The Pac Tour Blues

Following the long established and hoary Gunther Family tradition of being silly and fun, yet heartfelt and meaningful, the completion of pac tour seemed to call for a song--so i wrote one and sang it at the banquet.

Thus, the 12 bar Pac Tour Blues--about a bad day riding Pac Tour. I'll try to record it at some point soon and post that as well

Get up in the morning
You feel tired and pained
But it doesn't really matter
You're going to ride again
The wind it may be howling
But no one gives a shit
You're on a Pac Tour baby,
So suck it up and get into it.

Pac Tour breakfasts
Prepare you well to ride
What you scarf in 15 minutes
Would make most people wide
Yet all that you can think of
Is the food the SAG's may choose
But you've got to ride there first
And that gives you the Pac Tour Blues

Climbing up a mountain
In your little bit of hell
David comes from Florida
How come he climbs so well
Craig and Ray fly up those hills
Like angels coming through
But when all you hear is 'Look, he's going backwards, Phil'
Y'know that gives you the Pac Tour Blues

Your neck hurts like the blazes
So do your feet and thighs
Sitting in the saddle hurts as much as when you rise
There's nothing you'd like better
Than to sag at rest stop 2
But, no, you'll ride another 100 miles
With a bad case of the Pac Tour Blues.

Come into the lunch stop
Feeling like a wreck
Susan's so damn cheerful
You'd like to wring her neck
You wash your hands again and again . . . And
Look at all the scrumptious food
But when you think it tastes like cardboard
You know you've got the Pac Tour Blues.

Gary he rides it steady
Dan he rides it slow
Wayne's ride is mysterious
Where does that fellow go?
Chip goes off the front at once
Rich rides straight and true
But when you just can't hold his wheel again
You're guaranteed the Pac Tour Blues

A lot of us on Pac Tour
Are really kind of old
The aches and pains that are normal
Pac Tour makes them grow
Our friends they think we're crazy
Who knows it might be true, but
When you find yourself agreeing with them
You surely have the Pac Tour Blues

Janet hurt her ankle
Dan he hurt his calf
Lil's got a magic knee potion she brought all the way from France
But if you're so sore & hurting that
Even Jon can't get you through
And you have to walk down stairs sideways
You know you've got the Pac Tour Blues

The road has many hazards
To stop you on your way
At least you bike is shiny
from washing every day
The highway can be bumpy
The pilot cars too few
But 3 flats in six miles, Don,
Gave you a bad case of the Pac Tour Blues

The towns and the hotels
Seem to run together
Was it hot today or cold
You can't even remember the weather
Just ride and eat and sleep, and tomorrow is take 2
When it starts to feel like working
You know you've got the PacTour Blues

But then you see the mountains, or
Bomb down a long descent
Ride strongly in that paceline
Suddenly you're quite content
Thank you Lon & Susan for everything you do
Its loving being on the bike that takes away those old Pac Tour Blues
Yes its loving being on the bike that takes away those old Pac Tour Blues

Finished!

So we finished the ride yesterday about noon, with a tailwind propelled three miles down Montana Blvd (appropriate) in El Paso. The last two days riding ahs been distinguished by a lot of fast, well-ordered pacelines, short gaps between sags, friendly conversation and a a feeling of vacation! IN Truth or Consequences, after a 77 mile day (albeit with non stop rollers and the inevitable headwind) we hung out by the pool and laughed at our silly tans. Las Cruces, Joel and I wend out to dinner with Lil and Ray at a very fancy restaurant (the only one in New Mexico with its own beef aging room) in an old mansion with 24 carat gold ceilings in the old town of Mesilla, and then we got up yesterday morning and rode 65 miles into El Paso, entering Texas, climbing a pass over the Franklin mountains, struggling against a large headwind on teh freeway, then finally picking up the finish I described above.

Of course, the work of Pac Tour isn't over just because you're done riding. Immediately afer lunch, served in the parking lot of the airport Marriott hotel, we were all busily at work packing our bikes, then arranging for shipping. This is a much nicer hotel than we usually stay in (which means there's no free coffee in the lobby and you have to pay for the internet in your room). Then, of course, there's the preparation for the big banquet! Its a nice event; you've made this little community with the people on the ride, accomplished something together, and its worthy of celebration. You eat your buffet dinner, gab it up with your tablemates, Lon and Susan make up little plaques with your photo and hand it out with a nice comment about most people. I, being a Gunther, wrote a song to memorialize the event, (The Pac Tour Blues--thanks, Andy) which was performed to wild acceptance; I'll post the lyrics when I get home later on, and perhaps even record it for the Pac Tour website.

Bike touring really is a fun thing to do. You see the world in a unique way; you're exposed to the weather and the surroundings, you are demanding of yourself in a simple but unrelenting way. These tours take it up a notch or three; being on the bike six to ten hours a day is a lot of riding, and you really need to love being on the bike. Not just like it or tolerate it, but love it. The bike is an extension of your body; sometime you struggle with it, but it is an expression of your desire and need to get on up the road. When you spend as much time on the bike as we do, the journey truly is the reward. If you've been reading , you know that you certainly aren't travelling to get to the next town, because even when we stay in a town that has something going on, we're often too far away from it, or too tired, to do anything. Sometimes I was out on the road, in the middle of a vasat expanse of country, with no one ahead of me, no one behind me, not a soul around, only myself and the world . . . .and the bike.

So its off to breakfast, then to the airport. I'll do a couple more posts this week, and add some photos in.

Aug12/13--Chama to Espanola to Socorro

These last two days I've been riding almost normally. Nearing the end of the tour, especially with the three remaining days being short, I'm less concerned about preserving myself for tomorrow and more interested in asserting myself. So yesterday, our last day of significant climbing, I took off strong and rode strong, on my own, all day. Where for most of the trip I'd been worried about doing too much and paying for it tomorrow, these last two days when it hurt I went through it as opposed to retreating from it, and I've been finishing earlier as a result.

Yesterday we left Espanola heading for Santa Fe on the freeway, then after Santa Fe got on Rte 14 through Madrid, a cute artsy town, but definitely downscsale--sort of a hippie haven maybe what Bolinas was like in the 70's. We then cruised through some high farmland to the lunch spot at 14 and 344, then headed out 344 over a 15% grade down to Moriarty. Pretty farmland, reminded me of ending the Davis Double, heavy thunderstorms all around, but they missed me. Some peo;ple got wet.
Best thing about Moriarty is my Internet worked; we stayed in another of these freeway villages.
The funniest thing that happened yesterday--when we were in Santa Fe, a local rider out for her morning ride joined us for a bit. We told her we were taking 19 days to get to El Paso, and her response was, "Wow, you must really like El Paso if you are taking 19 days to get there!" Priceless.
Mostly, though, yesterday for me was about riding fairly hard and keeping it up all day.

Today's ride was our last long day, 119 miles to Socorro. I started out riding like yesterday, but didn't quite have it, so at the second stop, I joined the Rich train. Rich Ruge, from NY, is a very strong and steady rider. He can power on at the same speed, for a long time. The train ended up including me, Ruth, Lil, Ray, Joel and Matt (Rich's friend form hign school). We pretty much rode together from the second SAG to the end. There was a long downhill after lunch, then we got on I25 and heading into a very strong headwind. The last 25 miles were hard, with headwinds, bad roads and tired bodies. Got in, and our room is right by the breakfast truck, which means a lot of steps saved in the morning; I showered and played for an hour, got my massage and went to dinner. A good one, tonight!

The terrain is surprising--rolling farmland with a lot of trees, giving way to scrub brush and desert. Somehow I didn't visualize New Mexico this way. The vast open plains here reminded me of Africa; I was looking for herds of animals, but I guess they are gone. It's dry and hot. We're riding these rollers that go down into these wadis; flash flooding is a way of life here, I guess.

So, 210 miles in 3 days. Should be easy--except it never is on Pac Tour. Despite wonderful support, it still is just you and the bike.

Aug 10-11; Durango to Chama to Espanola

I'm writing today in Espanola, a town in the greater Santa Fe area. we'll be going through Santa Fe tomorrow. The trip is really starting to feel long, there is stuff going on at home that I'm missing being a part of. when I got in today I called both BR and Ronni and got up to date a bit. I still love riding my bike, though. Amazing but true. Five days left to ride, then this all will be a memory. That said, its far from a memory now. I still am prety tired, today was a very slow day. I settled in on the bike and pedalled either slowly, slower or not at all, the exception being the hills when I would spin up in a gear at least two cogs lighter than I ordinarily would use. Yesterday morning, when I woke up in Durango I felt just as tired as I had the night before when I wrote my last post. I had no idea how I was going to make it through a 122 mile day that had over 6500 ft of up to it. So from the beginning I set a high cadence, higher than I usually do and whenever I fet any stress in my legs, I would shift to a higher cog. This method worked. I stayed in the saddle a lot longer than usual, and I felt pretty good all the way to lunch. The morning's route was the only stretch of this ride that followed the same route as the cross country ride in 2005. I didn't enjoy it then, but it is really pretty nice, on highways 172 & 151 through beautiful rolling pasture land, then national forest past Chimney Rock, until we we rejoined the busy hwy 160 for the last few miles into Pagosa Springs for lunch (grilled cheese & tomato sandwiches)., The afternoon we rode long gentle rollers for the rest of the afternoon, into New Mexico and to the town of Chama. Vicious headwindfs at the end, and a bit of rain as well. Chama seems to be a dying town, but we had a real good dinner at the lone restaurant in Chama. I had an interesting chatwith rider Ruth's husband Jim, who is not riding but is enjoying the National Parks and the various other beautiful things aroudn here that I am unable to, being stuck on the bike, or resting up for tomorrow. He's a prefessor of International Conservation at Cornell, and I talked with him about both EA and CEMAR.

This morning breakfast was at the luxurious hour of 7:30, as we had a short, 80 mile day, a straight shot down route 84. I woke up at 5 anyway, finished yesterday's post, the read yhe New York Times om my PDA. That was prety cool. Susan made eggs this morning; I age thrm and my usual breakfast too !

It turned out to be a good day to be cooked, as I couldn't really ride too slow to miss anything. We started out in woodsy rollers like yesterday, but gradually descending until we hit a long, ten mile descent that brought us decidedly into mesa country. Stopped off at the beautiful arch amphitheater, and spent the rest of day in New Mexico looking scenery. I had my first flat of the trip about a mile before lunch. There were only 20 miles after lunch, and about half of them had gone by before John Lake, a strong and fast rider, passed me and I decided to see if I could stay on his wheel. I could; hopefully that bodes well for tomorrow, a 90 mile 5000 foot affair. I've been off my feet as much as possible since getting in. Dinner was at Sonic, the fast food place directly next door. a chicken sandwich, a chicken salad and fries. I may rouse myself to get get a sundae in a little bit.

Soemthing I did not share with all of you right away is that one our riders had a fairly serious accident the morning we were leaving Grand Junction. Diane was riding the wrong way in a bike lane with the rising sun directly at her back, and a car turning right hit her. She has been in the hospital with a fractured cervical vertebrae, and surgery was scheduled for today. It also ended her partner Barry's vacation. So take it from me, everyone, when you are on your bike, assume you are invisible, and do all you can to be noticed. Four other riders have also left the tour, for exhaustion or illness; Kerin leaves after tomorrow's ride for family reasons. Generally, though, this is a strong group; I've been migrating backwards, though!

August 8 and 9. Grand Junction to Montrose to Durango.

OMG. Taken together, these may be the greatest two days of cycling I have ever experienced. Massive climbs, swooping descents, majestic mountains, good enough weather and a strong enough and willing cyclist (me) all combined to produce what tonight is a very tired man sitting on his bed at 7 in the evening hoping to stay up late enough to finish this post.
I felt good when we left Grand Junction yesterday morning. The previous day had turned out easy, so when we left I was ready. Although the 4 miles on I-70 were not fun, once we hit rte 65 we were in for an incredible treat. The Grand Mesa scenic byway begins following a river up through these progressively higher buttes. You'd look up the sides and imagine cowboys cornered in box canyons, or ambushes being set up around the next bend. We soon rose out of this terrain, and after the first sag at the town of Mesa, the climbing began in earnest. 23 miles of it, over 6000 feet to an altitude of 10,800 feet. This climb was exposed, on the front of this range, and so the higher we went the terrain behind us opend out larger and wider. I took photos about every thousand feet or so, and they tell a dramatic story. (I can't upload pictures well with the system I'm using, but check some of other blogs for photos) When we went over the top, we spent a brief minute in a high alpine valley before beginning the descent in earnest, in which we lost 7000 feet and gained 35 degrees in 20 minutes, rushing down the hill at an average of 35 mph or so. Today's climbs were a bit different, but equally fantastic. A slow gain in altitude over the first 35 miles from Montrose to Ouray, then 3500 feet in 13 miles topping out at 11,118; we descended to Silverton at 9300 ft for lunch, then had a 7 mile climb back to 10,900, a 4 mile descent, then a 3 mile climb back to 10,600 before the final descent into Durango. So today, we stayed at the higher elevations for about 45 miles, where yesterday was a quick hit before returning to the 5000 ft level. Both days had a bunch of flat, bumpy roads with headwinds at the end, which was sort of a drag after the perfection of the mountains, but it still is Pac Tour!

The mountains were perfect. Ouray is cute little town situated at the head of a valley with peaks towering above. Silverton is a reconstructed mining town, but mostly these rides were about the mountains.

So, I should talk about climbing. There are three types of effort in road cycling; climbing, sprinting and tempo riding. Sprinting is maximum power and speed over a short distcance; tempo is maximum speed over a long distance; and climbing is balancing effort and gravity. It is a great combination of strength, consistent effort and self awareness. On these huge climbs, you need to save energy at the bottom so you'll still have it at the top--if you blow up, you will have nothing left, which was the case for me by the last climb today. I was really paying attention starting first thing yesterday, with three big days in the offing. I started the climb in my 34x25 gear and ended up in my 34x27,. Thats the same gear Alberto Contador used on the 24 percent grade in the time trial in the Giro; of course I was doing it on a 6 percent grade! So I pedal for a few minutes, trying to keep a fairly high cadence, then I stand up and lower my cadence, drop down 4 cogs to keep my speed up and use different muscles, then sit again and work my way up the hill, all the while gauging my effort. The whole process can be very meditative. Thoughts flit by but if you get off on a thought, you can lose your rhythm. This ride, of course, is quite different that if I was out climbing Mt. Tam on a day ride. On this ride I always have to stay within myself, because overdoing it one day could mean several days of pain. So yesterday I was targeting 120-130 as my heart rate, and hit 136 at maximum. (I'd get into the mid 150's on Tam.) Today, I could barely reach 125, and was usually in the 116 range. Until the last climb, when I was cooked, barely turning my 34x29.

On the descent I passed Durango Mountain Resort, the sister to Kirkwood. Similar approach, but the grid and the large town nearby make a big difference. In Durango ee stayed pretty far out of town and I had a really bad dinner. Too bad, as I was so exhausted--it just increased my exhaustion. How I'm going to do this again tomorrow is quite unclear, but somehow I will.

August 7, Rangely to Grand Junction

And just a little taste it ended up being. The early part of the ride was through sort of scrubland, with sandstone rocks and old riverbeds. Right after the first sag I was delayed for nearly 45 minutes by road constuction, and mostly the entire back half of the group was collected until we were finally able to follow a pilot car nearly five miles through the construction zone. as it happened, he dropped us off right a the foot of our only climb of the day, 8240 foot Douglas pass; probably a categort 3 for the tour de France riders-- fairly short and not real steep. However, it was made a bit more exciting by our first rain of the trip, which started right at the top of the pass.So I put on jacket, cap, leg warmers, toe covers and gloves, and set off. It was a long, fun descent, not very curvy, so it was real easy to do in the rain. The bike stays comfortably upright on the straights, you start braking a bit sooner for the curves, and don't lean too heavily in the turns so you don't slip out. Near the bottom of the climb, the sun came out, so I doffed the rain gear, stuffed it back into my seat bag and pockets, and got back on the bike. I was tooling along quite comfortably when up a hill, the tandem train caught me. There is one tandem on this trip, being ridden on alternate days by Don and Carol Friedlander. The other days, Carol works crew and Don rides his single. So, I'm jamming along happily behind the tandem when it starts to rain again, and I am faced with a dilemma. Do I drop off, when we're so close to lunch and put my rain coat back on, or do I gut it out, taking nlt only the rain but the spray from the rest of the group. I chose to stay on, and a as a result go rewarded with regular facefuls of road spray. Not too disgusting, but at the end of the day my legs and the bike were covered with mud. Lunch was in Loma; we then turned off of rte 139 onto US6 for a while then rode a series of side roads through Fruita to Grand JUnction. THe crowning indignity of the day is that our room wasn't ready for nearly two hours after our arrival in town. I got my laundry done and played some guitar, but didn't get my shower until long after I was really ready for it.

That eveniong, Joel and I took a cab into downtown Grand Junction to haver dinner at a nice Italian place, whiel the dinner was good and definitely a step up from what we had been eating, more fun was that the main street downtown was closed for a produce/art/music fair, as it is every Thursday evening during the summer. Tne streets were full of people, and it was really nice to be away from the freeway hotel ambience of most of the places we stay. Joel and I are enjoyng each other; we have similar tastes and sensibilities He has a background similar to anne's, and we spent a good bit of dinner discussing our families.

The next two days are in the high mountains, with huge climbs and screaming descents-- Stay tuned! After Sunday, our big days are over and I hope to a little more commentary and a little less reportage.

August 6

Today I took a vacation from Pac Tour. I've mentioned before about the 'tyranny of the schedule,' starting early every morning, getting in. cleaning up, eating, getting ready for the next day and then dropping off at 9. So this day, we didn't leave until 9am, a real luxury, so I got up at my usual time, walked a block to the coffe house, had a couple of double espressos over an hour and typed my blog of yesterday's ride, Then I went back to the hotel we were actually served a real breakfast, omlettes, pancakes, etc. Yum. Finally, I walked across the street to the library, sat on the steps, and used their wifi to post my blog and read the opinion page of the New York Times.

The ride was only 50 miles so I stayed on the same theme, riding very slowly and easily down route 40. Whenever my heart rate hit 100, I'd back off, and so I expended very little effort. I rode right past the first sag, as I didn't need anything, and continued my slow and steady pace toward Rangely. I also rode past the second sag, having this fantasy that Dinosaur, Colorado, would have soem tourist facilities; I and had visions of a nice bakery dancing I’m my head--alas, it was not to be, so I returned to the sag, had a snack, then rode the last 15 miles into Rangley on route 64, which I felt was the most dangerous stretch of road we'd been on (most did not agree with me, BTW). There was no shoulder and big trucks, including trucks that I'd never seen before. Thankfully, this was a fairly short stretch of the road, and then it widened out. The last few miles were mostly downhill, and I violated my easy rule when the Lon train went roaring by, and I jumped on the back for the last few miles into town. Lunch was in a City Park, and we had to kiill a bunch of time before the motel was ready for us. I played guitar for a while, cleaned my bike, then went inside and got cleaned up. I also took a vacation from blog writing. Joel and I didn't trust any of the three restaurants in town, so we bought some prepared food at the grocery store, which was pretty good, and salt at a table in the pool area and had our dinner. This also broke the routine.Then, of course, it was back to the schedule, getting ready for tomorrow, which was to be our first taste of the Colorado Mountains.

Aug 5, Evanston to Vernal. 150 mi, 8500 ft.

Today--exhilarating and exhausting. We got our first taste of real mountain riding today, up and down the foothills, settling into a rhythm on the longer climbs, swooping down a descent only to go up again, finally reaching the summit (yesterday's was almost 8500 ft) then ending with a long, unbridled descent. Beginning in arid, high desert surroundings, as we moved up the desert got green, then small trees, then a full fledged pine/fir forest, then above, into the aspens. And this was all after lunch!

Our 150 mile route from Evanston to Vernal began with 28 miles on I-80, exiting at Fort Bridger to hook up with WY414, which became UT44 and took us through the Flaming Gorge NRA. The first 91 miles to lunch had about 45% of the climbing, mostly gentle grades through this really desolate land, dry, dusty; then sedimentary rock formations began to appear, and just as I realized we were in Dinosaur country these helpful signs began to sprout up, identifying the formation and what was found there. We came up a bit of a longer pull and came into the high, green valley of Manila, Utah. It was hot and I'd emptied one bottle already, so I stopped off for a refill. "You must be in pretty good shape," a voice said. "Not bad for an old guy," I responded to the group of motorcyclists. The conversation about what we were doing led to a look of admiration, a heartfelt "God Bless You," and a recommendation to avoid the 7-11 restaurant (good advice, but we ate there anyway because it was the closest place).

After Manila a climb led to a steep 2 mile descent through a canyon to the lunch spot by a river; the longest sustained climb (maybe 4-5 miles) was right after lunch, yielding fantastic views of brightly colored cliffs with salty looking water at the bottom. And crossing over the first summit took us right into the woods; as if a page was turned, and launched us into the mountains. The last descent took us down 3000 feet around ten swooping brake-free turns, back into the furnace of the high desert. And of course, because it's Pac Tour, the final ten miles were straight into a set of ferocious headwinds. I hated that! After a long and otherwise rewarding day on the bike, dealing with that B.S. really pissed me off, and I was screaming at the wind to stop at once! (surprisingly, it didn't make a bit of difference.) Even though it added at most ten more minutes to an 11 hour ride, it felt very unjust. It provided the final emphasis on how huge this world is we are riding through, and how the huge amount of effort it takes to accomplish this ride means nothing to the world--the only meaning is internal.

Easy day tomorrow; 52 miles to Rangely, CO. Not leaving till 9!

. aug 3 and 4. Jackson to Montpelier to Evanston-210 miles

Two more contrasting days I could not have invented; Today (hwy 89 to hwy 16) was easy & relaxed, yesterday (hwy 89) was hard and stressful. Today I floated along nearly effortlessly, yesterday it was a struggle to turn the pedals each and every stroke, until the end of the day. It made today like a dream. This is how it unfolds on Pac Tour; and yielding to it is a key element is having a successful tour. when I woke up yesterday morning, I was sleepy. I got enough sleep the night before, but I did drink two glasses of wine in honor of Eva's yartrzeit, maybe that had an effect, but by the first sag, about 20 miles in, I was beginning to feel dead, and this feeling continued to develop throughout the day. Despite the unrelieved beauty of the Snake River Valley, I felt myself sinking and could do nothing about it. So I backed off, didn't try to do anything except get to the next stop. y legs were good, but the rest of me was pretty beat up. I seriously thought of packing it in at lunch and taking a ride to the hotel, however the internal pressure to ride every mile is pretty real; being tired or grumpy means nothing. Anyway, the two climbs of the day were coming up in the next two segments, where it had been flat up to that point. I thought a bit of climbing would change the rhythm and the mood, which it did to some degree. The pesky headwinds were back too, making each descent a battle against a force so much larger than yourself tha there was really no option other than to keep on keeping on.

After the first climb, the sag stop was welcome, and I stayed there for quite a while, being tired, resting in the chair, and then when I left I rode really slow. REALLY slow. There was 18 miles to go, and if it took a while, no problem! Surprisingly, I started to feel good, so when we hit the mile or so of very rough gravel one lane construction with wind and sand and cars coming straight at you with your bike slipping around all over the place, it was fine. Then to top it off, I had a crappy dinner that night! but I got horizontal early and slept it off; and woke up today feeling refreshed and had an easy ride.

We rode along Bear Lake; which is huge; had a nice climb and an equally nice descent with no wind for once; then entered Utah and the high desert vistas: THe ride from the second SAG to lunch was in a paceline with Joel & Ruth, but powered by Lil and Ray; got there at 12:30 and I then stayed there for abgout an hour and a half; eating schmoozing and playing guitar; then rode in the 13 miles to the motel with the turtles, the self descrbed slow group, and played more guitar at the hotle: I feel apreciated for my playing in this group:

The lunch conversation included a talk on sustainable farming with Anna Cat Berge; an excellent cyclist and veterinarian who is quite passionate about both the animals and about feeding the masses. It was an interesting conversation; including "the Omnivores Dilemma;" she liked his descriptions, but doesn't see that he had a solution that would feed the masses. A good steak dinner with David, Joel and the Carl and Martha Stock.

So our community is developing; this is a major undertaking and shared experience, and by the end of the trip we'll all know a bit more about ourselves and each other.

Big day tomorrow; hardest one of the tour.

August 2. 135 mi, W. Yellowstone to Jackson

This was great day. Woke up to no wind and cool, but not cold, temperatures. The day began with a short climb of Targhee pass, our second crossing of the Divide, then, entering Idaho, we descended into wide meadows. Gentle ups and downs were guite conducive to bg gear spinning, which I did (probably 50x14 or 16 at 100 rpm). I made the first 60 mi in a shade over 3 hrs. After about 35 miles on Hwy 20, we diverted to Scenic rte 47, a good road through woods and water. We got our first, distant view of the Tetons. Spent a good bit of time ridng with Lon, talking about his projects. You should check ou the pac tour website for the work they are doing in Peru. In any case, the morning went very well, and I was a happy boy. There was a surprise descent in the middle of this, and when I rolled into Marysville, I just kept right on going, confidently making a left turn onto highway 20, aiming for lunch at mile 75; 76; 77; oops. Yes, I had missed a turn in my cycling bliss and ended up in St. Anthony, Idaho. I pulled off what by now had become a freeway, bought as sandwich at Subway and got directions from one of the locals to get myself back on the route, riding the old highway from St. Anthony to Teton, where I made it back to Hwy 33. However, my error added 25 miles on what was to be a 135 mile day. So I stuck out my thumb and got picked up by a sweet young couple who drove me up to the next SAG spot, and I was back in the group and on the road. I didn't want to miss the next feature, which was the climb and descent of teton Pass. Te last three miles on the uphill side averaged 10% but the descent was the real challenge --- 5 miles at what was called ten percent but I think was a lot steeper. Combined with a stong wind blowing, it made for some hairy moments. Nonetheless, with judicious braking and a steady hand, we all made it down to Jackson Hole and entered the faux western lifestyle for which Jackson evidently is known and loved..We stated at the Antler hotel, and I did find myself a good dinner, but the first thing I did was light Eva's yartzeit candle and say Kaddish. 11 years since her death. I still have no great reflections; I do continue to struggle with notions of forgiveness and redemption. I spoke to anne about this week's parasha and Rabbi Hyman's sermon; and I dug out the Antler's Gideon and read it. I won't go into the drash here; but I did find some interesting reading. Then to bed to face a 117 mile day.

I'm not going to write a post for tomorrow's ride; but will combine the next two days on Monday. I suspect I won't have good internet in Montpelier, Idaho. It also gets hard to do this daily. There is a lot of fussing to recover and get ready, and I need a bit of a break, especially because I'm having technical problems with my computer setup.

July 31 day3

[Luxurious morning; breakfast was indoors at the hotel, and we didn't leave till close to 8, as it was a short day of 101 miles to Bozeman. A chill in the air, it was 42 degree at the start. We rode out of town, turned on MT2 (then 359, 287 and 84 into Bozeman) and climbed pipestone pass for our first crossing of the Continental divide. Another nice, steady climb, maybe 1500 feet or so, followed by a very nice descent and miles of gently rolling farm and pasture land, surrounded on all sides by mountains. After the 2nd stop and only 12 miles of headwinds (I found a good group for that) we turned on 84 and tailwinds, shortly leading to a spectacular ride along the Madison River to lunch. Wide, flowing, in a steep canyon at first then opening out to a wider bit. Locals on tubes and rafts floated by (the temp was well into the 80's by then) Susan had a nice lunch of grilled chicken. I took out my guitar and played 5 or 6 tunes -- people said many nice things. Of course, my legs cooled down completely, making resumption harder. It took close to 45 min to start feeling good again.

So what is that about, anyway? Why do you feel good sometimes and not so good others; whether day to day oe hour to hour? Doing this kind of riding, repeated long days, some hard, I become a diagnostic machine, balancing the feedback from my body with my knowledge from past experience and awareness of what's ahead. So; I pull inti lunch feeling a particular way; and sitting there my legs fil up with fluid; then think that theyre done for the day; so when I get up again after a 45 minute break; I have treat them very gently to be able to get moving againb^ît takes about half an hour before I can start to push at all. I an strong; and habituated to the task at hand; but bargaining with my body is a big part of enduring moments like this.

So tomorrow is a shorter day, hopefully as easy as today, because Saturday is a big one.

August 1, Day 4. Bozeman to W. Yellowstone.

This was a hard day--not physically, but psychically. The ride was 90 miles, with about 3000 ft of very gentle climbing as we came up from Bozeman to W. Yellowstone, at about 7000 ft. (thats 191 to 287). BUT, the big challenge of the day was the strong, steady headwind. It was unrelenting...and did I say strong? So partly this was a day of unmet expectations; we expected a day of relative ease, and instead had a day of relative challenge. Now, in retrospect, it still wasn't a very hard day, but it was frustrating. (I ended up feeling pretty good the next morning.) I'm still measuring my strength carefully, not letting myself work too hard, but the same amount of work that yielded 17 mph on Tuesday gave me 12 mph today. Changes in terrain, while they may allow you to speed up a bit, provide no relief, because the wind is everpresent. Unending. No escape. Sigh. So I sucked as much wheel as I could stand today, but I'm not the greatest paceline rider. (A paceline is a long string of riders saving energy by riding in each others draft.) I'm happy to do my turn at the front, but want to ride at a steady cadence, so I need a paceline with very steady riders. Even then, I often get too tense, hunching my shoulders, and then my hands fall asleep. So I'll drop out of lines that I'm not comfortable with, because I'm not particularly skilled at it. That said, in the morning I hooked up with Lil and her son Ray (18. There also is a 16 year old on this trip.) An American in Paris, and a retired U.S. Army Officer, Lil manages all the U.S. Cemeteries in Europe. And she is an extraordinary rider, a 3 time rider of the Tour de France Feminin, among many others. They both are strong and steady. Then, later, I rode with my roomate Joel and John, which was good, but still later I hooked with a group following a tandem, which was a problem....I was 4th, and I yo-yoed enough to make it annoying. So, even though it meant being alone in the wind, it was easier to be steady out in the wind than sheltered and bouncing around.

Despite all of that, Montana is still beautiful. We spent the day in the Gallatin River Valley, where many movie stars have their spreads--and you can see why. The river, woods, ten thousand foot mountains on either side, and all leading to Yellowstone. We skirted the park, and a short climb opened onto a fantastic expanse of plain with mountains surrounding. An 8 mile slog into the wind took us to W.Yellowstone, our stop for the night. I played for an hour, had an hour massage, briskit at the Beartooth Barbeque, a talk with Anne, and, on the way back, saw a fun band engage the crowd in a rousing rendition of "Mustang Sally."

Tomorrow is a long day, capped off with our first major climb of the trip--Teton Pass.

Day 2, Missoula to Butte. 135 mi

What a very nice day! I felt good this morning--the various supplements and massage really did the trick, and I began the ride this morning feeling quite at ease. Mapping -- we left Missoula on 200, turned on 210, got on I90 for 17 miles, then took MT1 the rest of the way. We rode through lovely and dramatic river valley, then a long shallow climb into a headwind took us to lunch. After lunch we had our first real climb of the trip, about 1500 ft up to Georgetown Lake, then a Loooong 35 mph+ descent through Anaconda. That was a blast, particularly after slogging through the morning. But Anaconda was quite a sight! The town is surrounded by slag heaps 200+ ft high, some of which are greened but many of which are not. It makes all of those hydraulic mining remains in the lower Sierra look inoffensive. (It really made me want to see the hole, but that was not visible from the road.) The last SAG was at the bottom of the descent. I got in shortly after the first group, and it was a gas watching all these smiling faces come in. We then cruised in the last 20 miles on mostly side roads, punctuated by 5 more miles on I90. Riding on the interstate--- Not so bad! Wide shoulders, good separation, good visibility. Easy to see the junk to avoid on the road, mostly tire pieces. Better than massive logging trucks a foot from your head, like yesterday. Oh, did I forget to mention that? Oops.

My pattern of riding is coming into view. I'll end up spending about half my time alone and half in groups. Iusually roll out alone, the serially hook up with the fsst groups as they go by. I drop out for 3 reasons: 1. I don't want to maintain the concentration needed to ride in a group. 2. I can't match the pace--they are too fast, or I can't find the right gear to stay with them, or they go uphill faster than me. 3. A nature break.

So, as a day unfolds, I slip backwards. Now, I'm faster at the controls than a group is, so I sometimes have the option of rejoining. And on a day like today, which has terrain I do well in, I stay toward the front of the bunch. Riding in groups is a varied experience. Some are serious, some at ease--some quiet, some gabby, some friendly, some competitive. Over the next 2 weeks I'll have a chance to ride with most of them.

Newsflash

My PDA is not getting on the internet in this hotel, for some reason. I've written my post but you're going to have to wait until tomorrow to see it.

Sorry!

Todays route: Missoula to Butte. 135 Mi, 5000 ft of climbing. Beautiful weather and terrain. Roads: MT 200 to MT 210 to I90 to MT 1, then side roads to Butte.

Day 1

The day started as most of my days do; awake at 5:15, but instead of making coffee I laid in bed and did 15 min of stretching. Then dressing , filling bottles, packing and in the parking lot at 6 for breakfast. PAC Tour sets up planks on 5 gal pails, making benches for us to sit at. After scarfing a bagel & a bowl of oatmeal, it was to the bathroom, then applying bag balm, and off to work! For those of you following along on Google Earth, today's route did some wiggling around on the way out of Kalispell, then took MT 83 to MT 200. Very pretty, in the forest most of the day, lots of lakes, snow capped mountains, pretty much what you'd expect of Montana. I rode with several different groups and alone. The hardest parts of the day--getting fresh road oil on my tires, leading to picking up so much crap on my tires that they wouldn't turn--I had to spend significant time repeatedly scraping them off ovet a five mile distance. A big pain in the ass (which itself was fine, BTW). The other adventure of the day were the fierce headwinds for 40-ish miles on Rt. 200, as strong as any at home. All you could do was 'live your level' and get through in a way that worked.

My goal for the day was not to exceed 70% effort, which I mostly did--just overdid it twice in 8:40 in the saddle. This is a long, demanding trip, and if you get cooked today, you're toast tomorrow. . . And likely the next day, too. Especially when you're older, recovery is critical; your body will completely rebel if you don't take care. This is where experience really helps. So I stay in my limits on the bike and concentrate on recovery from the moment I hit the hotel. A bottle of Recoverite, shower, a hot tub if there is one, 3 or 4 bottles of water over the evening, a massage, as little movement as possible, and, hopefully, a good dinner. Tonight's qualifies, at the Finn & Porter--a nice salmon, salad, a glass of red, and a cinnamon apple crisp....a la mode.

Tomorrow we get our first substantial climbs of the trip, going to Butte; another pretty long day (135 mi) before a couple of shorter ones.

Arrived In Kalispell last night about 9. My bike was here, so I got it to my room and put it together, then connected to the internet on my little machine. This morning at breakfast in the hotel lobby I began to meet my fellow riders, as usual a mixed lot. Mostly married men, mostly in their forties and fifties, but some in the sixties. There are 44 people, maybe 6 or 8 women. Several of the ´¨crew¨ are the wives of riders, but there are also two guys who crewed on the central transcon ride I did in 2005. I´ll do a statistical analysis of the riders another day. After finishing putting my bike together and taking care of various other things, I took a two hour ride with Dan Aaron, an anesthesiologist from NY, just to make sure the bike was working...... and the legs! WE rode uo to Whitefish and visited the world headquarters of Hammer Nutrition, purveyor of nutritional items and supplement sot the endurance athlete community. This is an evangelical, data`heavy organization, which issues fifty page magazines four times a year touting the sceintific basis and proven efficacy their products (which I like and use). You´ll probably hear more about that when I describe a typical day of eating later on in the trip.

WE have a few long distance luminaries on this trip, in addition to Lon and Susan, our hosts, both winners of RAAM. Steve Born, the only man to double the Furnace Creek 508, Cassie Low Born and Anna Cat Berge, both RAAM winners, and Marc Leeuw, finisher No. 1 On PBP. Stong wheels to suck, that is, if I ever see them after the first hour.

My roomate, Joel, is a fifty something from LA who composes music for film and TV. WE´ve been gabbing away, and have made a pact to eat at good restaurants every night! Especially after the uninspired ´banquet´we had tonight, marking the opening of this tour. Pizza at the Moose Saloon, followed by dessert at Dairy Queen. However, I can recommend Mirror Pond Pale Ale, ìt just beat out Moose Drool. Yep. Hopefully we´ll see a moose, but not from close enough to get drooled on.

DAy 1 tomorrow, 150 miles to Missoula. Night, all.

On the way!

Well, I guess Mark's comment should lead me to describe my last week prior to my departure. Its actually been fairly hectic; I had Board meetings of the Eva Foundation, the shul, and Equal Access; at work, it looks like we'll be doing a bit of reorganization, so we spent a bunch of time talking that over. A the temple, dealing with a few of the deficiencies of the new building are coming to a head and we had a lot of talk, some hot and heavy email traffic, and I had to write a letter; at Equal Access we're taking a line of credit and I was involved a lot of that. So it seems that I'm leaving at a complex time, but what I've discovered is that all of these issues will still be here when I get back!

I rode about 100 miles this week, in one and two hour snatches; I also took a last Rhythm and Motion class, which was super fun, as always. We went to the ball game last night and watched Tim Lincecum strike out 13 Diamondbacks in 7 innings (and the bullpen lose it in the 8th...sigh), saw the show Sophie is working on Friday night, and had dinner with an old friend on Thursday. I did my last bit of shopping, packed and repacked my bag, decided what music to bring (Susan gave me permission to bring my guitar, which will fun to have on those days my hands aren't too tired to work it!), and we'll be heading off to the airport in an hour or so.

Its all over but the riding . .

Last training weekend! Friday was a fantastic ride, South 135 miles, 8.5 hours in the saddle, fierce headwinds at times, with 8250' of up, including the climb of Alpine Road in San Mateo County, which I'd heard of but never done before. I felt real strong, easy, and not at all tired or stressed out. A real confidence builder. I Came home and made my last few adjustments to the bike; wrapped a second layer of handlebar tape, put on my new tires, recalibrated the computer, washed and waxed the frame. Then up at 5 the next morning for a 50 mile, 3500 foot ride before going to shul for Ruthie Hollander's Bat Mitzvah. Sunday my plan was to ride 100 again, but my spirit was low (we were up late the night before enjoying Peter Rowan and David Bromberg), even though my legs felt good., so I went for a high cadence/low stress cruise to Fairfax, watched all the Sunday riders (hundreds) out for their weekend rides, then headed home. As soon as I got there, I got right to the TIVO and watched CSC hammer Cadel over and over again on Prato Nevoso. (Actually, though, if I had to pick someone now, other than Cadel, it would be Menchov over both Schleck and Sastre. He looked scary good yesterday. VandeVelde I think is a nice dream, but he didn't go with Lang at Hautacam or with Kohl yesterday; I don't see him being able to just depend on the time trial if he wants to win. My sense is that he is aiming for top 5, not for the win).

Then I went downstairs and packed up the bike to ship off. A very careful, loving process, and really the beginning of the ride; I begin to abandon my daily considerations and draw my focus inward. At this point, I do have to give myself over to the ride; worrying about what I did or didn't do in training doesn't matter, I can't train any more--I'll just have to be as good as I am. I'm strong enough, and fit enough--I may not be fast enough, but in the worst case I'll have to get sagged. Anne just laughs at me when I say this; she's heard it lot over the years, and I end up doing just fine. And I have never gotten into the van. Even my one DNF on Terrible Two, I rode the bike back to the start.

So this week is about chilling out, closing up the loose ends on my various work projects for the next 3 weeks, spending time with Anne & Sophie and dropping off all considerations except riding. They, by the way, are going to South America. And I'm choosing to ride my bike instead. Hmmm . . . . .

Hello, everyone

When I rode across the country with PAC Tour in 2005, I enjoyed keeping a weblog. It helped me recap each day's activity and kept my friends informed about how I was doing. It also was great to put in the trip scrapbook! I am riding again with PAC Tour on Ridge of the Rockies, a 19 day 1943 mile extravaganza, and will record my experiences here.

Today I'm feeling sort of anxious about starting the tour; It is a huge undertaking, and I don't feel quite as well prepared this time as I was last time. I've ridden about 1800 miles in the last two months, and about 4000 or so on the year, which is qute a bit less than I had going into the cross country trip. (This is the first year since 2000 that I have not kept track of every training mile and hour.) I also have been less disciplined with my intervals than I was before--I was good February through April, but not really since then. That said, though, I am stronger from a round of weightlifting in the fall and from riding my fixed gear bike all over the place, I have another PBP under my belt and I have a lot of experience in riding long distances in brevets and double centuries. And you use the first week of PAC Tour to prepare for the second week, so I'm hoping that holds true for me as well. Last time I was extremely well prepared; I think I could have done less and therefore spent less time away from the family; I've done less this time, so we'll see how it all unfolds.

I also have a new bike for this trip (I'm thinking its the last bike I'll ever buy), a custom frame with a steel main triangle and carbon stays and fork, built for me by Steve Rex. I picked up the bike in Sacramento on June 20, spent the night in Dixon and rode it home the next day (about 150 miles with a lot of up, including the Oakville grade) -- the bike felt like it was built for me! I'm riding a Campangnolo Chorus compact gear system, with chainrings of 34-50 and a rear cluster of 12 - 29. This give me a small gear of 30.8 inches, as opposed to 28.2 inches with the triple I used last time; a less easy gear. Don't think the 2.5 inches make that much difference; its feeling OK on my training rides. There's only one day I'm kind of worried about from that standpoint; the 147 mile, 87oo foot day characterized as "dozens of short, steep climbs." Hmmm . . . but cycling has a way of throwing you curve balls at the least expected times, so you have to be easy and take what comes.

This weekend is another 350 mile weekend; the last one! I'll check in on Monday and report on how it went.

You can find the itinerary (scroll down a bit to find it) and a ride description at this link: Ridge of the Rockies.