I spoke with a father-son westbound pair from the Netherlands, and waved at a large group of cyclists packing their things into a support van. They weren't as interested in taking with me. At first, I assumed their aloofness was a superiority thing, since they could afford thousands of dollars for their trip while I schlepped all my own stuff, but later I realized that in their place, I would probably be worried that self-supported folks would look down on the those with a support vehicle. I also realized that they might be kind of right, which is unfair of me. I think that the value of my trip comes largely from escaping rigid schedules, exploring my own limits and abilities by setting my own goals and pushing myself to meet them, and proving that a bike is actually useful for transportation instead of just a toy, all of which I don't think I would get from a supported tour. With support, the schedule is set for you, the goals are chosen for accessibility, I would rely on herd instinct rather than personal initiative, and the bike would feel redundant when a van is right there anyway. For me, it'd feel like paying some actors to help me pretend to adventure. But is there anything wrong with that, if you're honest about it? Again, I don't think it's fair of me to look down on their trip -- they don't have to have the same goals as I do, they could have health or other issues complicating things, and really, anything that gets people on a bike should be encouraged. Plus, who am I to judge a supported ride when the majority of my "adventuring" comes from video games?
Anyway, with these thoughts in mind, I left early and headed off route -- this time, intentionally. The official Trans-Am trail stays west of the Rockies for a while and explores some nice views and ski towns, but I chose to duck into Colorado proper to visit a friend, try the beer, and experience places like Boulder, which I hear are amazing. I picked up a map from State Park State Forest visitor's center and headed west on Highway 14, which involved a 2,000-ft climb to break 10,000 ft before dropping about 5,000 ft again into Fort Collins.
I had to keep reminding myself to breathe harder than I felt like I should, but the climb wasn't too terrible. The descent was absolutely beautiful, but I felt robbed -- I had a headwind the entire day, so all that altitude didn't translate to an easy day of watching the sights zip by like I expected. I spent almost no time coasting. Even in a tight tuck, the wind brought me to what felt like a crawl if I didn't keep pedaling as hard as I could. I did still manage to make it ~100 miles into to Fort Collins while it was still daylight, where I stayed with Matt Hogan, who is another UCSC physics grad; his wife Hannah; and their two small but aggressive dogs. I was still very happy for the place to stay even if the dogs weren't.
The river canyon along highway 14 is very steep and very difficult to photograph without proper lenses, much less an old cell phone. Here are some attempts, first a couple pictures from the climb, then a very fuzzy dog, then the descent:
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