I’ll post a more in-depth race report soon, but for now, I’d just like to say wow… that was hard. Even with a reported 10,000 feet of climbing for the 50 mile course, I still love riding a singlespeed.

I finished 3rd in the Open Women’s Singlespeed category. My time was pretty competitive with the women overall as well. Am I allowed to wear my medal to bed?

(photos to follow)

I’m gonna keep this one short, because I’m about ready to turn in for the night (yes, it’s only 9:30, but I’m camping, which means I’m sleepy as soon as the sun goes down).

Yesterday, Ryan and I were going to preride the entire 25 mile course loop, but ended up in a time vacuum, so we only rode half of it. From what I hear, the other half has some steeper sections. I’m not too worried- I’ll be walking some stuff already since I’m singlespeeding it.

Today, we spent what seemed like half the day on our bikes. We rode a local loop that took us out on Gold Run Road and back down to Breckenridge, where we made a side trip to the Breck pump track before heading back up the MUT to Frisco for some lunch. After filling up on Himalayan food, we made our way back to camp.

I have to say- I’m officially in love with my singlespeed. I guess if I can do the climbs around here at altitude and still love it that I must be a singlespeeder at heart. Time to go out and buy a tutu… or at least some more knee socks. Maybe some day I can get a cool new tattoo.

When we were almost back to the campground, I took a side trip on some random singletrack. Once I figured out that it was going up and away more than I’d hoped, we turned around. We passed a really cool rock outcropping, so I stopped to take in the view. Much to my surprise, there were some random guys down below doing a bit of bouldering. I had to give it a shot, so I took a side trail down to where they were, took off my shoes, and gave it a go…

Ryan told me I was nuts, but it wasn’t really that far off the ground. I wore my helmet, too, as you can see. I never realized that I had such nice calves…

Ryan took a lot of photos with his iPhone the last two days. In lieu of posting them all here, I’m going to just refer you to his blog: roadcx.net where you can see all of them (including shots from the trail, some food, the pump track, and more rocks)Â in gallery form.

Guess it’s time for bed. Gotta kick some butt tomorrow. Firm singlespeeder butt. Mmmmmm…

After my last post, I packed up, ate some breakfast, and left Dolores to head to Denver. Ryan flew in today to come out & visit for a few days & watch the Marathon Natz race.

Between Dolores and Durango, I perfected what should be the new offcial summertime sport of Colorado- RV Slalom. It’s where a series of RVs are blocking the road going up and/or down a mountain, and you use skilled driving maneuvers in order to get around the blockage. It was exhilarating.

Most of the remainder of the drive was spend wanting to melt the faces of the other drivers on the highway. Hardly anyone out here drives anywhere close to the speed limit, and no one will attempt to pass. What ends up happening is an engine-straining hail-mary pass around an entire glob of cars (and the occasional RV) putzing along at 50 in a 65mph area.

Between getting a late start and having to deal with traffic, I ended up two hours late to pick Ryan up from the airport. We decided that in lieu of setting up camp in the dark, that we’d get a room in Frisco for the night and go set up in the morning before heading out for some pre-ride action.

So that’s my boring day. It’s actually the first time that I’ve not enjoyed the drive someplace. It’s nice to have Ryan here, though…

Dolores is a really, really cool town. The population is around 600, but it’s got lots of little shops (including a bike shop that’s apparently always closed), two dispensaries, and the Dolores River Brewery. Everyone is really nice- it’s one of those places where people generally leave their doors unlocked and get around town by walking or by bike.

Tuesday morning, Lauren and I headed to Cortez- a nearby city that’s a little larger and has a great bike shop (Kokopelli Bike and Board) that’s not always closed. The fork on my Jet 9 wasn’t holding air, and I suspected that I’d done something wrong when re-assembling it after modifying the travel, so I needed someone to check it out. After we dropped it off, we ran a few other errands and headed back to Dolores to go for a quick spin on the road bikes.

Afterward, I headed back to get my bike- they’d fixed the fork (it actually wasn’t broken or assembled wrong and worked flawlessly once it was back together- quite the mystery), cleaned it up a bit, and even straightened out a bent tooth on my cassette! You don’t get customer service like that from a catalog.

Once I got back, I headed out to Boggy Draw-Â the local trail system. I rode the One9 and quickly realized that my legs were pretty sore from the previous days of riding, so I vowed to take the Jet9 (and its gears) out the next day.

My ride in the morning was nice- I rode the Bean Canyon trail at the same system. It had a bit more elevation change than the Boggy Draw loop that I’d ridden the day before, and also had a few more scenic spots…

Later on in the day, I ventured back out for a lady’s only group ride. I think the number of women who showed up is greater than the number of women in Shelby County who own MTBs…(a couple aren’t pictured here because they split off to find their dog) Everyone was incredibly nice, and we had a great time!

Chapter 2 was a quick one! I’m off now to pick Ryan up at the airport and head back to Breckenridge for Marathon Nationals this Sunday. The elevation will be higher, and the course looks killer. It should be a good test of the legs/lungs.

Monday morning, I was up early as usual. It was cold- 38 degrees F. After hiding under a blanket with my coffee in the yurt, I made my last few trips to the car to load everything up to head north to Colorado for the next part of my trip. That was a gorgeous drive…

I’m not sure what this was, but I really wanted to participate…

First on the agenda was to get to Durango to pick my buddy Lauren up from the airport. She wasn’t arriving until nearly 10:30, though, so I figured that after some lunch, I’d head out for an afternoon ride on one of the 50 zillion trails in the area. Luckily, after a quick tweet wondering which one I should choose, I got a reply from Allison Mann to try the Dry Fork trail:

Just a few minutes after that last one, I had the first near-death experience of my trip…Â I’d just topped out over a climb that had made my heart feel like it was about to explode when I startled a baby black bear. It ran along the side of the trail, crossed in front of me, then darted up a tree overhanging the trail. From the top of the tree, he started calling for help. In my mind, I pictured the momma bear flying out of the bushes and mauling my brain out of my head. I resisted panic and rode as fast as I could under the tree and didn’t stop until I was far away…

Other than that, it was a great ride. I cleaned up, had some dinner, picked Lauren up, and headed to her place in Dolores.

Day 4 (cont.)
Turns out, after a couple of hours of lower altitude and a greasy basket of fried fish from Heck’s Diner in Cimarron, I felt like a million bucks. When I arrived back at camp, I geared up and headed back up Windy Gap- this time, on the One9. Without stopping for photos, I made it up in 59 minutes flat. The last mile is a killer. When I got back, I took some amazing sunset photos around the camp.

Day 5
My last whole day at Whiteman Vega was nearly a wash… I’d planned on climbing Windy Gap and taking a backroad/trail down instead of going out/back as the previous two days. However, before we could get out to ride, it started to rain. Actually, it started hailing first (photos will be in the gallery). So, we ended up hanging around in the yurt most of the day. I passed the time taking photos of the guys and converting the yurt into a velodrome. Turns out you CAN ride a 29er around in there without dabbing a foot.

The weather eventually let up. I had just enough time before dark to ride up Windy Gap one more time- this time with Casey and Peter. The rain made the gravel road traction a LOT better than it had been. It helped me get up in just over 54 minutes. I think I’m getting used to the singlespeed/altitude thing! I’m mighty proud of the guys that are trying the whole “climbing” thing. Casey aside, none of them had gone after a long-ish climb before on purpose, so it was great to see them inspired to push themselves in ways other than catching some air or bombing down a hill. Hopefully they all keep it up.

This concludes Chapter 1 of the Out West Diaries…

Day 2 (cont.)
When I left you last, I was at a burrito stand in Cimarron, NM about to head out to the backcountry scout camp at Whiteman Vega. The directions to get there include nearly 30 miles of gravel road as well as “park next to my truck, head down the fence, make sure you shut the gate behind you, and look for the big white yurt.” I’m happy to report that I was able to do all of these things without getting lost.

When I arrived, Eric was there. He showed me where to set my tent up and helped me get a few more things from my car (camp is about a mile from the parking area). I got settled and met the other guys that were staying there- Peter (who reminds me of Kenneth from 30 Rock), Waters, and Casey (a cat 2 roadie/ginger kid). After a little while, I kitted up & headed out to ride the singlespeed on the 3.5 mile loop of singletrack that they’d built. That was fun, but I wanted to get some more miles, so I headed out on the forest road from the direction that I came in on- I figured it’d be a good workout, because it steadily gains elevation as you head towards camp, so it was easier on the way out & harder on the way back.

My legs felt alright- camp is at about 7800 ft elevation, and I think that the heat/humidity acclimatization from Memphis prepared me a bit for the altitude. I ended up with 30 miles for the day.

Day 3
When I woke up, I felt a little more fatigued than I expected and had a slight headache. Nevertheless, I ate breakfast, had some coffee, and planned my ride for the morning. I asked the guys about where the forest road went if you headed the other way from the paring area. Waters’ eyes got huge as he described to me the horrendous climb that I’d face up Windy Gap if I ventured out that way. Looking at a topo map, it did look pretty tough- from camp, the road pitched up to 9600 ft. in about 9 miles.

I decided I’d head out on the Jet9 so I could use my gears. Turns out, aside from a few steep spots and the absolute length of the climb itself, it wasn’t nearly as hard as the guys had made it sound. Unlike the climbs I’ve seen in the past that seem to go for brevity at the expense of grade, this one was generally mellow. I made it up in 1hr and 8 minutes (including a couple of photo stops). The descent took about 20 minutes, and was a hairy because of some ridges in the ground as well as unpredicably deep gravel in places.

When I arrived back, I was starved. I ate, and while I was sitting at the table, started to feel massively fatigued. So, I headed back to my tent after lunch and napped for about an hour. When I woke up, my headache was gone, and I generally felt a bit better. I ate a snack, and sat around enjoying everyone’s company until we were ready to get out & ride some more.

In the meantime, Waters announced that he was going to go try the Windy Gap climb. I was surprised- he’d been the first to warn me of its difficulty earlier, so it was great to see him get inspired to give it a shot (he ended up making it up about 5 of the 9 miles and vowed to keep after it the remainder of the summer).

Soon after, we got ready to ride again. This time, I rode with Casey. I’m not ashamed to say, between his cat 2 fitness, the altitude, and my earlier ride, he flat kicked my butt. It didn’t help that he set a new PR time for the loop with me chasing after him. The next two loops were slightly slower. It was still a really good, hard hour of training, giving me another 3hours for the day.

Day 4
When I woke up this morning, I had all intentions of riding my One9 up Windy Gap. However, after breakfast, I started to feel run down. I’ve also been feeling insatiably hungry all morning. I decided I’d come down here to Cimarron and hit up the Laundromat and Grocery store to give myself a break at slightly lower elevation (6400 ft). I’ll ride this afternoon, though I’m not sure if I’ll take on the 9 mile climb on my singlespeed. It’ll depend on how I’m feeling when I get back.

Of course, I’ve taken some awesome photos of the scenery and wildlife. However, the Mifi signal here is really slow, so you’ll have to wait until Monday or Tuesday for me to get them uploaded. Looks like my laundry is done… time to get back to camp!

EDIT:

Photos! Random scenery…

Quick update-

I’m currently located at a burrito stand in Cimarron, NM (you can see it in the photos). I love Verizon Mifi!

Yesterday, I made half the trip and stopped to spend the night near Hinton, OK at Red Rock Canyon State Park. The landscape there is pretty unique, as I discovered while hiking around before dinner.

This morning, I was up with the sun to finish my drive to Cimarron. I set the Garmin to display elevation, and slowly watched it tick up from 1450 feet to the current 6k & change where I sit now. That was a good burrito…

I’m heading up to meet Eric (remember- from the Ouachita Challenge?) at the Whiteman Vega scout camp for some mountain bike riding. There’s no cell service or anything, so you probably won’t hear from me again until next week. ‘Til then, here are some photos… (in random order, apparently)