Colorado
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Winter Park to Boulder via Rollins Pass
Have you ever dated someone you knew in your heart wasn’t for you, but they had potential and you wanted it to work? A thrill coursed through you every time you looked at them. You tried hard. When you spent hours together it started out awesome, but as time passed you always ended up arguing,… Continue reading
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Kremmling to Winter Park
All of the tension has been pedaled out of my body. I’m so relaxed that I could ride more miles or just as easily take a nap. Right now I have my feet up and wonder if we can buy a recumbent tandem before tomorrow, it feels so good. Today’s ride from Kremmling to Winter… Continue reading
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Carbondale to Kremmling
Public Service Announcement: If you pedal at a 4.5 miles-per-hour pace near mosquitoes, be assured they will have their way with you. We spent today crawling along the rises between Carbondale, State Bridge, and Kremmling. Our ride was unlike the last couple of days, which have been a big up followed by a big descent… Continue reading
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Buena Vista to Carbondale
Runaway train never going back Wrong way on a one way track Seems like I should be getting somewhere Somehow I’m neither here nor there… –Soul Asylum Ever since we started pedaling from New Mexico, “Runaway Train” has lodged itself into my head and essentially become my 2017 bike tour theme song. This is a… Continue reading
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Gunnison to Buena Vista
I would have written you sooner, but I had to return the fire extinguisher to the hotel lobby. I borrowed it when my shoes became so hot that they burst into flames before our arrival in Buena Vista. Believe me, it surprised me too, especially after our relatively cool and comfortable climb up to 11,300… Continue reading
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Montrose to Gunnison
Greetings from Gunnison! We’re on a rest day, which I’m quite happy about. I wish you were here so we could go grab a gluten-free muffin and chat about life over kombucha. Perhaps you could also help me look for my bike tour legs, which seem to have fallen out of the Carradice somewhere. My… Continue reading
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Durango to Montrose
Guys, we are in Montrose and I just can’t believe this day! 115 miles point to point with three big summits: Coal Bank Pass, Molas Pass, and Red Mountain. And all over 10,500 feet. Fortunately for us, the final 40 miles of our day trended downhill or I’d still be out there riding. Today was… Continue reading
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Chama to Pagosa Springs
Update: the banana bread is gone and for a while today, so was my positive attitude. We planned for our ride from Chama to Pagosa Springs to be 50 miles. However, because of some gambles we made on exploring dirt roads – in hopes of avoiding the main highway – we ended up with almost… Continue reading
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Colorado 2014: By the Days and Miles
Every day that goes by, our 2014 Colorado tour becomes more memory. I’m surprised to feel saddened by that, since one of our intentions while there was to feed our wanderlust and tire ourselves out so that we would be at peace with settling back into our life in Washington, D.C. Maybe that peace will… Continue reading
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I Really Don’t Know Clouds
I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now, from up and down, and still somehow it’s cloud illusions I recall. I really don’t know clouds at all. –Joni Mitchell I first listened to Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” when I was a teenager, and found it terrible. I had never imagined that a person could think about… Continue reading
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Bike Tourist Encounters
Since I started bike touring, I’ve trained myself to keep an eye open for others who might be on an adventure. Bike riders can blend into the landscape, but if you pay attention they will jump out at you. During the two weeks that Felkerino and I pedaled our bicycle around Colorado, we crossed paths… Continue reading
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10 Things I Learned on Our Colorado Bike Tour
Remember me? It’s been a few days, but I’m mostly free of my post bike tour fog and thought I’d rip off a quick top 10 list of what I learned on our tour. Continue reading
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CO Tour Day 11: Rollins Pass on Tandem
Felkerino called our day going over Rollins Pass an immersive experience. It’s definitely one of the most intense things I’ve done on a tandem. Continue reading
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Rollins Pass: You Can’t Always Get What You Want
But if you try sometimes You just might find You get what you need. –The Rolling Stones More to come. Continue reading
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CO Tour Day 10: Another Day, Another Mountain Pass in Colorado
The short story is this– 82 miles from Leadville to Winter Park. Our bike is still in one piece. Thanks to everyone who complimented our pure power and torque after the broken crankarm incident. This also provides solid evidence that Felkerino is indeed pedaling. Continue reading
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CO Tour Rest Day: Backwards Pedal and Crankarm Day
When we last saw our two intrepid bike tourists, they were stranded in Leadville with a broken crankarm… It was Leadville layover day and bike shop stop on our Colorado odyssey. Nervously we awaited the 10 a.m. opening of Cycles of Life to see if Brian could repair our broken crankarm. We watched him… Continue reading
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CO Tour Day 9: Las Cosas Se Arreglan: Cottonwood Pass and a Broken Crankarm
“Las cosas se arreglan. La gente no.” Things can be fixed. People can’t. Someone I used to work with told me that, after I had been in a fender bender. That phrase keeps running through my mind as I reflect on our day from Gunnison to Leadville, 105 miles via the big meandering Cottonwood Pass… Continue reading
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CO Tour Day 8: Creede to Gunnison: 106 Big Bicycling Miles
It still surprises me that Felkerino and I can ride a 200k brevet in 10 hours, but when we bike tour a century will take us 11 or more. Is there no escape from bike tour pace? It was a big day of riding, with the big climbs packed into the first half of our… Continue reading
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CO Tour Day 7: Wolf Creek Pass, I Think I Love You
As we began the steady ascent up Wolf Creek Pass, I wished that I had known about it years earlier. I wished that I had begun bike touring years earlier. If I had, then maybe I would have basked in the magnificence of this pass years ago. If only, if only. Continue reading
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CO Tour Day 6: Hot Hot Rollers to Pagosa Springs
Today’s 65 miles reminded me of riding in the Virginia Highlands, only with evergreens and a higher elevation. And more horses. And a dry heat. And the white hot sunshine with rare shade. Okay so it wasn’t alike in all ways. Continue reading
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CO Tour Day 5: Bike Tour Magic: 83 Miles from Ouray to Durango
Felkerino said that today is when the mountains embraced us. I said it was a day of bike tour magic. Part of the reason for that, of course, was the beautiful climbing on the Million Dollar Highway for the first 38 miles. We ascended from Ouray at 7,800 feet to over 10,000 feet and crossed… Continue reading
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CO Tour Day 4: Everything Weighs Something, Even Ambition: 100 Miles to Ouray
When bike touring, you become keenly aware of how much your stuff weighs. This weighs “x” amount. Do I really need to take it up every hill and mountain? If yes, the item goes on the bike. If no, set it aside. I am pleased with how Felkerino and I packed. The only potential surplus… Continue reading
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CO Tour Day 3: What Goes Up from Carbondale Must Come Down to Paonia
Greetings from Paonia! We wish you were here. Then the mosquitoes wouldn’t just be gnawing on Felkerino and me. Another great day on the bike, tempered with looming saddle sores. Haven’t had one of those in a few years so maybe it was time. I blame Trail Ridge. This day, which was essentially a 30-mile… Continue reading
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CO Tour Day 2: 90 Miles From Kremmling to Carbondale
Riding through the big mountains of the west can be so cathartic. Their presence envelops me and I become– no, I realize– that I am so small. Felkerino’s and my efforts to clamber over the mountains is almost laughable. We take so long to go up and over their every bump that I suspect we… Continue reading
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CO Tour Day 1: Facing My Inner Fraidy Cat: 150 Miles From Boulder to Kremmling
Nothing kicks off a bike tour like a 150-mile day that includes a front-loaded first half climb fest, including the ever-daunting Trail Ridge Road. Last year Felkerino and I climbed Trail Ridge while I howled like a kitten that climbed too high into a tree and needed rescue. I hated that feeling and vowed that… Continue reading
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From the Captain’s Perspective: Our Colorado Tandem Tour
This week it’s all happening on The Daily Randonneur. Felkerino breaks down our recent Colorado tour by day and also discusses how our tour took shape. He includes links to our GPS files that show the routes we followed each day. I know some of you had asked about the exact location and routes, and you… Continue reading
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Seeing Changes
Instead of riding brevets and doing a 1000K or a 1200K this year, Felkerino and I focused on a weeklong Colorado bike tour, which included two days of riding around Boulder and a seven-day loop rich with hills and mountains. (Felkerino is writing a post of our routes and the gear we took over at… Continue reading
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Final Day: Oh My God Road and a Rainstorm
We were loathe for our scenic week in Colorado to be at an end, so when we met a cyclist at the top of Loveland Pass who recommended we route back via Oh My God Road rather than suburban roads we were intrigued and routed our 72-mile return from Georgetown to Boulder accordingly. Continue reading
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Fremont and Loveland Passes: From 58 Miles Per Hour to Carnivorous Flies
Rain falls steadily in Georgetown, Colorado, as I write. It feels lovely to be clean and dry in a hotel room after a sweaty warm day of 71 miles out in the sun. After a tasty coffee in Leadville, Felkerino and I warmed up the legs with a steady climb up Fremont Pass, which tops… Continue reading
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100 Miles: Cottonwood Pass to Leadville
Yesterday’s ride was an excellent reminder that not all centuries are created equal. It was also the first day where I settled into “tour mode,” where I did not worry about the miles or how often we stopped. I was just in the present moment. Continue reading
Chasing MailBoxes 