Utah to Colorado

We're all here in Telluride, CO and finally have another day off from riding. The last few days have been fabulous though, and furthers my belief that Utah is one of the most beautiful states (i still haven't been to wyoming or montana yet though) The last few rides included Hankesville, UT to Natural Bridges State park. this was a killer day!. it started out deceptively easy as we went downhill for nearly 20 miles. the remainder of the 75 miles was slightly uphill and into a hot headwind...definitely a really tough ride. This is one of those rides you always look back on and realize the present ride isn't so bad! Here's a pic from the earlier part of the day, with the Henry mountains in the background.
Thats Jen, Dave, Van, and Joe from L to R.

From natural bridges we headed over to monticello Ut. A good ride, but not as scenic as the last few days. the highlight was karaoke at the MD ranch house that evening.


From monticello we headed over the state line to dolores colorado. It was nice day, but i viewed all the scenery from the car as i took a day to help out dave's support team. Dolores to Telluride was yesterday's ride and it was sweet. we climbed consistently for 50 miles, but it hardly felt like a climb at all with the gentle grade and helpful tailwind. the climb was to the top of lizard's head pass, and the huge amounts of snow at the top made it look like the middle of winter. Here's Nate and I at the top.


Our day off in Telluride has been pretty relaxing so far, most of the team has gotten a good nights sleep and spent the rest of the day checking out the town. We even saw katie holmes in the coffee shop. the best part about it was that there was a poster making fun of Scientology and tom cruise right smack on the coffee shop door....she had to have seen it! Man he is crazy. sorry no pics of katie, but i think cory got a video so i'll see if i can get my hands on it...


anuj dance party....

internet finally!

The last few days have been great. We've traveled from Las Vegas through southern Nevada, and are now half way through Utah. Nevada was so-so scenery wise, nothing really to write home about. we had some great days of riding though, with favorable winds and some challenging climbs. The whole team really enjoyed those days. We didn't hit any bad headwinds until 10 miles outside of Cedar City, Utah. That was a little rough, but we pressed on and earned a rest day in Cedar City. The ride out of the city was one of my favorites last year, and it proved to be a great one again this year. it starts with a 17 mile climb to 10,000 feet, followed by a rolling section through a pine forest with sparse snow cover. The second half of the ride took us through Red Canyon and finally a killer descent next to Bryce Canyon. We even took a 8 mile detour to get a brief tour of fairyland canyon inside of Bryce. It's absolutely gorgeous in there, unlike anything i've ever seen (yeah, even cooler than the grand canyon. ) Today's ride was from Tropic, Ut to Boulder and it might be my new favorite road to ride (ever) stunning scenery, killer climbing, and fast twisty descents. just totally awesome. Tonight Seth and I are staying with Lauren and Tom, two semi-retired physical therapists now living in boulder. The hospitality has been great and the pasta alfredo with shrimp and artichokes was the best meal i've had in a while!

here are ashley, steph, and jen at the hot springs in Alamo, NV

Mike's Tavern Cedar City, home of sweet 3% beers...
Full moon at Bryce Canyon

Tomorrow we head into Hankesville Utah, definitely not much there and we'll be camping for the next two days....and my air mattress just popped....sweet....

First Day

Today was my first official day back with R4WH. i got to meet and chat with the whole team at various points along the way from Tecopa Ca to Vegas. I actually started my day at the Red Rocks canyon and rode out to meet them at the halfway point. This worked out great, as i had a sweet tailwind pushing my up the 10 mile climb to Mountain Springs, and arrived at the halfway point less than 3 minutes before the riders showed up (and got free elk and buffalo jerky from the dude who was there last year, but no gospel band with free coffee though.) The climb back up the mount was rough though, with a nasty cold head wind for 15 miles and totally beat set of legs from the grand canyon the day before.... which is why its great that we have a rest day in vegas today! I've got a shaky internet connection right now, so i'll just throw up one or two pics of out night last in vegas....this is Anuj imitating his twin in the screen behind him. The second is the whole gang after dinner.

Grand Canyon Trail Run

I ended up driving more than twice as long as running today, but it was definitely worth it! The grand canyon is actually really far away from vegas... about 275 miles, but with the 75mph speed limits and straight-as-an-arrow highways its not too bad a drive. i ended up getting to the Canyon at 10am, where the temp was only 42F, but the sun was shining brightly. My plan was to run down the South Kaibab trail to the River trail, and then over to the Bright Angel trail to head back up. The Tonto trail was another option, a little shorter so it would make a nice bail out if needed. the route is reported as 16 miles, so i figured it would be about 4 hours to do. unfortunately i didn't bring out any of my gel flasks, only a waist H20 holder, which only has pockets big enough for a set of keys. I got pretty creative and managed to rig up a batman-esqe utility belt by electrical taping everything i needed to the belt (sunscreen, ipod, keys, 2 gu's, light gloves, vaseline (for blisters...) and my phone(for the camera). worked like a charm, nothing shaking loose or falling off the whole trip.
I started off heading down the S Kaibab trail, which is known to be steeper and has no water available. That alone makes it the best place to start. The way down went well, my knees felt fine, the footing was good, and i was feeling good as well. It only took a little over an hour to get to the bottom, ie junction of River and S Kaibab trail. i didn't even realized i had missed the Tonto trail, but that was ok, i was feeling pretty good. The river trail was really cool, as it shadowed the bank of the Colorado river, from a height of 100ft or so. I took a quick break here, had a gu and emptied out my now pink shoes. The River trail was only about 2-3 miles, but it was the only flat ground i saw all day. A nice relief and chance to get the legs used to running, not just pounding downhill.
The Bright Angel trail is the heavily used touristy trail...and there were alot of folks on it today. it is also less steep (but a little longer) than the Kaibab, so it makes sense to head up this way. Water is also available at the Indian Garden (11mile mark) so definitely best to have this at the end of the day, instead of 4.5 miles in!
Running a canyon is alot different than a mountain run. on a mountain you do the uphill first, so you're fresh. you have to be careful on the downhill, because you're tired and thats when you can get into trouble...but with a canyon its the opposite. the downhill is no problem because you're totally fresh....but then you've got to head back up! Going up the bright angel trail was about 6.5 miles of climbing gaining about 4,500ft. it went by rather quickly (not easily, but it really didn't seem to go on for ever) i was only really hurting for the last mile, or 15minutes so....could have been the altitude, the 3 hours of running, or the fact i was working off of breakfast plus 200 calories....anyway 80% of the uphill was great, just that last bit was tough....


here are a couple pics from today..

and a video while running...a little bumpy...




Tomorrow I wake early and start to ride towards California while R4wh rides towards Nevada....hopefully we'll meet up along the way.....because if we don't i'm gonna be screwed....

Red Rocks Canyon

Well i got into vegas late last night ( around midnight ) grabbed my rental car and headed to my shady hostel a few miles north of the strip. surprisingly enough my rental car costs more than my hostel room, and i think it would probably be safer to sleep in too. so the bike gets to sleep in the car and i'll brave the hostel. anyway the first night was actually fine so i'll probably stay here (instead of switching to a legitimate hotel') til the R4WH crew shows up on saturday. i've got a couple of days here to kill, so today i rode the Red Rocks Canyon loop, a great little climb to the west of the city. Last year everybody had a blast doing this section after we had to cut the middle section short (due to lack-of-bridge,) I was on support that day, so i made up for missing it by riding it three times today!

Here's a google earth view



And here are a couple of pics from the today's ride






and heres a quick panoramic video while riding....


Tomorrow i'll probably meet up with the guys from the Southern Nevada Tri club and do their thursday morning ride. Friday I think i'll hit up the Grand Canyon and check out the Kaibab and Bright Angel trail.