43 miles, Marshall Pass
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
I am exhausted. We rode from Salida to tiny Sargents today over Marshall Pass. The 43 miles we rode happens to be the longest ride that Richie and I have done this year (a record that will be broken tomorrow with any luck!)
The day started with a gradual/easy 6-mile climb from Salida to Poncha Springs, then turned south for a more gnarly paved ride up Poncha Pass for the next 5 miles. We had moderate traffic and a stiff headwind, but the pass was scenic and had a good shoulder.
Just 2 miles before the Poncha Pass summit, we turned west to start climbing the dirt Marshall Pass. It was a really scenic pass, and had mostly a gentle grade, but it was unrelenting uphill for 15.5 miles. All told we had 26.5 miles of climbing from our hotel in Salida. While it was mostly railroad grade, the constant up proved to be a challenge for so many miles. We all (particularly me) were pretty gassed by the time we hit the summit around 2:45. I was definitely the slow-poke this day.
Atop Marshall Pass
The downhill was a blast, along a river (with lots of beaver dams) for 17 miles to our little cabin in Sargents. The only negative was that I managed to wipe out, falling over my handlebars and sliding on the dirt. I guess I am lucky that I managed to absorb this fall over many contact points. My head (helmet), right shoulder, right forearm, right shin, left elbow, and left hand all sustained some damage. (Watch out for me if we play Twister…I’m not sure how I hit all these spots!) Since it was spread out so much, none of these areas got hurt too severely. I sat on the dirt for a few minutes, and decided that I was OK.
The set of us who did NOT fall off their bikes
How did I fall you ask? It happened quickly, but I think I have pieced it together. Blame it on a failed clip that is supposed to keep my odometer wire on my front fork. It broke during the day, so my odometer wire was loose, and sometimes hitting my spokes.
I was leaning forward on the bike trying to get my odometer wire away from my spokes, and with my attention so diverted I hit a bump and soft dirt. At that point I reflexively squeezed my brakes, except since my right hand was busy with the wire I only squeezed my left (front) brake (super dumb rookie mistake). Next thing I knew I was falling over my handlebars at a moderate clip. When we got to SagMan, Richie fixed my odometer wire with electrical tape. That should prevent a repeat performance.
We all were happy to make it to Sargents, and we got a very nice cabin right along a small creek. I am sore, both due to the fall as well as general bike soreness due to my lack of conditioning. Tomorrow should prove interesting. Until then…
Click here to open Day 1 album in a new window
I suggest you hit the 'slideshow' button when the album opens to see the big pictures and captions. Note I made a mistake the first 2+ days...I had my hiptop set to 'medium' quality pictures, so the ones I took are small. Grandman had a good digital camera, so his pics are the nice ones.
Click on the 'View Elevation' button to open a full size, interactive Day 1 Map of squiggly Marshall Pass
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