Colorado...finally

After 9 days and over 700 hundred miles, I am finally sitting here at the base of the Rocky Mountains enjoying the knowledge that I will not be waking up at 5:30 to ride my bike for 6 hours. I could not be more excited to finally be in Colorado. This last week has been incredibly taxing, but all of the stress and fatigue melted away when we got our first glimpse of the mountains on the horizon.

Yesterday night we camped out at the Chico Basin Ranch in Eastern Colorado. The Ranch was a 86,000 acre ranch and wildlife reserve. The ride leading into the ranch was one of our most difficult/exciting rides of the trip. Of the 80 miles, we had to ride over 20 miles on hard packed gravel and dirt roads. While our road bikes are wonderful machines, traversing long distances on extremely slick and rough roads are not something that they are designed to do. Carbon is not exactly the best at absorbing shock. There were countless close calls, but I was able to make it through the motocross style ride in one piece. After getting through the initial gravel section, we were graced with well paved roads until we got to the entrance of the ranch. After we crossed the entrance of the ranch, we were greeted to wide open pastures, livestock, and more cow pies that I would care to remember. We had to stop numerous times to allow stubborn cows to meander their way out of the road.

Once we got to the patch of land that was least covered in ragweed and cacti, we set up our tents and proceeded to do camping things, i.e. lounging, reading, admiring the landscape, and peeing outside. The day was capped off with an absolutely stunning sunset over Pikes Peak. Standing in an open field with the wind whipping, and watching one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever witnessed, I felt a surge of energy and a revitalization for this trip and for the adventure that I am on. I have been fearing that I have build up Colorado to much in my mind, but from the wave of excitment and the way that the past few days have been going, it seems that everything is shaping to be quite an exciting two weeks.

Our group has been hit with a wave of what we have affectionately dubbed "the sickness." The sickness has arose out of a combination of lack of sleep, extreme fatigue, lack of proper nutrition, a rise in altitude, and living in extremely close proximity with 31 other people. This one is going to be quite a bear to combat. Luckily, I have been able to skirt around falling prey to this awful fate. Hopefully I can stay healthy for our two build days here in Colorado Springs.