My bulk of high elevation riding has been in south central CO, near the Rio Grande adjacent town of Creede. My longtime friends' family has owned a cabin in a camp called Spar City 14 miles up the valley at +/- 9500'. We were graced to have access to it as a basecamp resource, 850 miles away, for many activities.
My college friend brothers and I commenced on a span of events that explain why rental car companies refuse business to under 25 year olds. We biked, hiked, fly fished, drove around in the old red CJ-2 and skied as we could logistically manage from 850 miles away, coordinating our work schedules to do stupid things with our outdoor interests. Our acclimation usually restricted the major dumb stuff to the later days of our stays. I had a digital watch I set with an alarm every 15 minutes to remind me to drink and eat on every other beep. Had to plan to have adequate water and easy to digest foods. By day three we were well able to carry on with less regimen and corrupted by pizza and beer as reward at the Old Miner's Inn, aware that our last 14 miles were uphill on the bikes. The spring of youth's resiliency damps with age dictating better conservation of your integrity. YRMV for sure. Having a good uh-oh bag for real contingencies (diamox) is smart as is at least one partner for travels. Highly recommend biking out there with cautions of an adult mind. The elevation changes will mesmerize you with the differences in biomes you pass through and the views from your summits. Be on your schedule, not an imprinted program. One thing I found on dirt roads and paths in that region is that they were long established, likely followed by animal drawn wagons or one up riders and followed lines to be the least challenging to the animals as possible. Many paved roads do the same but there's traffic in those two lanes and adjacent manicured right of way detracting from the enjoyment the trails offer. I did a lot of riding on a 1986 RockHopper with no suspension and 1.95" tires with sidewalls so stiff that they supported me at 20lbs PSI sitting. Your bike is more than fine. The climate changes dramatically through elevation, angle of sun/time of day, shade to sunlight. Walking in the morning sun can make you feel sunburn coming on one side, frostbite on the shady side. I have a photo of a 12" wall of snow along a remote dirt road between Lake San Cristobal, CO and Ouray, CO taken on the fourth of July. The amount of planning and preparation you do for a pre-manufactured trip on a bike can also produce one for you, by you as well. The grown up (and vocational) perspective will assure that. Andy Cheatham Pittsburgh On Thursday, January 2, 2025 at 1:18:06 PM UTC-5 Bicycle Belle Ding Ding! wrote: > I am not saying I am committing to this. But here I sit in my dreamy > Michigan living room, watching my woods with my cardinals and blue jays at > their feeders in a perfect snow globe scene. This is no time for biking. > This is time for bike adventure planning. > > And I have seen this name Triple Bypass come up more than once. At over > 10,000 feet of climbing in 110 miles in Colorado, it sounds rather > miserable. But it also sounds like a bucket list thing. Who has done it? > What is it like? Is it suffering, start to finish? Can a Riv reasonably do > it? I love an adventure and I love good scenery, but maybe there are better > experiences closer to home. > > I figured I’d ask, in case anyone has done it on a Rivendell and would > like to chat. And anyway, what else do you have to do? It’s JANUARY. > Leah > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/adee0546-d3d9-40b5-86aa-c479f513c562n%40googlegroups.com.
