Im going to preface this post by reassuring our moms that we took it safe for once today. We hunkered down in a warm hotel and got out of the rain and off our bikes. So dont worry about us, we do have a brain in our skulls. It just doesnt kick in until weve pushed it to the limit sometimes... Like today. Cuz lest this post be too boring for those of you who are used to a little excitement on our cycling adventures, let me reassure you that we made this decision only after flirting with hypothermia, slippery roads, heat exhaustion, and altitude sickness. But Ill get to that. A little background first. This trip we knew we were going to push it a little. We only had 10 days to bike and wanted to keep it cheap--no Alps, no two months off--so we needed SOME way to keep it exciting! How about the Colorado Rockies. Super close, we could drive and bring our road bikes, and we already speak the language. But of course, in order to be *excited* about it, we had to up the ante. Heres how: 1) Higher altitude: every ride for us would start above 8,000 ft and most days hit 10,000-12,000 ft (compare to the Alps where we maxed out climbing Galibier at 8,300 ft and spent every night at an oxygen-rich 2,000 ft). Altitude starts to affect you above 7,000 ft. Read: every day for us. Weve skied the Rockies before though, so how bad could the altitude be? 2) Less clothes: one change of bike clothes, one pair of street clothes, a toothbrush and deodorant. Hows that for an overpacker like me? Sucky, I assure you! Instead of four big panniers attached to my bike, I get one small bag. A bag the size of a gallon jug. For a 10 day vacation. Not a lot of room for luxuries, like jeans. Or chapstick. and, of course, 3) An epic climb: at the end of the trip we climb Mt Evans, which goes above 14,100 ft. The highest paved road in the Northern Hemisphere. Just a little incentive to make the short climbs feel like were working towards something! Sound like fun? Yep, we thought so too! Cuz everything sounds fun when youre planning it, sitting at home, and not sucking thin air and trying not to puke. Which happened on the first day. Our acclimation day no less. See, were smart! We planned in a day to acclimate in Boulder at 5400 ft before we headed up into the mountains! Were being safe! But our simple 50 mile ride into the Flatirons kinda turned into an epic climb through, I swear, no fault of our own. Partway up, our mountain road was closed and we had a choice to make: turn back and cut our ride short, or take the detour and see where it brought us? Remember, we drove here so our legs were super rested and we were jonesing for a climb! So take the detour we did. And climb we did! Ten miles up, a beautiful, butt-burning, elating ride, just what we wanted! But. We hadnt mapped this route. We didnt know the elevation. We werent acclimated and we didnt know we were climbing to 9300 ft. Oops. Add to that, there was a storm coming. I know, I know, were sounding like complete idiots right about now. But theres *always* a storm coming in the mountains, and we were almost to the top. And I only had one gel and half a bottle of water and there was no way we were going to make it down with that and there was a town a mere 1.4 miles away with the promise of a general store or a cafe. We could make it. But the last mile was killer. Straight up, crazy grade, and we were sucking wind. Thunder not too far away. And it had to have been an extra 1000 ft up at the end. Just focus and push the pedals. Youre almost there. Somehow we made it. The cafe was closed but the general store was open and we staggered in and bought cookies and Gatorade. Then it hit me. I didnt feel so good. I felt like puking. I was breathing really fast. My heart rate was picking up. And I was COLD. I had altitude sickness. We had to get down the mountain. NOW. By that time it had started to lightly rain and we had to descend really slowly since the road was steep and wet. I started shivering. And the smell of pot in the air was making me more sick. I knew if we got low enough Id be fine, and it was 85 degrees at the bottom so Id warm up. I kept telling myself youre getting warmer, youre gonna make it. But it wasnt fun. We did get down. The air started feeling thick and the sun warmed us up. It was actually crazy hot the final hour back to our hotel, but it felt so good not to be cold anymore. So I guess you could say our acclimation ride was a success? We stretched our lungs a little and learned how to acclimate, albeit the hard way. And we learned some important lessons: Namely, dont get hypothermia or altitude sickness. Good thing, because a couple days later we would need to heed those warnings...
Posted on: Thu, 31 Jul 2014 01:11:07 +0000
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