Quiet before the Storm

I've been quiet lately. A lot of thought going into the final preparations. My last blog entry before the race as I am heading to Durango this morning.

As most of you are aware, if not VERY aware (thanks for all the support, btw), I will be making my second attempt at riding the Colorado Trail (CT) on my mountain bike. I have entered the unofficially official (or perhaps the officially unofficial?) 2013 Colorado Trail Race (CTR). The Colorado Trail is a multipurpose interconnected trail system between Durango, CO and Littleton, CO. The Colorado Trail Race uses this system of trails each summer as ~60-100 (to some extent, deranged) mountain bikers attempt to test their mental and physical capacity, in a self-supported* 500+ mile mountain bike race. For 2013 the race will start in Durango, CO at 4:00 am on the morning of Sunday, July 21st. The goal...make it to Waterton Canyon as fast as possible! Key words however, "make it".

(*Self-supported means no one can assist you along the journey. The rules of the Colorado Trail Race are simple. Riders must complete the course entirely under their own power with no support from others. They can utilize resources along the way, buying supplies at stores or restaurants if they choose to.)

In July of 2011 I made my first attempt at the endeavor which ended after a very long 3 day suffer fest (about 400 miles short) . There's a saying about this race that goes, "On day one of the CTR, the race is never won but can quickly be lost." In 2011, I proved that statement to be valid. Now, 2 years later I am coming back much more mentally, logistically and physically prepared.

So, the game plan is as follows:

The primary goal, I want to finish this ride! I entered the "race" for the add'l motivation of being out there with other like minded bikers! With that said, finishing would be awesome. Finishing in less than 10 days would be great. The goal is 7-8 days (revised many times). At least that is how we are logistically preparing for this. We are aware that anything can happen. Other than sleep and food, the wheels will be rolling via pedal power or push power.

In my mind, there are three critical checkpoints/junctures. The first juncture is making it to Silverton, CO. Initially, we were going to resupply here, but now we are thinking of packing food for a few more days. Reason being, we believe there is not doubt we will not make it to Silverton by the time the store closes Sunday night. If we wait until 8am Monday morning for the store to open at 8a, it'd put us above tree line during peak storm hours. So we'll ride thru Silverton before 8a on Monday. It'll be an interesting decision with segments 23 and 22 as those two segments are way above tree line for many miles. Our ideal goal is to traverse those segments in the very early morning hours with our lights and be back in the trees near Lake City as early as possible

It will take us 2-3 days to ride from Silverton to the Mt. Princeton Hot Springs (awesome place to visit, btw). Mt. Princeton is our second critical juncture. Surviving to this point means the most dangerous and technical portions of the race are behind us. Here we can feast on Almond Joys, Snickers, Coke and potato chips until we are content. But the race is by no means over. From Mt. Princeton we have the ability to quickly resupply in Buena Vista, Leadville, Copper Mtn, and finally Breckenridge. Whether we resupply in BV, Leadville, or Copper depends on what time we make it to Princeton. Our goal from Mt. Princeton will be to reach Copper Mtn. before we resupply. Althoooough...a quick pit in Leadville for a carb load at High Mountain Pies might be too hard to resist! Regardless of any impromptu indulgences, life will be good in or near Leadville.

The final critical juncture will most certainly be riding into Breckenridge, CO. This is our last chance for supplies. From Breckenridge we are ~2.5 days away from the Waterton Canyon finish line. From Breckenridge we will have to endure the Georgia Pass climb and the very long 74 mile dirt road Lost Creek Wilderness detour. Once we manage to endure the potentially hot and dry conditions of the detour, we will end up near Wellington Lake which is a short distance from the Buffalo Creek Trailhead. At this point, I am assuming the adrenaline will be high (goosebumps just typing that sentence) because it is almost all downhill from here. There will be a short 3 mile climb out of the South Platte River Valley, but only near death conditions will prevent me from dragging that bike to Waterton if need be!

Below I have provided a link to a website that uses a SPOT GPS to track each of the CTR racers. Most of the racers will carry this GPS device (not all). My SPOT GPS should show up on the website sometime shortly before the race.

With some luck, some patience and a level of determination I don't realize I have yet...I'll complete this journey!

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0b5SWohoapP5RepoPv79zAIIiRIGoIfBo

http://trackleaders.com/ctr13