Day 3: Hot Sulphur Springs, CO- Walden, CO 61.5 Miles

Hey Y'all!

Sorry for the delay on yesterday's (Sunday) post.

After relaxing in the sulphur springs on Friday, we watched  the most recent James Bond movie, "Spector". We both really enjoyed it (I know there are some mixed reviews out there). On Saturday, one of the locals told us that the strong winds (the winds that we had been fighting the previous two days) really pick up around 1:00pm. With that knowledge, we decided to wake up early on Sunday to 'beat the winds'.

When we woke up at 6:00am on Sunday, it was a brisk 40 degrees (Fahrenheit... for our international friends). We bundled up in our warm-weather gear (thermal pants, long shirt, fleece, and long gloves).

We headed out of the hotel knowing that we would need to cross the Willow Creek Pass. Willow Creek Pass, elevation 9,659 ft, is a mountain pass that crosses the Continental Divide in the Rocky Mountains of north central Colorado. We were "sittin' pretty' at an elevation of 7680 ft in Hot Sulphur Springs, CO, and we knew we were in for some serious elevation changes.

We knew that the Willow Creek Pass would be tough. What we didn't know was that the 25 miles leading up to it would be completely uphill! 

Looking at the maps the night before, we noticed there was nowhere to get water between Hot Sulphur Springs, CO and Walden, CO. We originally planned to carry a ton of extra water, but we discovered that there was a campsite between our hotel and the Willow Creek Pass that had drinking water available (according to their website). Upon arriving at this campsite, we learned that there wasn't any water. A kind family at the campsite overheard us talking about how we were low on water, and they quickly handed us four of their water bottles.

QUICK ASIDE: Our  spiritual leader, Rabbi Daniel Cohen,  has always stressed the benefits of 'paying it forward'. Receiving this much-needed water reminded us of the water bottle we had given to  Kevin (the biker we crossed paths with a few days earlier-- see Day 1) when he was running low. While we never expected anything in return, we must admit that this quick "return on investment" was quite outstanding :)  

When we left the campsite, we realized we were still in  need of extra water (we knew we were in for more hills). We had been biking along Willow Creek (we would describe it more as a 'river', but to each their own, I guess) and we realized that this might be the last time we could easily access water. 

Drinking unsanitized water can be very dangerous. Even if water seems clean, it can contain harmful bacteria that can land you in the hospital. Luckily, we had (and still have) a bottle of tablets that purify water. We filled up our 'bladders' with water, followed the instructions for the purification-tablets, and carried on. 

Once we reached Willow Creek Pass, we had another 5 miles of climbing to do before we reached the summit. All in all, we had done 30 miles of uphill climbing before we were even half way done with the ride! 

We relaxed at the top of Willow Creek Pass, ate some PB+J sandwiches, and reveled in what we had just done. 

Earlier in the day we joked about how we would be walking up Willow Creek Pass, and we exchanged feelings of self-doubt in our ability to literally climb a mountain on a fully loaded bike (even with the 'granny gear'). In the end, we were able to bike the entire way! 

The ride down the mountain was a ton of fun! At some point I wanted to see how fast I could go,  and I let go of my brakes... I allowed myself to hit 35mph before I started to squeeze my brakes again. While not my BEST idea, it was a ton of fun. 

After our decent from Willow Creek Pass, we reached the 'town' of Rand. Our maps indicated that there was absolutely nothing in the town of Rand (except for a Post Office, which seemed like a wasteful use of tax dollars...). To our surprise, we came across the "Rand Store" (creative name). We went into the store and spoke with the shop keeper for a bit. She told us about the premium hay that is grown on the surrounding ranches, and how some of the top race horses in America rely on it for its high protein content. Before we could ask if she had any water, she excitedly told us how she leaves gallons of drinking water outside for cyclists. We thanked her, used the outhouse, and filled up our water bottles.  

With 22 miles to go, my knees were in serious pain. The pain had started a few days back, but I had been able to get by with a regiment of Advil, Icy Hot, and icepacks. The pain was a little different today... it was in both knees, and was more intense. We faced rolling hills until we reached Walden, CO... a one street town with not much going on. 

By the time we got to our hotel I could barely walk. My Dad got me some ice, I popped some Advil, and I settled down on the bed for a while. After eating, we discussed our options. It was clear that what ever issue I was having with my knees was getting worse. It was also clear that I was not going to be able to ride the next day (or maybe even longer). 

After a long discussion, we decided it would best to rent a car and turn our BIKE TRIP into a CAMPING TRIP - driving across America all the way back to Stamford CT.

The new plan posed an interesting challenge this morning (Monday). We needed a way to get from Walden, CO to Laramie, WY in order to pick up our car (if you're looking for a very interesting read, I recommend, "The Laramie Project" by Moisés Kaufman). We were told the only way to get out of Walden was by hitch hiking from the local gas station - no uber, no taxis. This morning my Dad tried to hitch a ride to Laramie (he even asked a driver of an oil-tanker, who would have been happy to take him but he was going in the wrong direction). After almost 3 hours of trying, he eventually found a ride with our waitress who served us dinner last night, named Missy. Basically my dad sucks at hitch hiking. He tried it on our last bike trip five years ago and nobody even slowed down.

We are still planning on going to Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Mount Rushmore and hopefully the Fields of Dreams in Iowa, but we are looking for other suggestions for things to see as we drive across America. If you have any suggestions, please let us know!! (it will be much easier to 'go out of our way' in a car)

Thanks for coming along for the ride!

~CS

(found some bullets on the side of the road!)

Day 2: Kremmling, CO- Hot Sulphur Springs, CO 18 Miles

Hey Y'all,

Today was a relatively short day, (only) 18 miles!  Knowing that today's ride would be short, we decided to sleep in in order to fully recover from yesterday's tough ride. Today's ride was pretty nice- some notable uphills, but much more manageable than yesterday.

We arrived in Hot Sulphur Springs, CO around 1:30pm, and quickly changed into our bathing suits. We relaxed in the hot sulphur springs (probably the inspiration for the name of the town) for about an hour before we went into 'town' (a small, rundown gas station convenience store) to stock up on food for tonight and tomorrow.

Beer of the Day: Bud Light... because that's really all they had.  

Shout out to my Aunt Michele on her  birthday.  This Bud's for you! 

Thanks for coming along for the ride!

~CS

Day 2: A Quick Story From a Few Days Back

A good (true) story for a Friday afternoon -

On Wednesday night after dropping Diane and Zimi at the Salt Lake City Utah airport, Coby and I then drove toward Breckenridge CO, where we would be starting our bike adventure - hopefully making it to Yellowstone National Park and then to Mount Rushmore.

After driving for about five hours we decided to sleep in Rawlins Wyoming for the night - a decent size town that is 200 miles away from civilization in almost any direction.

We pulled into Rawlins at about 10:30pm, and headed straight to the 24 hour Walmart to pick up some necessities for our ride. Suntan lotion, Gatorade Powder - to mix into our water bottles, bug spray, and energy bars. When we walked into the Walmart we headed straight to the back corner of the very large store - the beverage section, to look for the powdered Gatorade, but we couldn’t find any there. We then headed to the sporting goods section where we had found the individual servings of powdered Gatorade in the past, but we didn’t find any there either. We decided to give up on our search and headed to the front of the store where we picked up some bug spray, suntan lotion and a nice selection of power bars. We were about to head to the checkout counter close by, but discussed going back to look for the elusive powdered Gatorade. Even though it was 11pm and we were tired and needed to get some sleep we decided to go back to the beverage section to look again - after all, we were going to need the extra calories and the electrolytes on what would surely be some pretty tough days. In hindsight we had no idea what we were about to encounter, or why we were going back there.

After arriving at the beverage section (again) we started to peer at every shelf. We found powdered iced tea, powdered Hawaiian Punch, but no sign of the powdered Gatorade. As we were looking around we saw a young hispanic looking woman stocking the shelves nearby with soda and juices. She was staring at us and specifically at Coby’s head. She seemed shy, but she worked up the courage to ask Coby -

“Where did you get that hat on your head”

My stomach tightened up as I wasn’t sure where this was going. Coby was wearing a Kippah/Yalmulka, which embarrassingly I have suggested he not wear in places where nobody had ever seen Jews before. But Coby, to his great credit feels like it’s a sign of peoplehood and he can spread goodwill for his people by doing good things while wearing a Kippah.

Coby answered -

“it’s called a Yalmulka and you can get them on the internet”.

We thought that would be the end of the story, but as the three of us stood there in an awkward moment of silence the woman blurted out six words, that were the last six words I thought I would ever hear at 11pm in the beverage section of a Walmart in Rawlins Wyoming -

“Shema Yisrael Adonay Eloheinu Adonay Echad” (loosely translated - Hear O Israel the Lord is God the Lord is One)

Wow - something was going on here, and as Coby and I looked at each other not knowing whether to laugh or to cry, this young stocking clerk who works the night shift at Walmart, hundreds of miles from the closest Jew, then blurted out the “second to last” six words that I would have ever expected to hear at 11pm at a Walmart in Rawlins Wyoming -

“Baruch Shem Kvod Malchuto LeOlam Vaed" (Loosely translated - Blessed be the name of the Lord forever and ever)

Okay, so at that point I was ready to cry.

Neredya told Coby that he was the first Jew she ever met, and you could tell she was quite excited about it, and it was as meaningful to her, as this encounter was to us. She told us that she was trying to learn hebrew over the internet but that it was not easy. She also told us that she asked Walmart to not schedule her for the late shift on Friday night so that she could observe Shabbat.

We will never really know what Neredya’s journey is all about, and we will likely never meet her again. For me, these bike trips are not about the bikes - after all we hadn’t even peddled one mile. For me they are about spending time with my kids, seeing more of this great country, and for meeting people along the way - most for reasons we will never understand, but I believe there is a reason.

And while we will never know the real reason why the good Lord sent us back to get powdered Gatorade so that we could meet Neredya, we do know for sure that it was NOT for the powdered Gatorade - because they didn’t have any.

Heading to Hot Sulphur Springs for Shabbat. A short ride with a lot of hills.

~ES

Day 1: Breckenridge, CO- Kremmling, CO 54.5 Miles

Hey Y'all!

We left the hotel in Breckenridge, CO around 8:30am  with our bags fully loaded. There was a beautiful bike path for the first 10 miles of our ride that took us along the Blue River and the Dillon Reservoir. After amazing views and few hills, my Dad and I  got our first taste of the Colorado Rockies.  We knew before we started that biking at altitudes of 9000+ feet with 40 pounds of gear and water on our bikes was simply something we could not train for.

The mild downhill of the bike path quickly turned to steep hills with 25-30mph headwinds. When we were about 15 miles from Kremmling, CO, we ran into a fellow biker, Kevin. He introduced himself to us, and we exchanged stories from the road and frustration about the headwinds.  Kevin mentioned that he was out of water, and we quickly offered him some of ours (we expected to pass a place to fill up within the next few miles... we were wrong about that, and in hindsight, we really should not have offered him our water).

Kevin carried on, and we rested for a few minutes longer. About 5 miles later, we hit another obstacle.  We came across a sign saying "pavement ends." This is not something you like to see when biking, but we did run into Kevin again! The roadway ahead was under construction and had been converted to one-lane, with construction workers directing traffic. We were held up there for about 40 minutes before we were able to start biking again.   Luckily for us, the construction workers held traffic in both directions while we rode the 3 miles on unpaved roads.

The rest of the day was pretty tough. Lots of hills, unyielding headwinds (we had to pedal going DOWNHILL). We reached Kremmling, CO tired and a bit dehydrated (giving Kevin our water was a rookie move). We pulled into a "Kum and Go" gas station and downed some Gatorade and potato chips. We pulled into the Hotel Easton just a few blocks later, showered, ate, and relaxed.

Hebrew word of the day: רוּחַ פָּנִים. Or in English, 'Headwinds'. The headwinds today were maybe the most challenging part of our ride, and we expect them to continue throughout the trip.

Check out some of our pictures below.

Don't forget to subscribe to the blog, like our Facebook page (cycle of a lifetime, and add me on snapchat (cobysloyer)

Thanks for coming along for the ride!

~CS

Day 0- Breckenridge, CO

Hey Y'all!

Today we arrived in Breckenridge, CO. We have spent the past five days driving here from Los Angeles, CA, stopping at Zion, the Coral Pink Sand Dunes, the Grand Canyon, and Bryce.  We were lucky to have my mom and Zimi join us in these incredible parks, but they had to head back to the 'real world' and will not be joining us on our bike ride.

We picked up our bikes at the Avalanche Sports in Breckenridge, and quickly realized that we wouldn't be able to fit both bikes into the car. We decided to bike to the hotel (just 0.70 Miles down the road), then we walked back to Avalanche Sports for the car.

My dad needed to bring the car back to Denver International Airport (about 2 hours away with the rush hour traffic), and I stayed back in Breckenridge to pack our panniers, create some music playlists, and plan our route for the next few days (assuming everything goes well).

After my dad came back from Denver, we met up with Avidan (a friend from Stamford,CT who moved to CO). Avidan was able to help us plan our route, and gave us great advice regarding the wildlife (apparently moose are super dangerous) and altitude (tonight we're sleeping at 9740 feet ABOVE SEA LEVEL).

We will be posting blog posts daily, updating my story on Snap Chat, and maybe even dabbling with Facebook Live.


How to follow us?

• Feel free to add me on snapchat at "cobysloyer" to see my story. 
• Like' our Facebook page: Cycle of a Lifetime.
• Subscribe to the blog in order to get email updates with new posts.

Thanks for coming along for the ride!

BEER OF THE DAY: Polygamy Porter... Why have just one??

~CS