Martin’s Ride Hardest Longest Day
I didn’t know what I didn’t know. Riding out of our RV Park in Ouray Colorado this morning at 6:30 I knew there would be climbs. Seeing a 10,300-foot mountain on a piece of paper is not the same as riding it. As I mentioned in Climbing Avoided Mountains, climbing is psychological and today’s climbs almost broke me.
Monarch Pass was a single mountain. Today’s ride from Ouray to Dolores Colorado including three significant climbs: Ridgeway Colorado (elevation 8,142) to the Dallas Divide (elevation 8,970) then to the top of Lizard Head Pass (elevation 10,222). It wasn’t elevation that almost beat me today. It was the tease.
After the Dallas Divide a nice descent. It was about ten o’clock now and I felt fine. I changed into dry clothes since the day was overcast and chilly. Jeremy said I had twelve miles before we would “slowly start to ascend” again. But it wasn’t a straight ascent. The path to the top of Lizard Head Pass has many false tops. I got to the second false top, put on my Isotoners, windbreaker and prepared to descend for twenty minutes. False alarm. The heartbreak of seeing yet another 8% incline is hard to describe.
This fourth climb of the day was the most significant. It was not one in the afternoon. I’d been riding for six and a half hours save for a five-minute break at the RV to change clothes. It started to rain. My legs were becoming sore and stiff. My climbing rhythm was faltering. I stopped, took several deep breaths, fueled up and stayed positive. Climbing is psychological torture. I wrote about this in Climbing Avoided Mountains, so I was sensitive to staying positive no matter what today’s long route threw at me. I found my climbing rhythm and slowly made my way to the top of Lizard Head Pass (elevation 10,222). I would close today’s ride after a twelve-mile descent for a total of 71 miles on the bicycle, eight hours riding a bicycle.
I’m sitting in the Dolores River RV park after a great meal at the original Ponderosa restaurant in downtown Dolores. Hal and his wife DeAnna own the only restaurant open on Sunday night AND they generously contributed our meals tonight to a tired cyclist. We asked about how Hal’s restaurant could be called Ponderosa since there is a large national chain of the same name and he said, “Hell they took a run at us, but we just laughed.” Meeting people like Hal and his lovely wife is what Martin’s Ride is all about.
Martin’s Ride is also about seeing great beauty. Our two days in Ouray Colorado were beautiful. Ouray reminds me of Aspen before it became ASPEN. Ouray’s small Victorian downtown is smack at the base of the Rockies. Several of the towering 13,000 peaks still have snow on them in July (now August). Some of the best hiking trails in Colorado surround Ouray. There was also an army of Jeeps exploring mountain trails around this unique town sometimes called “the Switzerland of America”.
Ouray’s art doesn’t end with proximity to sheer magnificent cliffs. Two thirds of the town’s original late nineteenth century Victorian buildings remain. The town’s hot springs pool completes the time warp. Ouray is a town luckily out of step. Its pace is set by careful preservation, glacier movement and a collective aesthetic that speaks to soul and spirit as much as commerce and capitalism. Since Ajax doesn’t come roaring into the middle of town as it does in Aspen over development and take over by Hollywood seems unlikely. Ouray is the perfect short escape. Even in our short stay its natural rhythms and Victorian style helped recharge, re-energize and remind us why we ride. We ride to find people like Hal and places like Ouray, and we’ve found many, many similar places and new friends.
Tomorrow off to Utah.
:) M