As far a “Big” bike trips go Angela’s and my first trip was in 2016 when we rode 2550 miles over 51 days to a 40 yr reunion of my college days at Purdue and living at Rochdale House. We called it our “Outerbanks by Bike” trip to Cape Hatteras. We were newly retired and had ambitious plans for our ‘new’ post-work life. It was an epic trip and got us hooked on bike touring.
Our next cross country trip was the “Border to Border” trip from Vancouver to Tijuana along the Pacific coast, another wonderful trip. Since that 2017 trip we’ve done many Katy Trail rides, the Gap/C&O trail and many other shorter trips. But over the last year or so and seeing the viggers of my middle years slowly fading away I began to ponder another big trip from the Pacific back to my home in Colorado, across the desolation and openness of the West. A trip like this would allow me to have ridden Border to Border and now Coast to Coast. And in looking back on my trips it was always the long views and open spaces I seemed to enjoy the most. And the Adventure Cycling route called the Western Express would provide plenty of open spaces.
A ride like this was not going to be Angela’s "cup of tea" as there would likely be nights slept on the ground and very few comforts along the way, not to mention people. I envisioned, even romanticized a trip by myself, man against nature, living by my wits and fortunes, complete days where I might not hear another person speak a word. But a few months ago a good friend, fellow bike rider and Ambassador with me at Copper Mountain approached me with great excitement. Len has riden many long rides including 600km Brivets and a charity ride from Los Angeles to Chicago, but he has never toured self-supported cross country and has wanted to for some time. After several sessions discussing the trip, the challenges, and exploring our compatibility for such an adventure we agreed we would tackle the Western Express together. Now we have a two day road trip in front of us to San Francisco where we’ll begin our ride home.
Our first day driving west across Colorado and Utah brought us to Ely, Nevada where we over-nighted in the luxurious Hotel Nevada and Casino.
On our 2nd day of driving we pulled into the Enterprise Rental Garage in SFO just before they closed on Friday. Then we packed up our bikes and road about 4 miles to our hotel.
We spent Saturday stretching our legs on a 8 mile walk-about San Francisco where we walked Lombard, the curviest and perhaps one of the steepest roads around.
We encountered lots of steepness today including several “vertical parks” like this one.
After walking along Fisherman's Wharf and The Embarcadero we stumbled through the tall buildings of the Financial District and turned back towards our hotel for a little mid-day nap. Later we took an 11 mile bike ride to the Golden Gate Bridge which we’ll cross tomorrow as we begin our trip back home.
No comments:
Post a Comment