Trip report:
Blasted out of the Big O around 7 AM. Armed with bagels, bananas, diet cherry Coke. Traveling light with duffel bag full of lycra, especially every piece of orange/blue Xtreme Wheels/Velo gear that I owned.
Minimal pit stops on the way. One Starbucks induced pit stop, one Taco Bell hit. Made great time till skidding to construction stop on I-25 at Walsenburg. Argggghhh. Wasted a good 45 minutes there, bumper to bumper.
Power slid into South Fork, CO, at 700 PM. Threw down the North Face up in National Park access area. Skeeters dined on my tasty low-land flesh while erecting the tent, but I zipped in and thumbed my prodigious beak at them. Broke out my new $7.50 Lance “Its not about the Bike” book and read till dark.
Rousted my buns at the crack of dawn. Donned the revered stripes and broke camp. Found a wi-fi café to check e-mail and snarfed two gut-bomb pancakes. With coffee, walked out $6 poorer.
Launced the ‘Nello from South Fork visitor’s center around 730 AM. Pointed it SW towards the Wolf and Pagosa Springs. Went out overdressed and soon peeled off leg warmers, arm warmers, stocking hat cuz the steep ascent was broiling me like a orange snapper. Stormed up the 7% grades at a steady 7.5mph. Gauged effort by heart rate monitor; mostly 140’s. Soon sat atop the Wolf at 10,850. Bartered with overweight RV’er to swap picture taking. Even negotiated a free bottle of water out of the deal. Threw back on my arm warmers and hit the descent towards Pagosa.
Stopped after road leveled out at Treasure Falls. Decided to get my arse back to South Fork as skies looked ominous. The SW ascent back to the Wolf was much harder. Held a steady 150-156 heart rate on way up. Relentless grade. Stood briefly on pedals about every two minutes to give my ample derriere a break. Back on top without stopping. By this time of day all the RV’ers were at top. They marveled that I could do this, while choking down their coffin nails in between pix. Inhaled the last of my day-old Panera’s cinnamon bagels. Screamed down towards South Fork, all the while seeing a huge black weather wall down in the valley.
Scariest part was hurtling through one of two tunnels. Jeep behind me was leaning on the horn all the way through. Didn’t even have time to give him the one-finger salute as I was doing about 40 mph. Bright light, to dark tunnel, to bright light at 40 caused me to have white-knuckle death grip on the bars.
Ran out of luck about 5 miles out of South Fork. Started pelting rain, so I bailed to nearest covered front porch of the Moon Valley campground office. Sat in there for about 1.5 hours. It hailed for about 20 minutes too. Finally limped the last 5 miles into town and the shelter of the Jeep. Changed in visitor’s center to dry gear. Rinsed off the bike. Threw it in the back of Jeep and blazed a trail toward’s Creede, Spring Pass and Slumgullion Pass, then down into Lake City. Visited with randoneur at top of Slumgullion. This pass down into Lake City looks intimidating. Book says 9% grades and I believe it. Can’t wait for the fun and suffering to resume tomorrow AM. Splurging on $4 white chocolate mocha at the Mocha Moose. No wi-fi, but hammering out trip report while sipping coffee in the mountains ain’t all bad. Gotta grab some pizza, then head west to a campground I know off for the night. Stay tuned for update after tomorrow’s grand adventure!
Blasted out of the Big O around 7 AM. Armed with bagels, bananas, diet cherry Coke. Traveling light with duffel bag full of lycra, especially every piece of orange/blue Xtreme Wheels/Velo gear that I owned.
Minimal pit stops on the way. One Starbucks induced pit stop, one Taco Bell hit. Made great time till skidding to construction stop on I-25 at Walsenburg. Argggghhh. Wasted a good 45 minutes there, bumper to bumper.
Power slid into South Fork, CO, at 700 PM. Threw down the North Face up in National Park access area. Skeeters dined on my tasty low-land flesh while erecting the tent, but I zipped in and thumbed my prodigious beak at them. Broke out my new $7.50 Lance “Its not about the Bike” book and read till dark.
Rousted my buns at the crack of dawn. Donned the revered stripes and broke camp. Found a wi-fi café to check e-mail and snarfed two gut-bomb pancakes. With coffee, walked out $6 poorer.
Launced the ‘Nello from South Fork visitor’s center around 730 AM. Pointed it SW towards the Wolf and Pagosa Springs. Went out overdressed and soon peeled off leg warmers, arm warmers, stocking hat cuz the steep ascent was broiling me like a orange snapper. Stormed up the 7% grades at a steady 7.5mph. Gauged effort by heart rate monitor; mostly 140’s. Soon sat atop the Wolf at 10,850. Bartered with overweight RV’er to swap picture taking. Even negotiated a free bottle of water out of the deal. Threw back on my arm warmers and hit the descent towards Pagosa.
Stopped after road leveled out at Treasure Falls. Decided to get my arse back to South Fork as skies looked ominous. The SW ascent back to the Wolf was much harder. Held a steady 150-156 heart rate on way up. Relentless grade. Stood briefly on pedals about every two minutes to give my ample derriere a break. Back on top without stopping. By this time of day all the RV’ers were at top. They marveled that I could do this, while choking down their coffin nails in between pix. Inhaled the last of my day-old Panera’s cinnamon bagels. Screamed down towards South Fork, all the while seeing a huge black weather wall down in the valley.
Scariest part was hurtling through one of two tunnels. Jeep behind me was leaning on the horn all the way through. Didn’t even have time to give him the one-finger salute as I was doing about 40 mph. Bright light, to dark tunnel, to bright light at 40 caused me to have white-knuckle death grip on the bars.
Ran out of luck about 5 miles out of South Fork. Started pelting rain, so I bailed to nearest covered front porch of the Moon Valley campground office. Sat in there for about 1.5 hours. It hailed for about 20 minutes too. Finally limped the last 5 miles into town and the shelter of the Jeep. Changed in visitor’s center to dry gear. Rinsed off the bike. Threw it in the back of Jeep and blazed a trail toward’s Creede, Spring Pass and Slumgullion Pass, then down into Lake City. Visited with randoneur at top of Slumgullion. This pass down into Lake City looks intimidating. Book says 9% grades and I believe it. Can’t wait for the fun and suffering to resume tomorrow AM. Splurging on $4 white chocolate mocha at the Mocha Moose. No wi-fi, but hammering out trip report while sipping coffee in the mountains ain’t all bad. Gotta grab some pizza, then head west to a campground I know off for the night. Stay tuned for update after tomorrow’s grand adventure!
First pic is at the top of the Wolf early in AM. 2nd pic is back on the top later in day. Note much more traffic.
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