Into thin air

Breckenridge was a great place to take a break! We got loaded up with beer, steaks and junk food just in preparation to climb the 11,482ft Boreas Pass. Even though it's only been three days since I last posted, we have pushed hard to get to Salida, CO to bring you some fresh updates.

I woke up early yesterday and turned on the only thing that seemed logical, cycling. The Tour was in the last day of the Pyrenees and our buddy Levi was looking like he had a chance to take the stage or at least help out his teammate. Well Levi took second in the stage and was fourth overall after a great ride. I was very happy with that and then we find out today that the leader has been kicked out of the tour and everything has been turned upside down. Levi is now in 3rd and if he rides well enough in the time trial, he has a very good chance to win!

OK well after turning off the TV, Nat and I made a HUGE breakfast and headed out for what was a huge climb. We were already at around 9,700ft and the plan was to climb to 11,482ft and camp on the other side. We started out and immediately I could feel my lungs burning. It was a tough push to the top but we made it in about 3 hours. We topped out at our 16th divide crossing and from there the downhill was white knuckle until we pulled into the town of Como. Located at 9,872ft, it was a little higher then Breckenridge and just as hard on the lungs. We pulled into the post office and to our surprise, we had 5 care packages waiting for us! We opened them excitedly to find home baked cookies (thanks Mom!) and lots of other fun treats and energy snacks. It really made the climb seem like nothing. We then set up camp at the city hall and went to bed super early. As we cooked dinner though we were able to listen to the sounds of the Grateful Dead and Phish thanks to John and Toni.

We awoke this morning and decided we could make it to Salida, CO (80+ miles). Luckily with all the sleep from the night before, we were up and ready by 8:30 and ready to roll. Five miles into the ride, we hit South Park which neither of us thought really existed. Unfortunately we didn't run into any cartoon school kids but we did have a nice ride through a very remote part of Colorado. The miles seemed to melt by and before we knew it, it was lunch time and we had already done 35 miles. We quickly ate our PB&J and some home baked cookies just as the rain started to fall. We packed up and the always popular thunder could be heard in the distance. It immediately destroyed our beautiful view of some 14,000ft peaks and we got the rain gear on (Note: The rain gear has had to be used everyday since we got to Colorado). We pedaled over a few small hills and through a lot of large fields before topping out at 10,000ft and having an obscured view of Salida, 13 miles below. We ripped downhill as fast as we could to escape the rain and we we reached the bottom, Nat noticed his shifting wasn't working. The bike made it into the shop but we found out that he had broken a piece off of it and that a new one was in order. Since the shop was about to close, the mechanic there wired it into a singlespeed and we took off for the library.

Well this is a very short update but I am not sure when we will hit another library so I wanted to just check in and let everyone know we are still doing fine! We are going to hang out in town for a little bit tomorrow so Nat can get all fixed up and then we have another monster climb to do. I should be able to post a few pictures in the morning so check back and until then, I hope everyone has a goodnight and a pleasant tomorrow!


-Keith and Nat

Also, congratulations to my friend Kelley. She just completed the Trans-America ride last night. You can check out her blog here.