Day 44

Renegades

Miles biked: Unspecified


Hello from Boulder, Colorado......again. You may be asking yourself, "Ben, why are you still in Boulder." The leaders decided somewhere in the middle of Kansas after the accident they needed a second day to rest and clear their minds. By taking an extra day it would prevent the group from biking into the mountains today to Idaho Springs and tomorrow since they need to shuttle us to Granby. So I asked the leaders if Pat and myself could bike to Idaho Springs today...sleep there....and meet the crew in Granby tomorrow. Our request was shot down.....and two renegades were born.

Pat and I woke up at 6am, strapped into our bike gear, and headed due west into the Rocky Mountains. Climbing into the Rocky mountains was quite the challenge. 18 miles of straight uphill brought us to the mountain town of Nederland, 8,200 feet above the spot I dipped my tires into the Atlantic Ocean. From Nederlands we headed South on the Peak-to-Peak highway.

The Peak-to-Peak highway is exactly what it sounds like.....several climbs and decents along the front range of the Rocky Mountains. As Pat and I wondered how far Central City was (a town where we needed to make a turn) we saw a sign......6 miles. The next 6 miles may be the most fun I've had on a bike on this entire trip. A quick decent sent us flying downward at speeds over 40MPH. I topped out at 46, Pat at 44. 6 miles after flying through the cut of the mountain we saw a sign for a town.....elevation: 8,000 feet! I'm not sure how high we climbed today but I can assure you we climbed to over 9,000 feet.

Unknowing to us, Central City was full of Casinos.....and old people. We asked Jim at BullWhacker's Casino how to get to Idaho Springs. He pulled out a tiny little card, and drew us the craziest direction map I have ever seen anyone draw. It only contained lines and dots.....except for one road name.....which we should NOT take. Somehow the map worked and we climbed up some switchbacks onto a gravel road. The gravel road passed some old gold mines, climbed some more, swung around a mountain and led us to "Oh My God Road"

"Oh My God Road" is not some made up name I concoted, but the actual name on the map. As soon as we saw the road Pat and I both knew where the name came from as we repeatedly said "Oh My God". The road must have had 30 hair pin turns, was gravel, had no railing to protect you from going off the road, and a 2,000 foot drop off. Pat decided the road name should be renamed to "Holy Shit" and I think adding "Oh my F@#$%^ God" would be a little more acurate. As we winded down the road both our hands killed from clenching the brakes as hard we possibly could. The road ended right smack in the middle of Idaho Springs.....and Pat and I celebrated by chugging Gatorade at a gas station. We had reached our goal.....now we had a problem....getting back to Boulder.

We had originally planned to take Mass Transportation from Idaho Springs to Denver to Boulder. Problem is.......there is no Transportation of any kind (including taxi's) to Idaho Springs. There was only one option...continue to bike.

We hopped back on our bikes and thanks to the help of a lady at the visitors center headed down the mountains towards Golden. Our directions took us to Route 6. As we biked down the mountain we quickly learned that Route 6 is not a bike friendly road. No shoulder...strong winds...lots of traffic...and it winds. The route had several tunnels that reminded me of going into a cave in a video game. Just as we were about to leave the mountains we saw a small crowd of motorists pulled over and pointing to the side of the mountain. So we pulled over and took a look at a small herd of wild Big Horn Sheep. It was like a gift from God.

Our ride ended in Golden, home of the Coors Brewing Company that is closed on Sunday's. Our grand idea was to take the bus from Golden to Boulder....but the bus doesn't run on Sunday's. So we were forced to taxi it and here we are in Boulder ready to get shuttled somewhere near Granby tomorrow! What an crazy day of riding.