Looking Back (Part 2 of 3)

I can remember so distinctly the best day of this trip.  There was a pretty decent climb to start the day, and that meant the weather was a little on the cold side.  But, it started off scenic, and filling enough.  Lindsey and I hit up a little restaurant behind our hotel for breakfast and I got the "Fisherman's Breakfast" I believe it was called.  It came out with eggs, bacon, toast, and potatoes; then came the 3-stack of pancakes the size of my head.  This was, almost literally my fuel for the entire day, crazy.  When I started riding, I entered into a sort of national park area with towering red rocks that arched and slated their way into the sky, it was so cool.  I had a little rough time because I was on a 4-6% grade on a very narrow road.  There was a bike path but there were snow drifts covering so much of it I had to stay on the road.  I kept climbing and climbing, weaving back and forth as the rocks and trees slowly just disappeared.  At the top, Lindsey was there, just below 10,000 feet with some pretty amazing views.  I had some more pancake, soaked in the views, slipped on my ski goggles and headed down the other side.  The snow started to lessen, the trees got thicker and thicker and the rocks started to tear through the open areas and slowly but surly, they were towering over the line of sight.  What added to the joy of this rode was the lack of cars, I must have had maybe 10 or so all the way up and all the way down, and there is something very nice about not having to hug the side of the road when flying above 40mph down a steep mountain out in the middle of nowhere (a few days later this almost wrecked me...).

I spotted the red car about 5 miles from the bottom and I pulled over in search of Lindsey.  She was perched atop a big mound of rocks and trees and I hiked up to sit with her.  The air was still, the weather perfect, and we looked out into the canyon filled with massive red rocks in the distance.  What a peaceful time that was, and we just sat there, not talking, tossing small rocks down a steep cliff of snow and watching the deep trench the rocks made as they picked up speed and raced towards the street.  It became moments like these that I am looking back now and just really appreciating.  How often will you be able to sit with a great person, in the middle of nowhere, enjoying such a simple, playful, yet silent time.  Well, I hope to have countless experiences like that, but an, what a great moment.

I then finished up the ride to the bottom where we sat at a coffee shop in Torrey before the greatest 10 miles I have ever biked.

I described this portion of the ride through pictures when I actually did it, and even now words fail me.  Awe-inspiring.  I now know exactly what that means.  I was riding with my jaw wide open, almost crashed a couple times because I was craning my neck so much to soak everything in.  It was absolutely incredible.  I want a house out there, where people can come and hang, kayak, climb, mountain bike, run, just do it all.  It is beautiful land, I very strongly recommend you try to get out there and check it out for yourself some day.

This made the next couple days just breeze by for me, I was riding high.  And I needed this as the next day we rolled towards the Colorado line and Blanding, Utah where Lindsey would leave to head back to work and I would begin the rest of my journey on my own.

She headed out very early in the morning out of a crummy little hotel we stayed at in the eastern most area of Utah.  I packed up my gear and started off an hour or so after she left, and had some great support form the hotel staff in the lobby as I got everything secure.  The first few miles of this section was just brutal, lonely, boring, slow.  It was so tough.  But that's when the audio books kicked in, about 6 books over the next three days or so.

And the first of the kindness of the people kicked in (well, Amy and Carter Morrison were technically the first...).  An old friend of mine I hadn't really been in touch with for almost two years contacted me, telling me she had friends in the Dolores area.  She hooked me up with their info and I was able to meet them up for a good Chinese dinner before headed to their house for a great nights sleep, a filling breakfast and just great company all around.  The kindness of this family jump started a trend that seemed to follow me throughout the remainder of my trip.  A realization that convince me that people can truly be genuinely good.  In fact thanks to l the kindness that surrounded me during this trip, I am that much more dedicated to spreading fitness and health to people however I can, because I love it and because people want it.  If people out there could be so nice to me, with no reason to be at all, I have no reason to NOT be nice to everyone I pass.

This life changing realization for me is thanks to families like Adam, Trayce and Noah, and thanks to the long list of other people you will soon read about.  Like the three people I met this next day.  It was a tough day, all climbing, up through Rico, past Telluride, and into Placerville

Bill hooked me up with a house he was selling for the night.  Stocked the fridge and shared about an hour of conversation that was so enjoyable.  His genuine desire to just help people out was contagious and re-opened my eyes to every human being that passed me from then on out.  I have been dulled to this living in a city for the past few years.  I keep my head down, I don't acknowledge people when they pass me in the street.  But no more, we are all on this earth, we are all searching for something to keep our lives going, and that base commonality connects all of us more than we can ever know.  I want to appreciate that connection in people more and open myself up more to being a part of this world, even if that means just saying hi to a person you stand next to while waiting to cross the street.  Weather or not that person decides to appreciate it, it does not matter.  Being nice, being friendly, it finds its way deep into people, even the rudest of the rude.  Try it.  Really, just go out tomorrow and say hi with a genuine smile on your face to a perfect stranger on the street, chances are they will be caught off guard a little bit (which is really too bad), but on top of that, you just might make their day.  Think about how it would make YOU feel if someone where out of the blue nice to you.
In two short weeks I have an entirely rejuvenated perspective on how great people can be.  And I choose to focus on THAT side, on the GOOD side of us all.

Riding out of Placerville and into the two biggest climbs of the entire trip, I was feeling good, but nervous about how these climbs would weight on me physically.  Little did i know that directly following the two most intense days of riding, everything would come crashing to a painful stop.


I'll finish it all off tomorrow!