amateur road footage

So Telluride is known for their annual film festival that produced such movies as Slum Dog Millionaire. Any chances this silent short film I shot while riding will be nominated? Starring: a close-up of my world-health beard. Additional drama provided for your viewing pleasure.

Man vs. Mountian, The Great Divide, & Denver wrap-up

On Thursday (4/23/09), we got up extra early (5:30am I think it was) to get everything ready for our big ride across the Continental Divide. It was a little chilly to start off. This huge moth was chilling out by our vans, unable to take off due to the frost as we were leaving. The day was slated for a huge 113 miles with our ascent to 11,200 ft. It started with 25 miles of rolling hills during which time we seemed to draw an usually large number of direct stares from the hundreds of livestock that we passed. It took a solid couple of hours of climbing in low gear to finally reach the level of the tree line. The altitude was definitely noticeable based on my breath rate, but surprisingly not a huge factor in climbing. I think nearly everyone on the team made it to the top. At the summit, the wind picked up quite a bit. To get to the sign in above pic, I had to climb up a 6ft wall of snow. We had a chilly lunch at the top, bundled up, and began descending. 7 minutes into the descent, both my hands were severely cramping from keeping so much break pressure in order to keep my speeds in the comfortable sub-40mph range. The cool arctic breeze from the summit palpably heated up with each minute on the way down. This next pic was taken less than an hour from lunch as we stood stripping our winter gear, looking back at how huge the mountains were that we just passed.

Our trip tick wound up being a little off though cause it only ended up being a 90 mile day. Some of the riders were disappointed, so decided to ride an extra 10 miles to make it a century (I was not one of these ambitious few).

Friday 4/24 (Cotoplaxi to Pueblo) was a short day of riding for me as I racked up my bike after 25 miles in order to travel with the van for our lecture that day, which was 3 hours away at a Rotary Club meeting in Denver. The country club hosting the event was quite swanky, with multimillion dollar homes lining each fairway. The Rotary Club members were a great audience in that they are educated on world health issues (and are eager to tell you about their role in eradicating the polio virus), provided us a nice meal, and had a little more dispensable income than the primary school audiences that we frequently entertain. After our lecture, we set off to our host for the weekend, the Adult Day Care Center in Denver. The facility here was very top-of-the-line and was vacant for the weekend, except for us riders. They provided us with catered meals and cots to sleep on, so pretty nice by our standards.

This weekend we had a fair amount of free time around the city so many people went out site seeing (Rockies game, art museum, zoo, etc.). I took advantage of the wifi and quite time around the facility to wrap up my radiology research project and work on an article for the Delt Alumni Magazine. I also met up with Lori's (my fiancee) sister, Ali, who was one of the 75 or so people dressed up in blue Snuggies (the [ridiculous looking] blanket with sleeves) out in the happening district of Denver. I think everyone is ready to get back on the bikes after our few light days. Although, I don't think we greet Kansas with the same level of enthusiasm as we have had for the scenery in Utah and Colorado.

Telluride and Montrose

Hi Everyone! We just finished up a great couple of days in Telluride, Colorado. The ride into Telluride included a climb to 10,200 ft, but at this point in our journey didn't feel too bad. Our accommodation hook-up in Telluride was unbelievable. Scott Elkins, a real-estate developer in Telluride and cycling enthusiast, opened three vacant condos for us. We were incredibly thankful for his generosity and for the fact that it is off season in Telluride. The pic is of the condo that I stayed in. Don't let the small size fool you though. This 1100 sq ft. is on the market for a cool $1.2 million. Scott did then tell us that the rich people don't live down here in the valley anyway as he pointed to the mansions up in the mountains along the ski resort. While it did feel like luxury to sleep in a pillow top mattress for a night opposed to my sleeping bag on a gym floor, I kept thinking about the living conditions of the people benefited by our fundraising. Nearly half the world lives in poverty (less than $2 a day).

Today (4/21), we road off to Montros, CO. The ride, again, included some great scenery as we descended along with the melting snow down through some beautiful Colorado ranches, including those of Ralph Lauren, Jack Nicholas, the founder of ebay, etc... Too bad they couldn't spend some more money on the roads though because my head was too fixed on dodging potholes and the buzzes of passing cars to fully acknowledge everything that I was seeing. Colorado certainly will not be receiving an award for bicycle friendly driving (and thanks to the old Betty driving the Cadillac who stopped to cuss more than 1 of us out while cruising down hill, the semi driver with a horn louder than a train that he would honk while passing, and a few more). I thought that returning the gesture with a sign of passivism was more in line with our mission rather than the standard return. All and all though, another great day on our trip.

Once we got into Montros, we rejoiced over the stoplights and signs for Walmart and fast food- signs of civilization that we haven't seen for several days. Many of us are at that stage that protein powder in water as a supplement for dinner sounds pretty good (opposed to Ryan's famous sandwiches at lunch, which include a combination of bread, lettuce, pickles, cookies, peanut butter, cheese, mayonnaise, humus, jelly all on one sandwich).

I spent some time tonight to catch up on some bicycle maintenance and learned a few tips from the gurus on how to de-"Fred" my bike ("Fred" is the nickname of a novice rider who gets grease all over his/her leg from the chain (done), falls over while standing still on the bike (done) and has extraneous accessories on his/her bike (now removed). I am on support team tomorrow so my legs should be better rested for Friday's 113 mile ride across the Continental Divide.

Goodbye Utah, Hello Colorado!

We wrapped up Utah today. We are currently in Colorado and surprised how fast the ride is going. The entire state of Utah was filled with nonstop scenery. We spent the whole time climbing up this mountain, then riding down through that basin or that canyon in numerous national parks. We were constantly amazed at our scenery. Verizon Wireless officially wins the best cell phone coverage when out in the boonies. We stayed in some pretty small and remote areas. We were unable to ride out from Boulder, Utah because Boulder Mountain was whited out, but picked the ride back up on the other side to then be greeted by a sandstorm in Hanksville. We were supposed to camp, but Hanksville Elementary School allowed us to shelter in their gym for the evening. The next night we did camp at National Bridges National Park, which reportedly is one of the best star gazing locations in the US. We beared it out through 2 snow storms that day with temps down in the 20s. My sleeping bag is only rated for 40 degrees so I was literally wearing every article of clothing that I brought. The sky did clear up though for a midnight star gazing session. We also pretty much ran out of food so ate mac and cheese with hotdogs for breakfast, but didn't really care because it was warm (unlike my fingers and toes).

We road into Dolores, CO today, had a lunch lecture and a dinner lecture at different locations. We ride up and up into Telluride tomorrow. Apparently conditions are more favorable for skiing in Colorado opposed to biking currently as a huge storm system is predicted throughout next week.

Boulder, Utah and Chotochrome Basin

We have been WiFi deprived for the past couple days- so I will try and catch up but we have a weak signal currently so pics may have to come later.


From our Bryce Canyon campsite, we packed up and road out toward Boulder, Utah. Boulder is an earthly town of 180 tucked away in an outdoorsman’s paradise. Several people in town live in yorts- 10-16ft cylindrical homes tucked away in the woods. We climbed enough elevation in the morning to spend the second 20 miles just coasting through a beautiful valley. We then climbed again and twisted cautiously through the bends and turns down Chotochrome Basin- so named because of the many colors of soil and rocks native to Utah.

The residents of Boulder were excellent hosts and put us up in homestays for the night. Jesson and I stayed in a minimalistic ranch home overlooking 2 million acres of preserved land. Ace, who currently lives on the property, cooked us a nice meal and made us feel at home. The ranch home was like a rustic ski cabin that made sure you felt detached from reality while staying there, but had enough amenities to not feel like you were roughing it. Ace has lived in town for a couple years, but spends several months per year internationally in Somalia, Tibet, etc. where he works as a photographer of medical mission trips. He also does some adventure shooting for brands such as the North Face and Marmot. Ace’s place didn’t have a television and he spent most of his time worrying about international affairs, his next backwoods backpacking adventure, and making sure Gingus Khan (his dog) was happy. During dinner, we watched the horses prance by and deer jump his fence to graze 15 ft outside the window.

In the morning, we woke up to the slightest snowfall. We headed to the town lodge which hosted us for breakfast. The local expert outdoorsmen/cyclists informed us that there was zero chance of us riding over Boulder Mountain today as heavy snow is expected until Friday. So after breakfast, we delivered a lecture to Boulder Elementary School (12 kids) and packed everyone and everything up into the vans as the ground became snow covered. Disappointingly, this was supposed to again be an incredibly scenic day of riding.

Backwoods Utah

Another 98 miles in the books today. We did not have a lecture today, just stacked on the mileage, but did stop and talk with tourists who were intrigued by the many orange jerseys that they passed on the road. It's official: bike seats are not the most comfortable thing to sit on for 7.5 hours day after day. After readjusting my seat pitch angle this morning, I think I am finally getting close to minimizing my total body discomfort (to a bearable 6/10 in severity)! Utah has the most amazing scenery though. We started the day with our huge climb, grinding the gears for 2.5 hours up to the peak of 10,000. We spent most of the day cycling in snow covered terrain, sometimes with snow banks towering over our head. The temperature was warm enough though and each turn of the road revealed a different colored soil or different beautiful mountain range to keep our mind off our aching legs.

It was a day of near misses. I nearly got hit by a bowling ball sized rock as it tumbled down from the embankment above. Luckily the snow bank 3 ft way between the cliff and the road absorbed the impact instead of my leg and my bike. Then on our way into camp, we had to slam on our breaks to allow a heard of cattle to finish crossing the road (there seems to be a correlation between our century ride and encountering angered livestock on our 90+ mile). The heard was a little distraught at us interrupting them, but after some coaxing, they all shuffled off the road. Except, that is, for the alpha bull who stood firmly in the middle of the road with his horns staring at us. It was quite a stale mate for a long 30 seconds until an approaching car won the chicken battle against the bull and I promptly used the car as a shield to speed past the beefy foe. Some people are into running with the bulls. I guess I am into riding with them.

Our campsite was inside a sheltered embankment formed by a three sided plateau in Bryce Canyon. There are several impressive sized smokestack-shaped rocks jutting out in the skyline and smells from the Ponderosa pines. Hopefully it remains dry for us tonight and our ride tomorrow- although storms are predicted.

Welcome to Utah!

****I attempted to change the setting so that viewers can comment on my posts and these will also be visible on the website.****

Happy Easter!

My blog quality has deteriorated in the last two posts, but we tend to bog any free wifi service that we get down with 26 laptops all trying to connect at the same time so I have been unable to upload my pics- but will update when I can.

Yesterday was my support day and the first "bad weather day" of the ride. Our riders were gritting it out through a climb in 45 degree rain. Then as we got higher, the temp continued to drop and the rain turned to snow so we packed everyone up after 50 miles and thawed them out on our way to the fire station in Panaca, Nevada. We also noted how ironic it seemed to look out at a snow covered grown with cacti as the only foliage. Our host at Panaca was extremely generous to cook us a nice spaghetti meal and told us of some of the town history.

Today, we crossed into Utah and are currently staying at a church in Cedar Springs. Half of our crew drove ahead to host a world health day at the church. The other half, including myself, road 85 miles uphill into a relentless headwind. We stared the whole time at the snow covered mountains in the horizon that we will attempt to conquer tomorrow. We are currently at over 6,000 ft. Tomorrow we climb to 10,000 ft and have a 95 mile ride, but it is supposed to be extremely scenic (and extremely cold...and we are camping). I will certainly be without any internet/phone coverage tomorrow, but will attempt to catch up on the pics in a few days. Thanks everybody for the continued support.

Nowhere Nevada

We had a pretty routine day on the road yesterday (75 miles, fast paced, no mountains) from Vegas to Alamo, Nevada- a one stoplight town where we are overnighting at the high school. I didn't take my camera with me because there were threats of rain, otherwise I would have included a picture of a street sign saying "Warning- low flying aircraft". I guess I should also mention then that our fun fact for the day is that Alamo, Nevada is the closest town to Area 51. We will be getting into Utah shortly!

Surviving the desert

Viva Las Vegas!- and hello again civilization, cell phone service, and wifi. We biked over 250 miles the last 3 days through the Mojave Desert/Death Valley region, including a segment on the historic Route 66. It's been hot, hard, dusty, but very scenic. Several people are taking advantage of being in Las Vegas today by making some bike repairs and to shop for a hopefully more comfortable bicycle seat. The roads have been bumpy and chocked full of potholes, but that hasn't deterred some of our riders to cruise at 50+ mph during our descents (crazy- wear your helmets kids). We camped the last couple of nights in the desert with temps dropping into the 30s. One of the nights was an all-out dust storm so we corralled the vans into a semicircle to stave off the winds. These wild cattle on the other hand were not corralled- nor is this photo zoomed in. They were staring at me at mile 102 as I rolled into our campsite. They did not look pleased to have visitors and had quite large horns.

3/8/09- We had an 80 mile ride into Las Vegas which included going through Red Rock Canyon. The views of the mountains and stone formations here, as you can see, were just spectacular. It was hard to stay focused on the road, but also helped to distract from the lactic acid burn we were all experiencing after several days of tough riding. We have given several lectures to primary schools, churches, and medical schools which have all been very well received. Tomorrow we have an early rise and then more desert riding for a couple of days into Utah. More updates as wifi permits!

4/4/09: Up a Cali mountain- scary fun

Getting a feel for our day riding today would require a video camera as it was quite the test of one’s will. From past year’s experiences, this day was touted as one of the most difficult rides that we will encounter- 95 miles, 60 of them being up hill. We hit the road at sunrise (well, more like an hour after sunrise by the time we got everything loaded and said goodbye to our host families) and started climbing…..and climbing….and climbing…slowing to an altitude of 1 mile above sea level. We unanimously agreed that it was the hardest day of riding that anyone of us had experienced...yet. To put it in perspective Brad, our food zar extraordinaire and support team driver for the day, said that he was flooring our cargo van to make it up the mountain pass and was only going 15 miles per hour. We were all standing and cranking our lowest gears at times and barely moving. About the time our team’s morale was at its lowest, we would crest a peak and rejoice at the downhill approaching. Descending down a mountain is not exactly a time to relax though as we were approaching speeds of 40 mph on centimeters wide tire weaving in and out of potholes, dodging gravel, and keeping steady through the winds as we slingshot past eachother. Being a skier, I compare it to tucking down a black diamond for the whole run without turning- not exactly safe, but sure is a lot of fun!

The mountain claimed nearly half our riders, but for the other half, surrender was not an option. We made someone else throw in the white towel for us at the top of the mountain and called the day short (if 65 miles is short) due to time constraints as we had to press onward for our lecture to a Hispanic church community in Hesperia, California. I'm not sure what Hesperia means in Spanish, if anything, but "desperate desert town" would be appropriate.

I now have to be up in about 5 hours to ride 100 miles, but wanted to update my blog because we are camping out in the desert the next couple of nights until we get to Vegas. For the classrooms following along- Please see the attached video for a climate lesson. I worked quite hard as an amateur filmmaker to edit this film to include a classic desert element with the snowy mountains in the background. I hope it was worth it!

3/2/09: “Day 1 of riding- awesome”

Day 1 of riding was an truly a great day. We were on the road at 6:45am to officially start our ride across country. We had a brief ride down to the La Jolla beach for a photo op with the team dipping our wheels in the ocean. A group of dolphins decided that they wanted to be in the background. From there, we all mushed onward from San Diego to Laguna Beach, about 65 miles according to our bike computers. I wound up riding with the overly ambitious front group of 4 other riders. I say overly ambitious because we completely missed the street chalk saying “R4WH rest stop, turn left” and kept on trucking through the Camp Pendelton marine bass. Thankfully with cell phones, it’s difficult to be lost even in the middle of nowhere. The pic is of our exasperated group, out of food and water, waiting for the cargo vehicle to refuel us.

The terrain was so peaceful all day, rolling up and down hills, in and out of small beach towns. When we got to Laguna Beach, the Rotary Club there had lunch waiting for us on the beach. We then packed up and drove to Pasadena (outside of L.A.) where the families of this real nice, quaint street called “Bungalo Village” met us with all-out neighborhood pitch-in. Each family then took in two riders and gave us a soft surface to sleep on after our long day.

San Diego Retreat

We spent the first couple of days of our trip as a work retreat in San Diego. We learned what to expect in a typical day on the road. When riding, we learned how to communicate (via volleyball-like hand signals to point out hazards, slowing, etc...) and how to ride as a group. We went on a couple of scenic rides around La Jolla and the Torey Pines Golf Course area as a trust building exercise. When riding as a group and drafting (i.e. within 2 ft of the wheel in front of you) you can save 1/3 of your energy expenditure. The trade off is that if the person in front of you taps his/her breaks without telling you, you and the rest of the line goes crashing. We also learned how to manage our 3 support vehicles which we will be leap-frogging along the course making sure that all riders are doing okay and equipped with food/water. As you can imagine, this trip is a logistical nightmare and our leadership team has put in countless hours of prep. For the educational side, we spent a good deal of time creating and practicing the Powerpoint lectures that we will be delivering in our coast-to-coast lecture series.

The Jewish Community Center that hosted us was a museum/resort-like facility and was very gracious to put us up and feed us dinner during our stay. The group is meshing well. Many seem to be the "outdoorsy" type, although only a few of us have any significant road bike experience so our local "biking gurus" have handled several questions.