Day 50 Rest day Jackson

Today started off as just a normal day.  We went into Jackson for our rest day (a very touristy town, by the way).  A pleasant surprise was that the Chris Ewing's sister (our host in Lousville, KY) lives out here and offered to do all of the team's laundry for us.  It's amazing what some people will do for essentially strangers.  Our team encountered her in a parking lot in Jackson by sheer coincidence, and yet here she is, offering to help our team so much.

After just lounging around Jackson, we decided we would go on an aerial tram that takes us to the top of Rendexvous mountain, which is a part of the Tetons.  We were at the top, enjoying amazing views and taking great pictures when we received word that Joanna, who had gone hiking with a different group in the Tetons, had hurt her ankle on the mountain side.  We were incredibly worried, and the next several hours became all about getting her and the rest of the team down safely.  Fortunately everything worked out okay.  She ended up being airlifted via helicopter off of the mountain (she went up incredibly high apparently, even higher probably than the Grand Teton, the tallest mountain in the area).  Although all the logistics were a bit complicated and we ended up having to drive back and forth quite a lot, we picked Joanna up at the hospital in very good spirits (although she was quite hungry).  It was a stressful end to the day, but I think we handled as well as we can.  Unfortunately the ankle is broken, but Joanna is going to try to see a specialist in Jackson as soon as possible.  It's really too bad that she probably won't be able to ride into Portland with us, but I know she'll be there and she'll continue to be a part of the team in every way possible.

Somewhat shaky and wobbly tram ride up

Team photo on aerial tram

Top of Rendezvous Mountain, 10,927 feet... ok some people might climb that high via hiking, but we did it via aerial tram... still counts I think

Joanna after breaking her ankle... in better spirits than we were I think

Day 49 Dubois to Jackson

Today we broke up into riding groups via geographical locations.  I wasn't sure whether I'd be placed as a Chicago representative or North Carolina representative, but I ended up in the group that I'm pretty sure should have been just called miscellaneous or everybody else.  It was me (Chicago), Brady (Oregon), Dan (Ohio), Patricia and Katrina (both Arizona).  They called it the Wild West and Midwest... but psh...

Anyway, the day started with an early climb up the side of a typical Rockies mountain, meaning long, long but very gradual.  Near the summit, we ran into a beautiful lake that we just knew we had to have lunch there.  After spending what seemed like an eternity there, we finally rode up the remaining half mile up to the summit and took a ton of pictures.  As it is whenever we arrive at beautiful places, it was very emotional to remember that Jamie should have been here with us, with us on the trip all along.  But to the best that we can, we honor her (Emily Lake is riding Jamie's bike today) and remember her.

The day became a lot tougher as we descended down the mountain.  First, we encountered a crazy headwind that just made it impossible to go much faster than 25 mph, which might sound not so bad, but seeing as my usual goal is to reach 50mph at some point down the mountain, it wasn't all that great... We even had a few uphills on the descent (which I just don't understand... ok I do, but it makes descending less fun *sigh *).  I also had a flat tire mid descent, and thankfully I managed to flag down Dan, who has a very bad but kind of functional frame pump.

I look like a giant in this picture (standing on hill)... the one time I'll look tall *sigh*

The continental divide, we meet yet again

6% is gradual (not quite as thrilling as the Appalachians, in which you just drop down the side of the mountain), but 17 miles of it isn't bad

As we headed into Jackson, we realized that the route had a couple of problems.  The only road that went from where we were to Gros Ventures camp site (actually outside of Jackson) is terrible terrible gravel, which our team tries to avoid at all cost.  However, the other way into it, we'd been told, adds some number of miles and more importantly, the shoulder is not so great.  We decided half of the team would shuttle, while the other half would ride into Jackson, just to save some time and gas.  I was originally in the group to be shuttled, my bike loaded up on the roof and everything, but at the last second I changed my mind and offered someone else my seat so I could ride.  And I'm really glad I did.  We knew the Tetons were close and that we'd be encountering them soon, but the views that we saw were spectacular and pretty much unbelievable.  The mountains became just taller and taller as we got closer to them... 

Tetons... no explanation required, really

Also, buffalo.  Out here they are completely wild and cross the road whenever they feel like it (and trust me it happens more often than you would think)

When we arrived at the camp site, our teammates had been incredibly kind and already set up the tents, the fire, and somehow cooked chicken for us in the campfire with essentially no cooking equipment whatsoever.  Smores and other fun things followed.  It was a long day, but worth every mile.

Day 48 Lander to DuBois, WY

Today we had hoped would be an easier day after yesterday, and it sort of was... the first part of the day was great with moderate wind, but beautiful scenery and just pleasant riding overall.  I was in a more ride-oriented group, so we made great time pace lining and just trying to get there.  Unfortunately the last 20 miles or so turned into a nightmare as we encountered incredibly strong headwinds.  I'm not sure exactly what the mph was but it was pretty bad and let's just say the last 20 miles took over 2.5 hours.  It just seemed like there was headwind after headwind.  There was a brief moment when a canyon wall blocked the wind for us, and it was amazing, the feeling of being able to bike faster than 10 miles an hour for once...

Fairly certain my butt has gotten larger on this trip, definitely thighs do not fit into jeans as well anymore

A more serious picture with my GoPro... by GoPro, I mean holding an iPhone in my hand while biking

Not much of an explanation needed.  Only person remaining who has yet to fall is Emily Lake.. we're coming for you

Tonight we're being hosted by the St. Thomas Episcopal Church.  We had a great dinner of pizza and for the first time in my life, we ended up showering at a laundry mat.  We paid for the showers quarter by quarter, and I managed to spend just $1.00, although I think Chxris beat me with only 75 cents... impressive... or ew perhaps.

Because today is a Friday, it has been exactly 5 weeks since Jamie's accident.  It seems surreal that so much time has already passed since then, and yet it feels like moments ago.  We had a brief moment of silence to remember Jamie.  A fitting tribute.

Day 47 Rock Springs to Lander, WY

Today we finally got back on our bikes, and since we wanted to just jump right back into the deep end, we had a 120 mile day.  The funny thing about today was that everybody thought it would be incredibly difficult.  Aside from being very long, we thought there would be tons of climbing, including a mountain at the end of the day.  In order to make sure that as many people rode as many miles as possible, we thought that job of water van should be taken in 20 mile shifts, so no one had to be biking for so long.

Believe it or not, we've crossed over the continental divide so many times that it's kind of getting old.  For some reason I can't find a picture of myself with this sign, so here is one of Margarethe and Emily Lake

Well turns out the day was so much easier than anticipated.  We had favorable wind all morning, and although there were some climbs, nothing too intense, and definitely no mountain at the end.  Oops.. Well, surprise no mountain is much more preferable to surprise mountain, so I doubt anybody cared (although we do like climbing mountains!)

Tonight's hosts, the Covenant Presbyterian Church,  are really wonderful.  We have the chance to eat dinner with them outside, while looking at the surrounding mountains and hills and beautiful landscapes of Wyoming.  I learned that unlike Nebraska, a lot of people who live in Wyoming aren't actually from the state originally.  When we were in Nebraska, especially in the small towns, it was hard to find someone who was from a different state.  At most, you might find someone from a different part of the Nebraska, but that would be about it.  Here we met people from all over - I suppose it's no surprise they want to live in such a beautiful state.

After dinner (which featured coffee at the end... which we all drank of course, even though we needed to go to bed in just a few hours... but actually it was great), the hosts showed us to the Sinks Canyon Park, where water rushes down into a hole and emerges out at a different site after about two hours.  I don't exactly understand what is going on, but it was really beautiful and we all took a ton of pictures.  

As usual, pictures don't really do it justice, but believe me these sights were spectacular.  If you're from the East Coast, you should be jealous

It's great to have made it here on our bikes today - it really makes seeing theses places all that more special and meaningful knowing that we biked there.

Day 46 Rawlins to Rock Springs, WY

Unfortunately today is another day of shuttling, because just like yesterday, there is no road between hosts aside from the interstate.  It's hard when there are back to back days when we can't ride, but safety does come first without a doubt.  Several people had actually taken most of our gear and bikes over to Rock Springs last night, just to make shuttling over there easier.  We are being graciously hosted by the First United Methodist Church.

Rock Springs is actually quite a large town, so it was nice to be able to walk around a lot, get some food at a deli, go into a bike shop (and ask for more stickers of course), and so forth.  We wanted to try doing some hikes, but unfortunately aside from the incredible heat, the vans couldn't really make it up the hills to the starts of the trail, so that kind of fell through.  On the bright side, this happened:

Uhhhh... nightmares for the rest of the trip

Regardless of what happened, however, I think most of us enjoyed the two days off.  We have a long day tomorrow, so any extra rest will be useful.
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Day 45 Saratoga to Rawlins

Day 45 Saratoga, WY to Rawlins, WY

Today could have been a very frustrating day for the team, but it wasn't.  The road between Saratoga and our next hosts in Rawlins, WY is an incredibly busy interstate with very fast moving traffic, including a lot of trucks.  Although the route is technically rated okay for cycling, we as a team decided there is just no way we would take such a risk.  The only other roads connecting the two towns are gravel roads that even cars have trouble getting through sometimes.

So as a team, we decided to shuttle between the two towns.  Usually this would really frustrate us because we're here to bike and bike as many miles as we can, but today was a wonderful day, all thanks to our incredibly generous hosts at the Saratoga Alliance Church.  I said in yesterday's post that although they are first year hosts, 4K (and each of us on the 2014 Portland team) should make every effort to come back to this wonderful town.  Today affirmed that idea in every way possible. Aside from a wonderful breakfast, when the church heard our predicament, they told us about all of the great places in Saratoga we could go to relax and rest, including some hot springs (unfortunately I didn't personally make it to the hot springs, but I'm sure they were great... despite the fact that it's the summer).  When they realized that we would have some trouble shuttling all of the luggage, bikes, and people, a church member stepped up and offered to move a lot of our food for us with a pickup truck.  When we didn't know where to go for lunch donations in such a small town, the church came together and prepared lunch for us, which was supposed to be "nothing special", but then turned out to be elk steaks that they had hunted and processed entirely locally (even the localvoire Kelsey had some).  I think Peter said it best when he said, "when I called Pastor Scott a few months ago, I was a total stranger.  But now I feel like I've known you guys forever.  This is the first time you've hosted us, but it feels like you've been hosting us since the very beginning of 4K."  Pastor Scott and Saratoga Alliance Church - if you read this, I just want to say thank you yet again.

Sorry Pastor Scott... for some reason this seems to be the only picture I took in your lovely town... but it did make me laugh...

I could keep gushing about Saratoga, but our trip continues onto Rawlins.  As we shuttled to Rawlins, it became quickly obvious that we made the correct decision to shuttle and not bike.  Although the interstate had a very wide shoulder, driving 75-80 mph in the vans, we were being passed incredibly quickly by cars moving around 100 mph.  Whether it's legal or not, the team wouldn't have felt safe biking in such dangerous conditions.

Tonight we're being hosted by the First United Methodist Church in Rawlins.  We had a great dinner of stir fry, and I actually had a really nice chance to have a conversation with someone from the church about mountain biking around the area.  Definitely seems more of a possibility than riding road bikes on interstates.  One of the jokes is that we're actually mountain biking across the country... sometimes seems like a bit too much of a reality.  Next year 4K... maybe mountain bikes?

For Team Portland 2015 maybe? Gravel road, no problems...

Day 44 Laramie, WY to Saratoga, WY

What a difficult but rewarding day.  I woke up sick, knowing that I would have to climb a mountain.  Not exactly the most ideal conditions to do so much climbing, but I wasn't about to give up just yet.  Today I rode with Patricia, Joanna, and Mitch.  While the first part of the ride was relatively flat (some rolling hills), we all knew what was coming soon.  I think also the gradual but steady climb in elevation really got to us.  By the time we approached the mountain, we were a bit tired and I was cold.  Thankfully there was a very nice store (actually called the Friendly Store) in a small town right before the climb began.  Believe it or not, as everyone started taking their jackets off as they became hot (including Emily Lake and Katrina, who are always the last ones to take their jackets off), I bought a hot tea to drink.  I wasn't shivering or anything like that, but I was definitely cold.  At that point I decided to continue with the climb, sick or not.  It was our first major climb in the Rockies and I couldn't let it pass without at least attempting it.

About a mile into the climb (still feeling pretty good), Patricia, who was feeling really light headed, decided to get into the van.  Unfortunately at that point, we had told Joanna and Mitch to go on ahead of us since we were slowing them down.  Instead of letting the water van go ahead and ask them to wait for me, I decided for some reason to use what little energy I had left to sprint up the mountain as fast as I could, killing both my lungs and legs to bridge the gap.  Thankfully the water van caught up to Joanna and Mitch anyway and asked them to stop and wait for me.  Unfortunately, by that point I had exhausted myself and was totally out of breath.  Now, perhaps at that point I should have gotten into the van... but of course I didn't and so commenced the hardest climb on the trip yet.  The climbs in Pennsylvania were definitely technically more difficult, but on those I don't think I ever considered quitting or vanning, but today I thought about it a number of times.  I'm grateful for all the teammates I had with me who motivated me to keep going and made sure I was feeling ok(ish).  The climb wasn't particularly steep, it just went on forever and ever, and since I had a terrible cough I had a lot of trouble breathing (again, not helped by the high elevation).

While it was truly a struggle, we made it to the lunch stop (which was 3-4 miles from the very top).  I was really grateful to have a break from the climbing, and I lost track of how many times people asked if I was okay or if I wanted to van the rest of the climb (since there were only several miles left).  I decided I would continue, and while I can't say with certainty it was the smartest thing to do, I can say it was worth it.  The top of the mountain (Snowy Range) was incredibly beautiful and nothing like we've seen before.  Not only were the rock formations amazing, but there was even snow and we threw snow at each other, something I've never had a chance to do in my life in July.

View right before the summit I think... gradual climb, but loooong (ended up being around 12 miles I believe)

Cold, out of breath, fatigued, but worth it at the top

Emily Lipsitz and me... yes we have our silly moments...

Tribute to Jamie at the top of the mountain

 Precisely because the view was so beautiful and amazing, it was also very emotional as we couldn't help but think about Jamie and how she couldn't be here.  These moments on the trip can be depressing (to be frank about it), but in the end we're always glad that we kept on going, that despite the fact that she can't be here with us in person, we'll keep her memory alive by continuing to ride her bike to the places we know she would have loved to have seen.

After spending what seemed like an eternity at the top, we finally made our descent (always the reward after a hard climb).  Just like the ascent, the descent was gradual but long.  In fact, even longer than the way up (17 miles I think vs 12 miles or so).  We checked everyone's brakes to make sure they were tight / closed for safety reasons, and one by one we went... only to be surprised by some unexpected uphills on the way down from the mountain.  I have to say, some of those uphills, as tiny and gradual as they were, made me question whether I was going to actually make it all the day down the mountain.  Fortunately the hills were gone after just a few miles, and after that it was all an amazing downhill.  I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to cover 17 miles in such a short amount of time.  To be honest I think I preferred the short but ridiculous steep descents of the Appalachians (3-4 miles at 10-15%) to the Rockies (17 miles around 5-6%), but it was an amazing experience nonetheless, especially the spectacular views (I finally concede that the scenery in the West is better...)

Despite telling Kelsey and Jocelyn (van drivers for the day, who I think were afraid that I would just pass out on the way down) that I would just coast most of the way, I ended up pedaling quite a bit on the way down.  When I finally finished the 17 mile descent, both of them looked at me and demanded I get into the van.  At that point common sense finally kicked and while I joked about finishing the last 16 miles or so, I got into the van.  Even though it was disappointing to not finish, I'm grateful to have had such amazing teammates who motivated me to climb up and down the mountain, the big challenge for the day.

We arrived at the hosts for the night, the Saratoga Alliance Church.  Dinner was delicious and much needed after the climbing.  The generosity and sincerity of the church was really obvious in every manner, but I want point out one particular act of kindness that really meant a lot to the team.  One of our teammates, Chelsea, had really struggled with the high elevation and had become incredibly dehydrated on the way down from the mountain, to the point that she wasn't able to finish the descent.  One of the church members, who I believe was a paramedic, actually gave Chelsea an IV to rehydrate her and it became incredibly obvious how dehydrated she was, as we saw the drips just flow into her.  That kind of medical care is definitely not cheap and to have someone at the church just do it without any hesitation really means a lot to the team.  Thankfully Chelsea recovered quickly.  Saratoga Alliance Church may be first year hosts, but I know 4K will do everything to come back one day... including me, whether via 4K or just as a cyclist or a random traveller in Saratoga, WY.

Dehydration Recovery (note the IV to the right!)

Tonight I'm actually staying with Pastor Scott Stinson and his family right next to the church.  Despite being sick still, I really felt so much better and rejuvenated by the dinner and the church's kindness toward us.  The Stinson Family and I had a really nice conversation about everything... not just 4K and the funny stories we have, but the rides coming up in Wyoming, Yellowstone, the former town that was Jeffrey City, and so much more.  As I've said before, it really means a lot to me to be able to actually talk to our hosts and learn about their lives.  Saratoga might be a small dot on the map, but I know I'll never forget it.