, and i could hear her breaking out in laughter behind me every time i got mad at myself.
The lake went in forever, and then narrowed to a stream weaving through rocky canyons that people were fly fishing in. We were starving at this point. We had done some serious riding and we were at mile 55, getting to make it the lady 12 miles to Gunnison, where we prayed had a subway. We were too tired and too hungry to think, and i am glad that the trail wind was there for the extra little boost. Sargant is 32 miles away from Gunnison, and as we were inhaling our food, it was nearing 6:30 pm. We are both fans of night riding with head lamps, but at that point, as i have said, it probably want in our best interest to finish a century and then get up and fight extreme elevation. As we were discussing this, our thoughts were reinforced by our inability to finish a sentence or two and keep a straight face, and Lindsay also was having a ball watching me drop my chips on the table or my lap... Eating chips has never been so hard. Yes, that was as huge indication that we are exhausted. </p>
<p>We will have a 32 mile fairly flat warm up tomorrow with a slight incline to get to 8000 ft, and then charge up that mountain. We will have a bit of a climb the next day before we get into Pueblo, but tomorrow is the big one. This is what we have been preparing for mentally and physically for the last 25 days (or before that, even. In all honestly, i was scared about the Rockies long before we boarded the plane). The elevation will certainly give us a run for or money, but I feel like I can accurately say that we will give everything we've got until we reach the summit... One pedal at a time. </p>
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