Well it's now August and after a full 2 months of planning, everything feels as ready as it can be for my inaugural attempt at the Colorado Trail Race or (CTR) to those who know it. The CTR in short is...
RACE RULES
1). Race from Denver to Durango, self supported, under only your own power, along the entire CTR route.
1). Race from Denver to Durango, self supported, under only your own power, along the entire CTR route.
2). No pre-arranged support, with the exception of post office mail drops only.
3). Oh yeah and don't break the law.
So here is my 2014 CTR rig...everything minus the kitchen sink, just shy of 45lbs with h2o |
Morning comes and it's time to race. My strategy has a few parts. Part 1 - find someone who thinks they can do this course in 6 days and follow their lead. Part 2 - I have to be at work the following Saturday so I really don't have time to waste...I need to finish this course in under 6 days. Part 3 - eat often (about every hour). Part 4 - Stretch when I can. Part 5 - Take care of my feet and my ass. Part 6 - Take some pictures.
DAY 1 - Sunday
A quick speech from the creator of this event, Stefan, and we are off. Some 55 or so idiots like myself pedaling as a group for the first 5 miles to the singletrack turnoff. Segment 1 and 2 went by pretty smoothly. Plenty of water, food and company. I let the veterans do their thing and gap me and soon found myself pedaling in the rain on the detour, alone.
Segment 2 pedaling through the burn area just before the first bicycle detour. |
I was looking forward to my refuel spot at mile 66 in the town of Tarayall, which I had circled after a discussion with Neil in the car while driving to Denver. Somehow, what I circled and where I was suppose to circle was about a 33 mile mistake (3 hour oops). I enjoyed cool temps and rain on and off from about mile 65 to the Stage Stop services. I was well prepared for the rain with gear, but it does tends to make things a bit miserable. I swear the bike weighed 20lbs heavier when wet. All of my bags absorbed water. My frame bag needed a drain as the bag would hold water at it's lowest point. Just little things that I should of known would happen. But thanks to some podcasts, the mind was at least preoccupied. When I finally arrived at Stage Stop and saw other racers bikes outside, morale was through the roof. I made myself at home (which for me means drying everything that's wet, walking around with no shoes, cleaning my bike, charging all my electronics and using my phone). I ordered 3 meals of food and relaxed with some friends new and old. I rushed, towards the end, so I could pedal on with some others that had beat me to the stop.
Stage Stop Bar Saloon Store MILE 99 NOT 66. |
Day 1 goal reached. |
DAY 2 - Monday
Georgia Pass in the background as the sun is rising. |
Breckenridge in the background atop Georgia Pass. |
Upper Breckenridge just before "10 mile pass" or as I would call it 10 mile hike with your bike. |
Scott and I atop "10 mile pass" before the steep, brake burning descent into Copper Mtn and mile 160.7. |
You can faintly see Copper Mtn in the background. |
Scott also caught up to us just in time for the techy descent in to Breckenridge. We were trying to get through Breck before we conflicted with a huge XC bike racing event called the Breck Epic. Last thing I needed was to be in the middle of a 200 man sprint race. So Dave, Scott and I pushed hard with a goal of Copper Mountain by 4PM.
Copper was a big refuel spot in this race. Jill met me and a huge group of racers from about 4-6PM at a bar called Endos, in the main village of the resort. I did my usual of making myself at home. About 10 racers gathered here and left as a group just before 6PM towards Tennessee Pass. I had to do a little detour catch up but spirits were high and the body was feeling great. This section from Copper to Tennessee Pass is a ton of fun. Great rolling, slow ascending, mostly rideable, beautiful terrain. It took me about 4 miles to catch the first couple riders in front of me, due to my little detour. I saw a 10th mountain division hut just before the summit of Searle Pass. I've heard about these and how you can rent them as ski cabins in the winter. This one called Janet's Hut looked comfy.
10th Mountain Division Janet's Cabin. |
Love military history. |
Section 8 just before Searle Pass. |
DAY 3 - Tuesday
Woke up and started a quick 2.5 mile trail section before our road detour into Leadville. It takes me a while to get going in the morning and Scott left me behind. I pedaled watching the sun come up. I met up with Scott at a small bakery where I was able to gather some foot care supplies and much needed calories. His plan was to gather just enough to make it to Buena Vista where we would do a large resupply. I did my standard make myself at home, had 2 breakfast burritos and was giving chase departing Leadville about 0800AM. We were soon greeted by Garrett and another rider on the long road detour, before we jumped back on Segment 11.
My view leaving Leadville towards BV, solo road riding. |
Scott and I arrived in BV mile 246.2 just before 1PM only about an hour behind our goal. I was a wreck. Feet were a mess. I had been trying to stay with the racers in front of me and had been neglecting my feet. Got a few small blisters and one really nasty blister on my left heel that really stood out on the hike-a-bike. After setting up camp at Boneshaker Bicycles I bought a pair of cheap sandals from across the street, so I could let my feet dry. Scott and I walked over to K's Famous Hamburgers. Ordered a ton of food and got our energy back about us. It was a really hot day in BV, even though the mountains around the town were surrounded by black clouds and moisture...YEAH!
The line was out the door and for some reason we waited!!! |
My view leaving BV pedaling towards Segment 13. |
Princeton Hot Springs...I admittedly got scared about my calories and ordered a huge calorie Chicken Alfredo. |
The section instantly climbed up 1,500 ft. Then was full of choppy boulder fields, off camber, nasty terrain that would have been difficult on fresh legs. I caught up with Garrett at about 10.3 miles in to the segment, sleeping next to a stream. I stopped and chatted with him for a bit. He was pretty spent. We made a plan to wake up at 3:30AM and push on. I setup camp and passed out about 11PM.
DAY 4 - Wednesday
I woke up next to the stream, put a new foot dressing on and we both set off. The trail was crap for another 3 or so miles. When the sun came up it turned into descent ride-able singletrack. I lost Garrett around the US-50 crossing and never saw him again. I was off again, riding solo, working up towards Marshall Pass. The beginning of this segment did nothing but climb, mostly hike-a-bike. Lots of slogging through streams, puddles and mud. Finally, about 10:30AM, I could hear voices from the top of Monarch Pass. I hiked my way up to find a group of mountain bikers from Gunnision. They took a few pics of me, said some encouraging words and off I went. The following section to Marshall Pass was fast and 100% rideable.
Hike-a-bike up to top of Monarch Pass. |
Top of Monarch Pass. |
Top of Monarch Pass. |
Smooth sailing in to Marshall Pass. |
Heading towards Sargents Mesa. |
Heading towards Sargents Mesa. |
Heading towards Sargents Mesa. |
The toughest part of the ride is not knowing the terrain and whether it is rideable. It's demoralizing to go less than 2 mph for hours. I pushed on into the next segment and it beat me down hard. Morale was at its lowest. It had some decent downhill, but it was an OHV section and was in really poor shape from all the off road vehicles. I was earning and working really hard for every mile. I finally made it to a huge descent to HWY 114 and finished the segment.
At the beginning of the next segment I was ready to set up camp when it started to lightly rain. I looked at the elevation profile on my CTR album in the iPhone and was encouraged to push on. The trail looked fast, rolling and capable of high speed. This was the segment with the Trail Angel. That gave me hope. I thought if I could just get to mile 11.9 of this segment I would be guaranteed great sleep and some food variety. It was about 8PM when I put on the headphones, rain suit and pushed hard to the Trail Angel camp. Arriving just before 11PM on this oasis in the mountains...it was a little piece of heaven. Water, Chips, Cookies, Soda, Shelter. I passed out in the shelter dome next to my bike eating potato chips and drinking Coca-Cola. I didn't set an alarm and promised myself a great night of sleep, then I would wake up and get rolling.
DAY 5 - Thursday
I woke up about 7AM to some through-hikers, their dog, the trail angel himself and another racer named Dave. The body and spirits felt so good after all the sleep. Even though field mice were bouncing off my sleeping bag...I didn't care it was peaceful and comforting knowing this place helped so many through-hikers and bike-packers.
The shelter that I slept in. Me, Apple and Dave. |
Starts off as easy miles. |
Then the elevation comes in to play. |
Almost to Spring Creek |
We pushed on to Segment 22 and some of the highest elevations on the CTR. We reached a rideable trail and some awesome sunset views.
Segment 22. |
Segment 22. |
Dave in the distance, Segment 22. |
Oddest part of the race was sending text messages to Jill, friends and family at the highest point on the CTR 13,271ft. Dave and I took a few minutes to catch up with everyone before we pushed on. We finished Segment 22 and made it 2 miles into Segment 23, just after midnight; set up camp and crashed out hard. Tomorrow I'd be in Silverton. So Excited!
DAY 6 - Friday
Woke up at 530AM to an awesome canyon view along with the coldest morning of the entire ride. Ate some of my last large calories, packed up the bike and was hoping for Silverton for breakfast. Less than 20 miles to Silverton. Spirits were probably too high and expections as well. I didn't wrap my foot up and wasn't eating very well thinking I'd be having French Toast in no time. By about 10AM I knew it wasn't going well and had to stop and fix my feet and eat some calories. The trail was an unforgiving, high alpine singletrack. If you descended a mile, you'd climb right back up to hike-a-bike switch backs. Really slow going, despite the amazing views.
Before leaving Silverton for Durango (via car) I got to see Neil before he headed back to CB. I must say for riding as fast as he did for 4+ days his spirits were high and he looked to be in great shape. A few limps here and there, but he was already talking about his 2016 run and the next bikepacking adventure. Its fun to surround yourself with people who live outside of the normal box. Its also interesting to see how many people would walk by my bike as it sat in front of the restaurant and wondered what the hell I was up to.
Til next time.
What I would change?
1) Food better selection and have what I need and will eat nothing else.
2) Push hard in the areas where I can, relax in the slower sections.
3) When I decide to sleep make sure I pick a good spot and setup right. 3hours of great sleep is better than 6hours of crappy sleep.
4) Kind of thinking 2x10 gearing would of been nice, but I had zero, zero, zero mechanical issues aside from some gear bags that rubbed the crank arm and that was minimal.
5) Less clothes, I brought extra warm stuff that I really never wore.
6) Pack bags same every time. Sometimes I would tear through my complete setup looking for something. I could be more systematic.
7) Lights worked great, but I think the dynamo is the way to go. No worries about recharging anything.
8) May use GPS iPhone program verse carrying Garmin
9) Take care of my feet.
As I recap this post a lot is a blur. "Yeah imagine that." From time to time i'll refresh this post.