Nate Buchanan, his brother Dusty, and friend Rick finish the Colorado Trail after 17 days of high-elevation riding above 12,000 feet. The final push includes thousand-foot daily climbs, a mechanical failure near the end, and an emotional finish in Durango.
Chapters
Sheer exhaustion. Sheer exhaustion and setting in. Dusty.
Dusty.
We're Karen Nath, and we spent the last four years traveling to 100 countries. But 2020 brought back to the US where we bought a converted sprinter van to explore our own backyard. If you missed our last few videos, Nate, his brother Dusty, and our friend Rick are attempting to ride the entire length of the Colorado trail, which stretches 500 miles across the state and has an elevation gain equivalent to climbing Mount Everest three times on a bike. While the boys are testing their physical limits each day, their support crew, consisting of myself, my Rick's wife Beck, and their two kids, Evie and Frankie, are keeping them fed and moving the vans along the route so they have a warm bed to sleep in each night. I'm scared, and I have personally taken over the responsibility of worrying enough for the entire group.
Ugh.
I hate this. After 13 days of riding, the boys have completed 443 of the 570 miles. In this episode, they'll push their bodies to the limit as they attempt to tackle the remaining 127 miles over the trail's most challenging terrain.
Wow.
This is like the elevation profile of the whole Colorado Trail. And this line here is 12,000ft. So up until now, you know, we've poked above it briefly here, briefly here, and that's about it. Over the next four days, we're living up there.
We're already getting things ready for tomorrow morning because the goal is to get out of here by seven to do our biggest day yet. How many miles do we have?
I think tomorrow is about almost 40 miles and 7,200ft of climbing. And if we get stuck somewhere in the middle of that, there's no way out. We don't have tents. We don't have anything to cook with. We just have the 10 bars that we kind of bring each day. So as a last resort, we may have to eat Dusty. It's just an option.
So the earlier we get started, the less time we have to ride in the dark.
Thank you.
You're the best.
Paris. Frost on the windows.
I didn't even sleep good last night. Cause I was so nervous about today. This is, like the first day where.
Like, stuff could actually go wrong.
Never been so nervous about a bike ride.
Me either.
Oh, it's so cold.
It's gonna be amazing. We got it.
Let's go. Biggest day.
See you, Silver King.
Okay. Come home to me, please.
I will.
Just try not to get the heart rate too high before 7:00am oh, yeah.
Bring on the sandwich.
I'm really nervous about today, mostly because Nate is nervous and he's like the most level headed person I know. So if he's scared, then you know it's something big. I know they can do it. It's just gonna be a long day for both of us. Nothing of just a little sleep deprived and I miss him already.
All right, it's about 8am I just packed up the van and I'm gonna drive 10 miles into Lake City. Hopefully where there's Internet.
They're so big, they could just beat this.
Are they going to move?
Excuse me.
Accidentally made a circle.
Oh, gosh. I can't go anywhere alone. Things never go smoothly when I'm not following her. I think I can make it. It's only 10 miles and it's literally one road with no turns.
All right, 9 o'. Clock. We're two hours into the ride. This is about what time we normally leave the vans. We've already knocked out seven miles and we're moving at a pace of about three miles an hour, which sounds super slow, but if we can keep this up, we'll make it back before dark.
I've made it. It doesn't say that I can't park here, but it doesn't say that I can. And there's a sheriff right there.
I'm gonna go in this cafe and try to upload the vlog.
It's pretty crazy. We're up here above 12,000ft, so even just getting off your bike and walking takes your breath away.
And when I tried to put the drone up, it just literally fell out of the sky.
I guess the air is so thin it just can't even.
Yes.
Downhill.
Yeah.
Here we go. Making the miles.
It's a dodge the rocks and hold on for dear life. It somehow feels smoother when you go faster. Oh, wow. That's a lot of rocks.
Well, that coffee shop was adorable. And they had excellent sausage and grape biscuits. Got the vlog uploaded. Now it's starting to rain. Hopefully it's not raining on the guys yet.
Scared. Dusty. Wrecked. He wasn't that far behind me. Dusty.
It was kind of easy to miss that turn.
Yeah, I bet he did.
We were both flying down that hill and turned around and Dusty was nowhere in sight. Which is weird because he's normally way faster than me on the downhills. Say the most likely three scenarios are his chain fell off, he missed the turn. Worst case scenario, he's hurt. Dusty.
Oh. I mean, because I feel like we'd be able to see him.
So we turned off a road right up here and came down this trail. And we suspect that Dusty's continued all the way down there. Dusty.
I heard him up here.
I don't see him again. I'm honestly just glad he's alive.
He's alive. He's just a half an hour hike back to where we are. I don't see him still though. No, he's probably going. Are you sure that's the right way back up here?
Oh, I feel like. I feel like now that I know he's okay, I can laugh about it.
He has so far to walk. Oh, that sucks. We've been watching Dusty walk up this hill for like 20 minutes and I'm just not sure what his reaction is going to be when he gets here.
Spend the whole day just trying to conserve every little bit of energy. If you see a rocky part, is it worth the extra pedal stroke? Maybe I walk this part, keep my heart rate even. Dusty's just bombed two miles downhill in the wrong direction. All right, we can't laugh at it.
Straight face.
Sorry, Dusty.
There's a turn right here.
I'm sorry, man.
You, you went so far.
I'm just glad we could hear you. We were like, obviously we were worried at first and then when we heard your voice, it became to us funny at that point. I'm sure not to you yet, but.
Oh, man.
That was at least a thousand foot climb.
It's like.
I mean, I went all the way down on that corner and like started pedaling back up.
It goes back up down there?
Yeah, it's going back up other paths.
That's like where the trail's going right now.
If it connects up down there.
And it was like a tiring downhill too.
Yeah, it looks pretty choppy. Yeah, this is like all perfect signature.
The best trail we've been on all day.
Oh, I'm sorry. All right, now you get to ride it.
It's already time to go drive to our camp spot for the night, which is a whopping like three hour drive if we're being honest. I had to spend the last hour in the car making some really.
Un fun phone calls.
Just leave it at that.
There's Rick down in the bushes. That's where he came from.
The Colorado trail is great in the sense that you get all of the best views, but it's also cruel in the fact that it makes you climb to the top of every single mountain. I don't know this for sure, but I'd venture to say that we're going to the top of that.
This might be the most beautiful section of the trail yet.
Wow. Just look at this. Dusty even pulled his phone out.
It is 3.45in the afternoon, and the only things that I put in my body today are coffee, sausage, gravy, biscuits, and popcorn. By the end of this trip, Nate's going to be fitter than he's ever been in his life. And I will have gained a no.
Yeah. You can literally eat a whole pizza.
All right. Last 100ft of the push the air spin. Lungs are burning, but we're almost there. If I dropped my bike right now.
Wow. That just drops off.
Not a bad lunch spot. Doesn't get much better than this. Spam sandwich is at almost 13,000ft.
Man, that is a good spam sandwich.
We just got to the city of Montrose, which is about halfway.
Yay.
I spend way too much when Nate isn't here. Son.
Raining on us every day.
The weather called for a 10% chance of rain today.
We're getting wet.
So this shoebox has been the guy's, like, treasure chest for the last week and a half. Has all their snacks that they take with them for the day. And it's looking a little bare. So every.
Okay. To Silverton we go.
We are mountain biking at 13,000ft. Kind of feels like we're riding across the moon with some grass.
Moon, grass. Is that snow? I knew it was cold. Cold. It's snowing.
I'll take frozen water that doesn't seep into my clothes over rain any day. It is very cold, though. The worst part is we're almost perfectly at the halfway point right now. So civilization is about 20 miles in either direction.
Yeah. If you find, like a jade or something.
Starting to rain again. And I feel like it's raining every day of this trip.
Oh, I think we dodged it. You can literally see the snow cloud moving down the valley. We're going into bluish skies.
Highest point on the Colorado trail. There it goes. Nice. Good work.
Good work, guys.
Wow.
So many cows. We're currently driving through Ouray. I've heard so much about this city and I see why now.
Oh, those rocks were so loose.
Oh.
So pretty. It's so windy. It's hard to stay on the trail.
This is what our days come to. Hiding behind rocks, eating cold potatoes, and it's a highlight. It's gonna great cold potatoes.
I can't wait.
Okay. I have a love hate relationship with this road. It's like one side is a cliff going this way and one side is a cliff going this way. It's beautiful. But I'm ready for it to be over.
Wow, look at this view.
I'm grateful for that.
We have been climbing this mountain for what seems like forever now. It is so beautiful, but it's, like, hard to drive up this mountain. You're doing great, boys.
Keep it up. So we're pushing our bike up this path, up the side of the mountain, and then over top of the saddle. This is probably the most dramatic landscape that we've seen yet. But we probably pushed our bike 90% of the.
This is about the worst terrain we've had to push the bikes over yet. Just super loose gravel.
On the side of the steep mountain. It's like walking through sand, except maybe worse.
Gets my heart rate up to unhealthy levels.
We have arrived in Silverton. It looks adorable. Very small.
So to sum this day up, we essentially walk our bikes up a pass that looks something like this somewhere over there, ride downhill for five minutes, and then do it all again. I've only done this seven times today. Oh, my legs are screaming at me.
Oh, my gosh.
We are all struggling right now. We've already climbed 7900ft and somehow we still have to climb this.
That.
We were only supposed to be doing 7,300ft today, total. So now it's just a mental game.
We've been out here for 11 hours. We've ridden up 8200ft.
I think this is the first time that I've been just like, the trail isn't technically challenging. Like, I wasn't scared I was gonna die and, like, really hated it. This is the first time that it's just, like, purely exhausted me.
This is the climb that never end.
Started climbing without knowing where it ends.
You guys see where we're going next?
I'm so excited. We just parked in Silverton. We're going to sit at a restaurant, and hopefully the dads will join us soon.
This is why it's not frozen to my face. I can't feel.
Just never ends. Like the last five peaks we've crested, we've dug. Surely there can't be another one. And here we are again.
Going to the top of that one. But at this point, the cold start to take my mind off of how tired I am. I don't know which one's worse.
We just got a table outside on the main street at this super cool restaurant. Hopefully we can have pizza and drinks waiting for him.
We found the Jeep road, which means I think that we finished climbing for today. But we have about 30 minutes before it's completely dark outside, and we have to use this road to descend 3,000ft in 10 miles into the town of Silverton.
Man, it's cold.
This is what we're about to descend. Looks like fun until you look down. All just huge, loose rocks.
Rocks.
This is going to beat me to death.
Oh, gosh. That was not the right line.
Beautiful.
You're a natural. Not so fun. So fun.
I think my back break's gonna catch on fire.
No way.
What are you gonna get to Drake? I'm feeling the mules. I'm gonna have them.
Traditional.
I should go and order them some beer.
We made it into town. Oh, what a beautiful sight. Silverton. I never loved the city so much. There they are.
Welcome back.
They were huge.
How was it?
It was awesome. I mean, in a really brutal way.
I think that's the hardest physical single day challenge of my entire life.
I feel like you've said that a lot lately.
No, this. Today was.
I missed you.
Missed you.
Are you okay?
Yeah.
Did you wreck.
Nope. Yay. Just a very long day.
I cannot think of a better way. He said I need to end that day. Mainly, I just wanted that day to end. This is pretty good. I believe.
This is, like, what I've been fantasizing about all day for 13 hours. Pizzas and beer and you guys there at the table.
Wow.
This is a dream come true.
Cheers.
I'm very impressed that we got through that today.
Y. I'm proud.
So you said you got.
Some people are just on.
So last night, after we got done eating, we were all exhausted, and we just asked the ladies that worked at the pizza restaurant where we could park the vans overnight. And they said, oh, no problem. Just go up to the local park, which is what we did. And then this morning, we woke up and.
We found this sign laying on the ground. To be fair, though, it was like it was on the ground like this, but nobody really seemed to care.
You feel like a bum today?
No, not at all.
You're colorful. I like your pony today. Thank you.
It's day 15. We were supposed to have another massive day like we did yesterday, but after getting in late last night, we just couldn't bring ourselves to do it. So today's a rest day, and we're having the biggest burrito I've ever seen in my entire life. Life.
So we've just driven 45 minutes from Silverton to the town of Ouray, which is this beautiful little town nestled in the mountains that's known as the Switzerland of America. But most Importantly, it has hot springs, and that's where we're planning on spending the rest after.
I'm so excited.
It's not exactly the beautiful, natural setting that I had pictured. It feels a little bit more like a public swimming pool, but it does feel really good. Tomorrow, my body is gonna love me for this.
Oh, they might be turned off.
I wasn't gonna fall asleep in this pool.
It's day 16. It's a cold one this morning. My bike bags.
They'Re frozen. We have about 40 miles and 6,000ft of elevation today and about the same tomorrow. If we can knock both of those out, we'll be in Durango in two days.
Love you.
Love you.
I'm out of breath. I'm just running up there for two seconds.
It is a beautiful, sunny day. I'm getting the van ready to go because we have quite the drive today.
This is too good.
What a morning. I love the Colorado Trail.
Wow. Crank came out of nowhere.
Oh, this is ridiculous. It's, like, perfectly smooth.
All right. Windows are closed. Fans are off. Drawers are.
Closed. Everything seems secure. I think it's time to go.
Oh, we skipped our first snack break. We were having so much fun. I feel like with all the complaining I've done about the uphills and the rocks and the weather, I just need to celebrate how beautiful this morning is. The trail could not be more perfect. Even the climbing, like, straight up a mountain, even that was fun. It's, like, almost too good to be true. Even in the past, when we've. We've ridden past, hikers haven't seemed super excited to have a mountain bike flying past them. But today they've been like, yeah, that looks like so much fun.
Thank you. We're halfway convinced that we. We may have actually died at some point along the trail, and now we've just gone to mountain bike heaven.
Let the serious climbing begin.
So Beck said that we have to drive at least three hours to get to our meeting spot for tonight because the guys are driving through the mountains, and we have to go all the way around them again.
Has been a great morning, but I. I don't want to belittle the effort that we're putting in. We're currently climbing right up around that peak. As beautiful as the trail's been, we're still doing 3, 800ft of climbing in the first 20 miles.
That was sweet.
This is sweet. Best lunch spot yet.
So we are really close to where we're going, but we're not positive how to get there. The Colorado Trail Isn't really set up for, like, support vans. So right now, Google maps is pretty much taking us to a road that is 4x4 only. So Beck has found an alternate route that she's attempting to take us to. That should be a better road. Really, we don't know.
I feel like when I watch this back later, it's going to sound really dramatic, but that's how I feel at the moment.
I just. I can't be bothered to get on my bike and ride. Oh, it's amazing how much can change in a couple hours. I've come way down off the high that I was on this morning to definitely a low point. This is the most lethargic I felt on the entire trail. I don't know if it's from baking in the sun all day or from being dehydrated at the hot springs yesterday or if just all 450 miles is finally catching up with me, but it. I just want to lay down and take a nap.
All right. We knocked out the first segment of the day. It took.
Six and a half hours, but thankfully, segment two is half the distance and half the climbing. So if all goes well, we'll make it back for an early dinner.
All right. We just turned on to a gravel road, so there's nothing new about this, but we don't know what it might turn into out in the cliff, Going straight down on this side. We're gonna be on this road for a while.
Oh, it's so frustrating.
It's like, such an easy day Compared to other days that we've done, but for some reason, My body just does not want to do it.
Oh, yeah.
So we just passed a sign that said, not suitable for cars towing trailers. As usual, we have zero cell phone reception, so if we can't there, we're gonna have to drive back a long way.
All right. Classic climb of the day. I just have to will myself over.
Over that mountain.
This is a big bump. Oh, yeah. Okay. How are we gonna do this? Try to go this side. You can do it. You can do it.
That's Rick riding into the shadow of her skill.
I think we're maybe just now Halfway down this road, and it's been over 45 minutes. It doesn't help that I can't really go past, like, 10 miles per hour.
I don't even see a trail.
Big turn.
That was a doozy.
I just got a little bit of service. I might pause and track the guys real quick. Like, they're on a cool trail out in the open. They must be at really high elevation right now.
Oh, this looks super sketchy.
I hate this.
And one slip and I'm going down the mountain.
All right.
Six more miles on this road.
Google thinks it's only going to take 25 more minutes, but I don't think Google knows how slow I have to go. Maybe if I was on like a four wheeler. I bought these potato chips for the gas guys. That have meat in them yet?
Finish this thing off.
Let's do it.
Three downhill miles.
Oh, just three miles of downhill riding to the van. They said it'll be fun.
So I think.
We'Re here.
Over four hours later and over two hours on that crazy road. We have finally made it to the trail where the guys are going to be coming out this afternoon. I know that's probably nothing compared to what the guys are doing, but I am exhausted from driving that road. Just like constant movement and constant trying not to fall off the cliff.
So we moved the van just a few feet down the road to a flatter spot. We're gonna leave a note for the dash dad so they know where to find us. That one. Evie's beautiful note. Yep. So going to come down here or down there?
I don't know.
What do you think?
That way. Go the right way, Dads. That way.
Welcome home.
How awesome is that last fire?
I'm just going to do what I wanted to do all day.
This is exactly what Rick just did.
Those things are great.
It wasn't even okay. It wasn't even hard.
My body just like was done. It was like, I'm done biking. We've been doing this for 16 days. First two hours of the day, I was just like on this high. The trail was awesome. And then like 11am all the energy left my body.
Are you hungry?
Not really.
Did you wreck?
Yay. No wrecks. That's like four days in a row. So weird getting back at 5:30. We've been on the bikes for nine and a half hours and it feels like a short day.
Are you asleep?
So I met like.
Oh, I'm so happy to be back.
How cool is our camp spot?
Haven't even seen it yet.
Wow.
This is a sweet campsite. I know. Look at the view.
I can't believe today is the last day of the trip.
It was hard to sleep last night.
Wow.
It's the morning of the last day.
I believe. Day 17.
Morning. I think it's 16. Day 16. I don't know. They're all starting to run together a little bit.
Unfortunately, one day Longer than we were hoping it was gonna take. Sorry, Sarah, for not making it home on time. I'm just filled with so many emotions. On the one hand, I'm nervous about today because I don't want my body to give up like it did yesterday and today to be completely miserable. Man, there's going to be a lot of things that I don't miss about this trip, like putting on sunscreen every day, eating oats every morning, pushing my bike uphill for four hours a day, wearing bike shorts for 12 hours a day. The list kind of goes on and on.
The trail's been pretty difficult. Now that I've done the Colorado Trail, I'm pretty sure that every photo I'd ever seen of this trail was on the last six sections. The other 22.
Are quite a bit different.
But on the other hand, I'm gonna miss this. I'm gonna miss the simplicity of just getting on a bike every morning and pedaling towards Durango. That's all my life has revolved around for the last two weeks. And in some ways, that's been really nice. But there's so many amazing things I get to do every day that I'm not going to get to do for maybe over a year. The views are ridiculous. You almost get used to them, especially maybe 10 hours into pushing your bike up a hill. You forget to look around, but at the beginning of the day, you remember how beautiful it is.
I'm going to miss shoving as many calories as possible into my body.
But today we finish, we get the Durango, and part of me sad because I've enjoyed the bike riding, and, you know, you get better at it as you go.
I think what I'll miss most is just that feeling of pulling into camp every night and just feeling so accomplished. I feel like it's rare in life that each day, like, you accomplish something massive that you just feel really good about. And that's what we've gotten the last 17 days. Each day is. Is a huge accomplishment, and you can feel good about just, like, sitting in a chair.
And being like, today was hard, and I did it. Definitely gonna miss the company of Nate and Rick. They've been great riding partners for over two weeks. Rick is always overly optimistic. What you need. Nate is always a little bit less experienced but still pushing through, which makes you think, man, I should push through, too. When we started this, this was something that I genuinely didn't know if I was gonna be able to finish. And now all I have to do is pedal 40 more miles.
And it's done. And I did it.
I can't tell if I'm motivated to finish or sad that it's gonna end. I might pedal slower than normal and savor every last inch of the of the trail that's left.
Love you.
Have a good last day. Thanks.
You're almost there.
See you in Durango. Last 40 miles.
Woohoo.
Another beautiful morning. Great way to start the last day. I'm pumped.
All right, this feels weird. Let's go to Durango. I was just getting the van ready to go, and I found the first aid kit I made for Nate and some snacks sitting in the driver's seat.
This worries me. This makes me think that he's very, very confident.
Oh, that was rougher than I thought it was gonna be.
This is beautiful. Oh, gosh. And rocky.
Well, that' that looks serious. I can't believe.
We'Re driving to our last pickup. Oh, if I can make it back down this road.
Parking brakes on. Might be why part of this was so hard.
We're at 4.71 hour in. Just stopped for the first snack break. Already a tenth of the way done with our last day. Day hour. Even though my body is super tired, I'm trying not to wish this last day away and just soak in.
All of this, including this view.
All right, we're about an hour into the drive. This road is a little bit easier leaving than it was coming in because it's mostly down downhill. But it's still very bumpy and pretty scary with some of these edges. But it is another gorgeous day. Not a cloud in the sky, and I'm just so happy for the guys that they're getting to really enjoy this last day. And it's not hailing or raining on them.
Made it to the payroll. Only one drawer flew open.
Last Spam sandwich of the truff. I don't know how this became a thing, but from now on, spam will forever remind me of the Colorado trough.
Oh, it's not spam.
We just stopped in the town of Dolores to get gas, go to the bathroom, and I'm in the process of changing our bedroom back into a desk area. I got distracted because we're booking a hotel tonight.
I never do this. This is Nate's job 100% of the time. I'm going to try. Just need credit card.
At this point, we had less than 30 miles left to the finish line.
And just when we were starting to feel like we had pretty much done it, we were quickly reminded that you can never Let your guard down on the Colorado Trail.
Earlier in the day, I was feeling like I was for sure gonna make it to the end. But at this point, I had to start questioning if my luck was gonna run out.
So crazy.
Ow.
Smash my toe on a rocket.
I should have given someone else to go pro.
I wanted that to look way cooler, but I also wanted to survive the Colorado Trail. And I'm so close. Don't worry about me.
How weird does this look? Look.
The real reason I did this is because I have a business call to take, and I wanted it to not look like three people had been living in here for 17 days without cleaning or bathing.
Hello.
Hi.
Can y' all see me? Oh, there you are.
Yay.
Bye.
Whoa. Easy.
Nothing like riding on loose gravel right on the edge of a cliff. No way I would have done this the first day.
I was so close.
So close.
These girls can have fun with anything.
Last water fill up. And it's a good thing because our bag is on its very last leg.
We just finished 20 miles and over 4,000ft of vertical elevation, and we are about to start the very last segment of the Colorado Trail. How you feel, Rick?
It's bittersweet. Like, these last couple days have been some of the best riding we've done. So there's, you know, you kind of feel like we're getting good at this now. We're in this rhythm now. The writing's as good as it's been the whole time. So it's a little sad that it comes to an end right when it feels like it's all coming together a little bit.
But you hear people say that it's all downhill from here, and you're not sure if it's a good or bad thing. It's a good thing.
Hey, Siri, play Taylor Swift's newest album.
Here we go. Let's what we expect to be a massive downhill. Very tight. Little more exciting than I thought it was going to be. Oh, my gosh. I'm going to die.
Oh, this has got to be a joke.
Got some stuff to celebrate.
This is terrifying.
Oh, my go. That was the scariest part of the whole trail.
Just a bush. Just a bush. I.
I, I fell this way, which is good that it didn't fall that way. Oh.
Oh. What an end to that.
We made it all the way from Denver to Durango. We also don't have service here, so we don't know exactly when the guys will make it, but hopefully soon.
Getting the feeling that this is going to be a very Exciting end to the trail here.
Look at how the lake that big this balloon is. Whoa. I just got a text from Rick. Even though I don't really have any cell phone service, it says we have one last four mile climb, then eight miles downhill till the end. Should be about an hour till we finish. Can you pick us up from the end, please? We're here.
This should be the last big climb before we get to durango. Just another 1500ft.
Feels so weird waiting on the dads for the last time.
So according to the book, we have reached the top of the last climb and it should be all downhill from here. So we're celebrating the last summit with a Snickers, which is really a tradition that's come full circle. Cool. First time Karen and I ever had a Snickers at the top of something was ever Space camp. This a world hard Snickers.
Did you break your teeth off? Oh, yeah. And we went there with Rick's company and here we are four years later sharing Snickers together.
It's not ever Space camp, but in 2020 have to do close enough.
Here we go. Last 10 miles. All downhill. We hope. So far so good.
This is what I'm talking about. This is the way to finish the Colorado Trail. Oh, I'm gonna hurt myself. What is happening right now? This is like a dream. I wish you could see the smile on my face right now.
Oh, yeah, that's the Colorado Trail. Oh, this is more what I expected.
Okay, so I'm editing this part of the video right now and I just realized that I did a really poor job showing how long we waited for the guys to get back. So I had gotten that text from Rick saying that they were going to be another hour. And I waited about 45 more minutes before I turned on the song We Are the Champions because I wanted them to hear that song as they rolled into the parking lot. And over an hour later, we had been listening to that song on repeat and they still weren't back and we had no idea why. So of course I was starting to get worried again. That's all. Back to the vlog.
We are four miles from the finish and Dusty's bike is falling apart. This thing in here is called the hub. It's not something that you can fix out on the trail. And it's completely broken, which means that when he tries to stand flat on his pedals, the chain falls off.
That makes it pretty much impossible to ride downhill. So he's literally gonna have to take his chain off and he's gonna have to push the uphills and coast on the downhills until we get to the finish line.
We're four miles away.
Oh, no. So you have the tool, but you don't know how to use it?
If this would have happened any sooner, we wouldn't have finished. This isn't something that we can fix on our own. This bike would have had to go to a bike shop. The whole trip would have been delayed. So it's a bummer that it happened. But if it had to happen somewhere, four miles of pretty much nothing but downhill. How's it going for you? I don't know what I'm doing.
This is exactly how I picture finishing the ct to be.
Oh, that sounded good. That did sound good. Good. Oh, yeah. It's coming. Oh, you did it.
Wow.
All right, chains off. We can finish the journey.
I knew it was falling apart. It's official. No more pedaling for me.
All right, time to roll. Literally.
Someone's arming. Don't get it.
Oh, it's a walker. This is literally the definition of limping across the finish line. Can't make it uphill.
Salami's getting.
They're here.
False alarm.
You freaked out?
I did.
The sound of your bike and my baby brakes. This is good. It levels the playing field. You're going my speed now. Go, go, go.
Sure. I pass for a guy with a broken bike.
Nice.
Feels like we're getting close to a parking lot. Go, bike. Bessie's gonna have to walk it across the finish a little downhill. You're almost there. I'm almost there. Did you hear?
I see someone.
No way. I see the vans. Go. Nessie. Is that Nate?
I heard Go down here.
Congratulations.
You did it.
It's good to be done.
How are you?
Oh, doesn't feel real.
You just rode 500 miles across the state of Colorado.
Feels like I just did. Another day. Jesse doesn't have a chain on his bike.
Oh, my. Oh, mommy.
The bike won't roll backwards Like I'm pushing it backwards.
Oh, just wait.
Hey, guess What? I rode 500 miles without going to the hospital.
When I started, I thought it was going to be about keeping my legs moving and, like, making it the full 500 miles. But I shortly realized it was going to be about not being breaking something and making it to the finish line.
I'm so proud of you.
Up until the last 100 yards, I was like, stay focused, don't wreck. Stay focused, don't wreck. Woo.
That's his bike.
T.
Shake it up and spray.
In part two of this series, I explained that the dads had had a satellite GPS tracker with them at all times, and they jokingly made their location marker say, send beer. After sharing the tracking link on our Instagram, we were blown away by the response. Like, there were actually beer deliveries from locals along the trail, and other travelers went out of their way to bring us goodies. Not to mention the amount of messages we got from people all over the world. This made the trip so much more special and memorable. We could not have done done this without y' all support, or at least it wouldn't have been nearly as much fun. Thank y' all for the countless messages of encouragement, both to the dads during the trip and to me while I've edited endless amounts of bike footage. Y' all are seriously the best.
Now what do we do?
Ow.
Watch me do my cartwheel. I did it. Oh, that's heavy.
Thank you for supporting the trip. It wouldn't have been possible without you.
Thank you. You nailed it.
I'm never getting on this bike again.
I can't see.
Did you give me double?
Oh, my gosh. Look at your jacket.
And my ice cream too.
This is what happens when you try to open cinematic elevation.
Oh, my God.
Goodness, it's everywhere.
Is there any left in the jar?
My whole face is burning.
Is it still on my face?
Wow. What happened?
I couldn't get the. It's a new jar of cinnamon, and I couldn't get the sealed thing off, and so I just took my spoon and went pop. And it just exploded.
See if I can catch up to Nate. Shouldn't be too hard.
We just passed a Target, a Marshalls, and a Ross, and you have no idea how hard it is for me.
Not to go in.
We gotta go get the boys.
Oh, my gosh.
I can't believe.
Nothing fell. Wow.
Is it on finish? It's on.
Wait. Action.
There's no mop. Let's go check.
We did check in. Hello.
I want the table to be.
Wake up. Yeah.
