59.86 mi / 5:36:22 time / 10.6 mph avg. / 39.5 mph max. / 5612 ft. climbing
Staying at Calf Creek BLM Campground

Dennis woke up and packed up the bike normally, wisely preparing for that minor miracle of overnight healing, should we be so lucky. And we almost were. On the mile ride back to the park entrance, he felt pretty good. Which made his decision to stay back all the more impressive, since at that point, pressing on would have been the easy choice to make. It was a strategic move to retreat from one battle, in order to have a better chance at winning the larger war. Especially since we had Swati in the area to aid the retreat, and even failing that, Dennis & Pat…it would almost be a waste of help and friendship to carry on! And the fact that there had been much improvement overnight was a great sign, suggesting that this could be a managable injury, rather than a catastrophic one, so better to manage it than make it a catastrophe.

We did a quick exchange of tools to make sure that I would be carrying everything I’d need to survive on my own on the road, and then I got out of there pretty quickly, in a probably-failed attempt to make our split seem like not too big of a deal. But it was a big deal. I felt like I was abandoning my man out there in the battlefield. I was surely violating some code of brothers. And for myself, even though I’m no stranger to being out there on my own, that was not my mindset for this trip, so I wasn’t sure if I was prepared for it.

Well, for the moment, I wouldn’t actually be going solo. Dennis II (who is called “Dennis” by his wife Pat, while I’ve curiously heard her refer to our Dennis as “Denny”) would be filling in as my partner for the first few miles. He was inspired by our epic tales of conquest and vengeance (or maybe just the beautiful morning scenery) and wanted to try it out for himself. Unfortunately the first few miles (first 30, really) were all uphill, which takes quite a bit of fun out of the vengeance, so when Pat went by in the support vehicle, he took the opportunity call off the fight. I had fun riding with him though, and maybe it was a good way to slowly ease into the solo thing. I said my maybe-final goodbyes to our new friends, who we’ll actually be ahead of on the road from now on (which shows how much there is to see and do in this country!)

And then I was on my own, set to climb over 4000 ft. to the top of Boulder Mountain. Well, not really the top, more like the side. It’s not even a traditional pass, the road simply runs way up the side of the mountain and then back down, I assume because the land at lower elevations is just too scarred and twisted to run a road through. The elevation change took me through a lot of different landscapes in a short period of time, which is one of the things I love about mountain climbing. And the biggest extreme of all was the snow still on the ground once I got above 9000 ft., while my thermometer read 87 degrees (admittedly in the sun, but still!)

There were so many points where I said “I wish Dennis could be here for this”, but than an equal number (like the many stretches of 8-12% grade at 4 mph) where I said “Dennis really made the right decision by staying back”. Since it took place over a 30 mile stretch, it wasn’t the hardest mountain ascent I’ve ever done, but it was probably top-3. And it was awesome to reach the summit at 9600 ft., the highest I’ve ever been on my bicycle.

Less awesome were the insane winds at the top, which kept what would have been a 40mph descent under 25 mph for most of the time. In the tiny town of Boulder I stopped at the eclectic Burr Trail cafe and spent some of my precious cash on a bacon & gorgonzola burger and an enormous peanut butter cookie. The gas station/grocery also had all sorts of fancy organic foods, but I didn’t have the cash to spend on that!

Further down the hill, I saw another pair of tourists heading up, solo, but travelling together today, both with Portland as a start or ending destination. The solo woman (third seen in two days!) was excited to hear that there was another of her kind in the area, and hoped to run into her.

Then I hit the craziest part of the descent, where the road runs down the top of a sharp ridge, with steep 1000 ft. dropoffs literally right at the edge of both sides of the road. I made sure to stick close to the centerline, especially with the wild winds blowing unpredictably.

When I turned into Calf Creek campground, the hostess rolled her eyes when I asked if there was any chance that there was still a site available. But she and her husband turned out to be some of the best campground hosts I’ve met, and they found me a spot down in the group area. There were already several other people staying there, so we would be a “group” who simply didn’t previously know each other. The hosts do a great job of letting as many people stay there as is reasonable, without making it too crowded or uncomfortable for anyone, which can be quite a challenging balance to maintain. For me, they said they would have given me a place on their sofabed if nothing else worked out!

I took the six-mile round-trip hike along Calf Creek, which ends at a 100+ ft. waterfall. Any waterfall in this land is pretty amazing (it was back to being blazing hot and dry at these lower elevations), so a big one like this is completely unexpected, and it was a pleasure to sit there alone at the edge of its pool and eat my giant cookie. I was the last one out on the trail for the evening, and much of the walk through the canyon was shaded and relatively cool; it would be a lot less fun earlier in the day.

When I got back, I found that Dennis, Swati, and her mom had stopped by and left some goodies in my tent. That was awesome, and even better, it was good to know that the rescue plan had actually succeeded. I mixed up a wacky dinner of refried beans combined with Cream of Mushroom soup, augmented by some carrots donated by the kind family camping next to me. And then I called it a night, hoping that the drinking group building a giant fire wouldn’t keep me up too much; I needed an early start tomorrow.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 7th, 2009 at 12:00 pm and is filed under 2009 Bike Tour, bike. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.