Nate Buchanan, Rick, and Dusty push through a brutal week on the Colorado Trail, covering 248 miles in eight days across rain, hail, crashes, and 7,000-foot climbs. Exhaustion and mechanical failures pile up as they chase 60-mile days at high elevation, testing both their bodies and their patience with each other.
Questions this video answers
September 26, 2020.
248 miles (of 570).
570 miles (transcript repeatedly references 570 miles/segments of the Colorado Trail).
Day nine (Nate: "Today's day nine").
Chapters
I'm beginning to hate this trail.
So our goal today is not too recent.
This is one of the most physically.
Uncomfortable I've ever been. Bring it on ct. It's becoming personal. If you can't tell.
This is terrifying.
We're Karen, Nate, and we spent the last four years traveling to 100 countries. But 2020 brought us back to the US where we bought a converted sprinter van to explore our own backyard. If you missed last week's video, 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.
Nate had been on a mountain bike approximately this many times before he was talked into this trip, so his first week on the trail wasn't exactly easy.
Flood grosses me out.
His brother flew from practically sea level and suffered from a mild case of altitude sickness for the first few days. And Rick, Well.
Rick is thriving. While the boys are testing their physical limits each day, their support crew, consisting of myself, r. 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. After eight straight days of riding, the boys have completed 248 of the 570 miles.
Is today day eight or nine? Today's day nine, and this is the hardest it's been to get back on the bike. It's not even because this is the most tired that my body's been. It's just because this bed was the most comfortable.
So good.
And I'm clean. And I woke up this morning just thinking, you know, I've ridden 200 of the 500 miles of the Colorado Trail. That might be good enough.
Did I show the elevation profile in the background?
Bye. Bye.
Today, I'm doing a few loads of laundry and I'm taking a shower.
It's going to feel so good to be clean.
This bike feels heavy this morning. Why?
I'm going on a little jog around the neighborhood before I get in the shower because I think I've been eating as much as the guys have, but I'm not the one burning a million calories a day on the bike. It's tough at 10,000ft.
I can barely run a mile without feeling like I'm just completely out of box. I don't know how the guys are doing this.
All right, we're gonna try to knock out 40 miles today, starting with another road detour.
Should Be about the easiest 15 miles of the Colorado Trail yet.
Good morning, Kim. Good morning, Dale.
Van Life makes you appreciate the little things in life, like long, hot showers.
Today essentially starts the second half of the trip. We have eight days left until Dusty's flight out. We did the math this morning.
That means we have to average at least 35 miles a day. Man, this is great. The Colorado Trail's so easy, so much dirt.
Crazy.
So a couple weeks ago, Cara complained that she was the one having to do all the work in the relationship while I was out having fun riding my bike.
Thanks a lot, Nate. Just kidding. But really.
So this week it's my turn to tell you about Surf Shark, which I'm more than happy to do because they continue to support these crazy adventures we dream up. And they also offer the best VPN on the Internet. If you don't know what a VPN is, it stands for Virtual Private Network. And what it does is it encrypts all all the information sent between your computer and the Internet so that no one can steal your sensitive data. So when Kara's doing all the work and she goes to a coffee shop and uses their public WI fi to upload one of our videos, she's protected with surfshark. A VPN can also be used for fun things too, like unlocking your favorite show just by changing your virtual location. If you don't already have a vpn, we highly recommend surfshark. We've been using it since the beginning of the year. It works great. And they're the only VPN to offer unlimited devices on one account. Plus if you use our code. Karen, Nate, you can get 83% off plus three extra months for free. And there's a 30 day money back guarantee, so there's no risk to try it out. Just click the link in the description below to get started.
Well, we got water.
Doing all this Van Life stuff basically by myself last week has been really cool because.
One, I've come to really appreciate all of the little annoying things that Nate always does, like fill up our water tank, charge the van, dump the pee tank, figure out where to park, drive. And also I don't think it's something that I ever would have really finally learned to do on my own. So I'm glad I did.
I hope it's open.
It's like 9am right now. Please be open, please. No, no.
I was already so disappointed.
The morning was off to to such a good start. We pretty much just rode 15 miles downhill. We were super excited about getting to buena vista because we had heard there was this bike shops that serve belgian waffles, and it was closed today. And there's two famous ice cream shops in town, so we thought, well, that's a decent backup plan. And.
It'S different when you're biking. You just sit there and you think about this stuff as you pedal for hours on end and you get yourself really excited.
Not giving up yet. We're still on the hunt. Oh, something smells delicious. One more ice cream shot. Oh, the door's open. The last ice cream shop in town literally has a sign that says, nope.
I just got this picture from Nate. I'm glad they're treating themselves a little bit, and I'm glad I didn't have to make lunch.
We didn't find ice cream, but we did find donuts.
It's going to be a really long day and a lot of road riding, which I know they don't really enjoy, so hope everything goes smoothly at least.
Ever since we left buena vista, We've just been climbing straight up this mountain on the side of a road. Try not to get run over by cars like that one. Dusty, don't break the speed limit.
Six.
Come on, son. You got it.
Four miles an hour. That's how fast we're pedaling up the hill.
All right, now I'm gonna get a little work done.
Scary looking over there. That's where the guys are.
Today was going so smoothly. We crushed out 24 miles early on. We had some pastries, and then. Then it started raining when we got on the trail, and everything was a little wet and. Oh, are you okay? Yeah, I think I'm just feeling tired today. Just getting lazy. I've cut my leg.
How bad?
That's fine. Doesn't even need a band A.
So we hit our 40 mile goal for the day. We ended at some hot springs that we were considering visiting, and somehow we talked ourselves out of going to the hot springs and going for another 10 miles. And it's been nothing but walking our bikes uphill for the first three miles. But everything we do today, we don't have to do tomorrow.
Poor Nate. I just talked to him and said that they're freezing and wet.
All right, so we just got to the trailhead. I'm gonna make him some hot chai tea.
Can't believe they're still not here.
Tonight's dinner is one of my personal favorites because it is so easy, so yummy, and reminds me of southeast Asia. It's peanut butter ramen. And it is just as simple as it sounds.
Well, dinner is completely ready, so I guess I'll start on their breakfast. So I pretty much made the same thing for the guys every single night for breakfast, and that is overnight oats.
So Beck and the girls went on a walk up the trail that the boys are supposed to be coming down. And they're not back yet. And the boys aren't back yet. And try not to get all worried again like last time. Ugh, I hate this. But I am a little worried.
I feel like I kind of have a reason to be worried this time because Nate told me earlier today that they were planning on being here at 5. And it is 7:20.
What the heck? Nate, where are you?
Yay.
Finally.
I hate this trail. Are you freezing? I've never been so happy to be back at the van.
Are you so cold?
No, I just hurt.
I was so down.
Nate, are you okay?
The first one was from the first wreck. And then like 30 minutes ago, my foot slipped off the pedal and I just smashed my shin with the pedal. And that's what those three are from.
You hate hitting your shin.
Oh, I was just like. I don't know. It's been a weird day.
I'm so sorry. It's okay. I'm glad you're okay, though. Yeah, I was so worried. I'm gonna put under my jacket.
Ah, gosh.
What? Sorry.
The mic.
Are you sure you don't want one on that? Yeah.
Thank you.
Yesterday was just. It was just a weird day for me. As soon as we left the pavement and got onto the trail, I took a pretty hard wreck. But it was different than any of the wrecks I've taken before because I still didn't even know what happened. It was just like one minute I was riding, and then the next minute I was on the ground. And that was kind of scary. And I feel like I rode the rest of the day just like, really scared that something bad was gonna happen. So that kind of took a lot of the fun out of it for me. And it's 7:30am we're about to have another huge day.
That's super.
Rick swears by the beats. So I've been choking it down each morning. Something about circulation. Superfood. At this point, I'll try anything to make it easier for my least favorite part of getting ready for the day. Didn't enjoy putting sunscreen on as a kid. Still don't enjoy it now. And it just like, guarantees that dirt sticks all over my body.
It cracks me up how long it takes the guys to get ready in the morning. Like, I feel like from the time we wake up to the time they actually leave feels so long because they have to pack their lunch, put on the shammy butter, put on their sunscreen, get their cameras, get their wheeled thing oiled.
Look, these two fingers still don't work.
Oh, my gosh.
They just do things like cross Nate.
That is weird.
Just hope it started working again after I quit biking.
Love you.
Love you.
Hope today is better than yesterday.
See you lunch.
Bye.
It feels so strange saying bye to them every day. I'm so used to being with Nate 24 7, and when I say bye and have, like, no idea what he's about to experience or what kind of mood he's going to be in when he gets back, it's a pretty foreign feeling for us. It's good, though. It's good to miss each other sometimes.
All right, we made it. We were back on the Colorado trail last night. We ended up camping about a mile off the trail. So this morning started with about a 45 minute push straight up the mountain just to connect back up to the trail. So our biggest day yet starts now.
Also, we've got a new team member joining us for the day. This is Rick's friend Andy from Leadville.
Hi, guys.
What do you think of the trail so far? I'm loving it and I appreciate you letting me tag along today. Happy to have you.
When we first left on this trip, in my mind, I was gonna have all of this time. Like, I was gonna wake up when the guys did super early. I was gonna get a ton of work done, and then me and the girls would go on a hike or explore a new city that we're driving through, Then meet up with the guys that evening, have dinner, hang out, repeat for two weeks straight. But it has actually been nothing like that.
Instead, by the time they leave, I get myself in the van ready. And by the time that happens, it's about time to drive and meet them at the halfway point for lunch, make them lunch. Then once again, I get the van ready to go, Drive to our campsite spot for the night, Set up camp, make dinner. Then I find myself being the last person to go to bed because I have to stay up and do our work that I usually sprinkle throughout the day. And I'm not saying any of this to complain. I just need to work on my time management a little bit.
Okay, time to get to work.
I'm beginning to hate this trail, Everything about it.
That was like, the first fun part of the trail.
Looks like we're going to be here a tad bit longer.
Stop.
Oh, wow.
Last night, we conveniently camped right next to the trail head, and there's a public restroom literally right next to the van, which is kind of stinky. But overall, I've been very impressed with the public bathrooms here in Colorado. So far, they pretty much all look the same. What do you think of the bathrooms here? Haven't been in them yet. You haven't used this one yet. So they pretty much. I like the effort. They have these little fly catchers, A little air freshener. I mean, it doesn't smell good, but we've definitely been in worse. And look at all this toilet paper. What?
Like, that's really nice to have. Every toilet has that sun. Becky thinks it says, don't look down in the toilet Because a bunch of poops in there. Our toilet in the van works great, but whenever there is another option, I like to use it just because the less we use our toilet, the less I have to dump our waste out.
Eat it, mountain. Me versus you today.
Trying to kill me, and I'm trying to survive.
Oh, yeah.
Ow.
Oh, I always do that.
Oh, that hurts so bad.
Time to go back, Meet the boys for lunch.
How's this work? All right. We're making the chess cam handoff. Going to get some footage of Andy shredding it down the hill. Yeah, buddy. Let's go.
I bet now it's like a putting green after everything.
This is pretty crazy. All of a sudden, it's super dark and cloudy again.
Which is great for the wildfires. Not so great for our wild bikers.
The trail just keeps throwing new challenges at us. We've been hiking uphill all day. Right before we start, the two mile downhill descent starts pouring to make it slick and dangerous for us to get back down to the vans.
Oh, no. I hope they're okay.
Look at this. It's actually hailing.
This is craziness.
Oh, gosh. Stepping on it. We're coming for you, boys.
Yeehaw.
Andy picked this hardest section while it's hailing.
Beautiful day in the Rockies.
Straight ahead. It's just darkness. We're still 11 minutes away in there, guys.
I'm on my way.
Awesome.
Another climb.
Turn on the heat.
The hell is so loud. When it lands on my helmet.
Oh.
Just soaked to the bone.
Oh, they're here. Hi. Are you okay?
We're alive. It kind of, like fueled me, though. Like, I was just mad at that point point. And I was like, bring it on, mountain. Let's see what else you got.
I was waiting for one of us to get attacked by a bear. Like, it's like the only thing that hasn't happened yet.
That was brutal.
I crashed. I had the camera on.
I can.
It's like one of the few times I actually had this on.
I'm good. Promise? Yep. I'm glad.
Hope my bike's good.
But I thought.
I'd try to show off for everybody for a second, and I promptly went over the handlebars and went head first into a tree. Might have hurt the tree slightly.
The line is so defined.
So we just finished segment 14, which was about 14 miles and a little over 3,000 vertical feet. We're gonna try to knock out another segment today. It's already 3:30, and it's essentially the exact same. We have another 14 miles and 3,500.
Vertical feet, but it's pretty much straight uphill from the beginning. Just look at this.
How you doing?
I'm not anywhere close to quitting. Like, I'm not gonna quit unless I can't walk. But at the same time, that doesn't mean that I'm gonna enjoy. I feel like I've been, like, so lucky not to get seriously hurt that I'm starting to get nervous on all the downhills and then the weather, and I'm wearing soggy clothes. My left hand doesn't work, which makes it hard to tie my shoes. It's 4:03. I'm giving us a 90% chance of getting down in the dark. 10% chance we walk.
I really hate that the last couple days has been so tough for Nate, but at the same time, he signed up for this knowing it was going to be a challenge.
There's few things that. That I've started in life that have such a high chance of failure.
I think that's why he signed up for this. So he's getting what he hoped for for sure.
Fingers crossed. This is what the next 10 miles looks like.
Oh, I'm so happy. Rick just texted and said this is quite possibly the smoothest, gradual single track I have ever seen. Yay.
Man. After those last two segments, I'm just grateful for every flat inch of this trail. Ah, I'm on my way from misery to happiness.
So right before Nate took off on the bike, he said, hey, are you going to the store for anything? And I said, no. Why? He was like, never mind.
And I was like, tell me what you want.
He was like, no, nothing. And he wouldn't tell me. I just passed this Cute little local grocery store. So I'm going to go in and try to guess what he wanted.
I have no idea. I like.
Those.
Can all be flowy single track, I guess.
Okay.
Hopefully I picked up something close to what Nate was craving. I begged him to tell me.
What a climb.
Never ends.
I wish. I wish I was doing that for the camera. It's almost like walking in sand. It's like you get about 50 of the effort that you put out.
I don't think I've ever parked the van on the street before. Makes me a little bit nervous. Parking area.
Great.
I'm gonna sit here and get some work done.
This descent is like. This is the second half of one of what they consider in the top five mountain bike trails.
Sweet.
All right, back on the road, we are driving about an hour from Salida to the campground tonight. And the guys should come right past us. All goes as planned. Which sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't.
Descending into our campsite.
That didn't sound good.
Well, this is our home for the night. We have zero Internet, so hopefully the guys find us time to make some guacamole.
Look what I'm doing. Kyra, what are you doing? You setting up the chair. Thank you.
This is terrifying.
If this mountain biking for me wasn't already dangerous enough, we've added a new element of danger.
Bad time to find out that the batteries in your headlamp super old. And you look at that. Are you shining this right in your eyeball? And it wouldn't even hurt.
I'm going to die.
Welcome home.
This is the face of a man who is happy to be alive.
This is the face of a wife who's happy you're alive. I got you, Tommy.
All right. Thank you.
Will you please tell me what you wanted from the store?
Pickles.
Are you serious? Why didn't you tell me that?
Because I didn't want you to go to the store.
I got everything but pickles.
You did get everything but pickles. Thank you. This is a beautiful care package.
Welcome.
So, yeah, today we rode for 11 hours and 19 minutes. 31.26 miles. And the big kicker, this is definitely our record. We ascended 6,545ft. Honestly, I feel probably better than the day. The first day where we did like half that. I mean, it's amazing that 10 days in, how your body just starts to become one with the machine.
He's big time speaking for himself right here.
Whatever you said, fine too.
The morning is off to such a good start. So me desti and Rick have had this ongoing bet that whichever one of us sees a moose or a bear first, the other two have to eat Shammy butter on a piece of toast, which is the stuff that you put on your groin so you don't get a rash. And at first I heard something, and then I realized there were a bunch of cows in this field, but then there was a moose standing with the cows.
Hey, can you. Can you tell me what this is?
This.
Is a picture of me eating shammy. Better, apparently. When did you get this? Did you download this from the Internet?
It's probably still out there.
Has everyone seen it but me?
Yeah.
Congratulations. So today we're trying to do all of that segment and then all that segment, too. There's not a lot of water or.
Shade, and there won't be a sign for the campground. You just have to know to turn onto that camp.
It's. It's freezing this morning. And we're also realizing that we did not do enough mileage in the first week, so now we're putting in some huge days. The day before was the biggest day we had ever done. Yesterday was bigger than that, and today we're attempting to do more.
We'll miss you. Miss you.
45 miles and 7,000ft of vertical elevation.
If it's like the trail is yesterday, there's no way we'll finish it.
How long do you think it's gonna take?
I think it's gonna be dark again.
Bye, girls.
How much elevation have we done so far?
We have done 883ft. We only have, like, 5,000 something left to go.
One hour in. First snack break of the day. We've done about four and a half miles, so about a tenth of what we're trying to do today.
We still have a very long ways to go.
We'll be fine.
I am still freezing.
Appreciate it.
It's just as tiring as riding uphill.
Oh, it never ends.
Holy crap.
Goodbye, cow.
Oh.
I'd honestly rather pedal uphill than do this. Yeah. Oh, it should be the crap out of me.
I just, like. I just can't stop sounds from coming out of my body.
This is why I only have 50 strength left in my hands.
I feel like I've said this a lot lately, but I'm a tad bit worried about Nate today. They are about to do the most vertical elevation that they've done the whole trip, and he just was so worn out this morning.
Here we go again.
Oh, crap.
I feel like the more tired he is, the more likely he is to have an accident.
All right, here we go. Time to get beat up.
It's also just really cold and gray.
Oh, I hate this so much.
This is what he signed up for.
I've hung back from the guys a little bit, so they can't hear my negativity, but this trail just sucks. Apparently, they let dirt bikes ride this section of the trail, and it just breaks up all the rock into, like, loose gravel, so you can't ride up it. And riding down it feels like you're at least for me, just holding onto a bucking Bronco.
It is 12:30.
We're on another dirt road to our campsite, and it's raining. Unfortunately, it's still pretty cold, too.
Amazing.
Thank you, Beck.
Oh, sorry. This is amazing.
Segment 16 is done. There was nothing fun about that. That was just one of those that you just kind of grit your teeth and put one foot in front of the other and get it over with. Also, you. You know, it's a weird day when the highlight is a spam sandwich.
It's amazing.
This has to be at least a thousand calories.
Cheesy bread. This thing's loaded.
I wonder if I can lay down and eat at the same time.
Like, we're at 11,700ft in the middle.
Of a field.
Still screaming.
Oh, this is good. It's almost like we're back at the van.
I might have to set an alarm. We're about to fall.
All right. We have found our home for the night in the middle of the forest. Hopefully the guys find us because we have no cell phone reception.
It's all not downhill from here. Start of segment 17. 20 miles to go. Off to a decent start.
I'm freezing.
Oh, that wind is brutal.
Actually, never mind. We don't think this is our home after all. I just hit a tree just slightly, though. Okay, let's just getting wider. Turn. After reading the guidebook a little more closely, we think we might need to go another 1.2 miles. This campground didn't have, like, a sign or anything, so we felt a little weird about it anyways. I don't know how people lived without the Internet.
This is so brutal. I can't see straight head bouncing so much.
All right, major change of plans. We ended up just driving to the Colorado trail and parking at the end of it. And we think we'll just wait here the rest of the day for the guys. We're pretty sure we're allowed to camp here. That is where they'll come out. And then that is where they will Continue. It's about 2pm, starting to rain again, and I think I'm gonna sit in the van and have a nice relaxing afternoon of work.
Alright. I'm just gonna narrate how I feel in the moment because I know when I get done with this and I look back, I feel like it wasn't that bad, but this sucks. It has just been a miserable day because we're over 300 miles in. My legs are tied. So getting off and walking my bike used to feel like a break, but not anymore. And then you work really hard to get uphill and then at some point when you get a downhill.
It just beats you to death. And it's almost as tiring or more tiring than it is going uphill. Desti said he was feeling motion sickness. Like I have a headache from my brain smashing around in my head for so long today. Of the probably 25 miles we've done at this point, maybe.
Four of them have been kind of fun to ride just all around. Not a fun day.
Still working. I suppose I could put this box back outside.
I don't have to sit with it anymore.
Also, I'm not getting close to quitting, but today is the first day that I've started to question why I'm doing this. I wasn't a mountain biker to begin with. Wasn't something that I necessarily really enjoyed. Pretty much going for two weeks without doing any work, I have to catch up on a lot of that when I get done with this. Putting a lot more pressure on Kara, both just being the support van and everything that goes along with that. But also, like, all of like, our business work is falling on Kara. I'm probably not in quite as bad of headspace as I sound right now, but I'm just bringing up all the feelings that I've had at different times throughout the day. Plus, Jesse and Rick are somewhere way ahead of me and they can't hear me.
Sorry my day has been so boring to watch.
I'm really excited about this. Like, I'm ending though.
Oh, I don't think that was the right line.
Oh, what is this beautifulness?
Oh, rocks.
Let's go, baby.
Scratch out as much as you can and just, and just, just be calm because you're relaxing. Mom, make yours like carrots and mine try to make you not touching it. Oh, I needed this. I don't want to touch my couches.
Oh, it's beautiful.
Set for these rocks.
Ah.
It's.
So we have a slight problem, but one that I think Is fixable. Unfortunately, our power is down again, so.
Never mind. This is such a pain. It's starting to seem like anytime we don't plug in for a while and then it's cloudy for one day, our battery plummets. So if it gets below 50%, it starts beeping. And then the next morning, nothing works. Beck had the idea that we could plug into her van because her battery charges off of her engine, and when we did, it tripped the breaker every time. So this isn't a huge deal. But one, I will live by fake candlelight the rest of the night. Two, I don't know if we'll be able to charge everything for tomorrow. And three, Nate won't be able to make us coffee near in the morning, but thankfully, Beck can provide all of those things for the most part, so we should be fine. Ah, it's just so annoying. It doesn't help that I don't really understand any of this stuff either. Like, maybe there's a way we can fix it, But Nate's the one that usually does this stuff, and he's still not back. 10. Is it 8? 14. So I feel like I'm allowed to start worrying now. It is so dark, it's terrifying. I cannot imagine him biking up in the trees with just a headlamp.
And now it's starting to rain. Hurry back. Late.
Gosh, Beck is so chill. Like, you can tell she's done this a million times with Rick because she's like, maybe at, like, 10:30 or 11. If they're not back yet, I'll drive back into town and see if there's a message and see their location. And I'm just like, okay. Come on, boys.
Yay. Yay. I see three little bike lights. I can't see anything.
I was trying really hard not to worry, but I'm never gonna be mean or yummy.
We've gotten wet and dried out five different times.
There was zero fun in that day.
I have to agree.
I bet we hiked our bikes more than we rode them.
Let's get you in dry clothes.
That's the last of the terrible sections.
That's what he keeps saying.
Talk to me.
The highlights of the day for me were eating a sandwich and Nate pulling out a piece of toilet paper about that big soaking wet and being dead serious and going, any of y' all have any extras? TP this is all I got left, and it was crumpled up wet in the bottom of his pack. You couldn't have even wiped your nose with it. And it was just the laugh that we needed at that point, it was like halfway through the day I was nearly crying. Imagine riding your bike over train tracks sideways right now. Imagine doing that for 42 miles. That was what today felt like. Just.
I just like felt my hope slowly fading.
Do you think it gets any worse? No.
No.
It's day 12 and everything hurts.
Morning, Dusty. Good morning. How are you feeling?
I don't know.
Uh oh, brake spike just flew over.
You know, I've been complaining about not having hand strength. I took the fingernail clippers outside to cut my nails this morning and.
I can't squeeze hard enough to cut my fingernails.
I think it flew on me. Squeeze my hand.
I think I have hand strength.
Just not finger strength.
That doesn't hurt.
No, you don't have hand strength.
Why does this happen thing?
It's just from going down the mountain and going.
Day 12.
You'Re gonna crush it.
What are you laughing at?
It's how exhausted you are. You're about to get on a bike for 60 miles.
We can do it.
This is the toilet paper that I pulled out of my bag yesterday that everybody was making fun of me for at one point. It was a few sheets.
The most they've done in a day so far is 47 miles and today they're attempting 62.
They're crazy.
So this is what I'm left with most mornings. It's a little worse today than it usually is because since our power was low and I had a lot of work to do, I didn't watch a single single dish the last day and a half and this is the result. I feel like this trip has been good for my ocd though. Usually I have to have like floor swept, counter swiped, all the dishes clean and dried and put away before I go to sleep. I really just let go the last week and a half.
I just can't wait to get on the road again.
This life I love is biking with my friends.
All right, it's about 10:30. We are finally back on the road after getting everything picked up, put away. I ran around with the girls blowing bubbles for a while to burn some calories. And now we are driving 27 miles to the town of Creek. They have an RV park there where I can plug in the van, make sure we have plenty of power.
I think it's back down towards the car.
Well, now we got a 64 mile day.
We missed the turn at some point. Woo, that rain's cold. On a more positive note, we're backtracking downhill, which is nice and.
Oh.
It'S very hard to ride over rocks with one hand. Oh, that was almost like the worst wreck of the trip.
We'll just kind of eat as we ride.
Yeah.
You don't want our body eating to drop.
Yeah.
Don't forget to drink water.
Okay.
It's easy to get, like, dehydrated because you're getting rain doing so. You kind of feel like you're hydrating, but you need to put it in your mouth.
What are you doing with your hands here?
That's the. This is the bag to my. My rain jacket. And this is back to my Buffy jacket. And this one's not exactly what I wear, but it's a little bit warmer than not having it. Our goal today is not good.
Goal.
We can do it. Not sure if Bessie can do it.
Oh, the poor guys.
I know that they are getting rent right now.
All right, we're back on the right track. We all have on all of the clothes that we have with us, which for me includes this rain jacket and a puffy vest underneath it. Oh, but the wind's blowing right about 10,000ft. It's probably 50 degrees, and we are freezing.
And the worst part is, we probably won't see the vans for another eight hours. There's also no end of this rain in sight.
Oh, they have to be so cold and miserable, and it's like the beginning of the day, and so they're just gonna be, like, soggy a long time.
This puffy vest is keeping my core warm, but my rain jacket's already completely soaked through.
And my arms are like popsicles.
Man. I just feel like they haven't been able to catch a break the last few days. I don't know how they're still doing it.
It's been raining like this for over an hour.
Everything's soaked.
This is one of the most physically.
Uncomfortable I've ever been in my entire life. My fingers are so cold that I actually have to look down.
To see which gear I'm touching when I want to change gears. But at this point, we really have no choice except to just keep moving. It's the only thing that keeps you warm.
This is really what this journey is all about, though. Pushing through these super uncomfortable moments and just.
Seeing how much I'm capable of.
Yay. It's almost done. Raining, I think. Skies are blue. Sunny again.
I don't know if it's wise to take these shoes off or not.
Oh, let's see. It seems like. Oh, yeah. The puffy jacket inside is soaking wet.
Is it?
Oh, look how pretty my hands are. I still cannot feel my hands or my feet. My toes just feel like bricks.
Just feels like one solid toe. Oh, these were actually clean too when I started. Now they got brown juice. Waterproof shoes are like. They're great except for the big hole in the top where you put your foot in. Then it just becomes a bucket. I was wearing a bucket.
I can't decide if it's worth taking them off.
Oh, I can feel my toes again. It's worth doing okay.
Can't feel my fingers. So untie my shoes.
Well, I'm glad I didn't push the SOS button.
I got high hopes for Creed. I picture like a campground with wi fi and steak restaurant. Nice red wine, my little cowboy hat.
Oh, that was a mistake. I'm not going to want to put those back on.
We're going into pee and grab some snacks. Sounds good. Getting some gas. I mean diesel. I'm getting some diesel.
Now.
A thousand feet of climbing. We still have like 5,000.
Once again, the highlight of the day.
This one's got turkey on it too.
Turkey and spam.
Popcorn.
You find yourself looking normally Nate's around to stop me. Might finish the bag before they get back tonight.
You ever hear that guy?
Gotta hit the gold. The treasure forest spin. You're the treasure for us then.
All right. Sun's out. We are back on the road. And I'm sockless and gloveless. They are strapped to my handlebars. Hopefully drying out over the next couple hours.
Mountain views. RV park. There are mountain views, that's for sure. And we're joining about a million other RVs here. Let's see how much power we have. Do we really want to do this.
45% here? Yeah, probably.
Well, this is our home for the night.
Something interesting always seems to happen when we do this. So I'm hoping this is uneventful.
I think we're charging. There are two different cords in there. And sometimes he uses one cord at certain places and now the cord at other places. And I don't understand any of it.
I was wrong.
Apparently this is the cord I use here. Cute.
What would I do without Beck?
Welcome home to go exploring. Oh, my God. The toilets are so nice. Really? These cool tiles, these white cool tiles. And then the brown tiled floor and these really nice toilet floor that flush red. Unfortunately, we have to drive an hour to pick up the guys this time. So bring my computer with me in the van.
We've got a 2,500 foot climb straight up the Mountain road. This is the first time I've resorted to just putting in headphones and just doing my best to zone out.
Ah.
My quads are burning. I've done my best to be present for this whole trip, but if this climb could just be over, I'd be very happy.
I think this might be the first day that I've gone all day long and haven't heard anything from Nate. I feel like I have no idea what to expect. Like, what kind of moodies to be in, what kind of day they had.
And five minutes later, it's raining again, and we've got about a 20 mph headwind. Bring it on CT. It's becoming personal if you can't tell.
We were just trying to figure out we had to turn on that road.
There's a pull off right there.
There was. Hey, are you okay?
That might be one of the hardest things I've ever done.
Are you serious?
I'm surely fine in five minutes, but I hurt right now. Rick's telling me really bad things.
Oh, I'm sorry. You're in the middle of talking. It's a thousand more feet to the top of this climber. My idea was just get dropped off here tomorrow and go eat dinner and creep.
I thought you were going to say.
You want to do it?
Let's smash it out. I cannot feel my groin right now.
Yeah, my butt. Every, like, 10 pedal strokes, I gotta.
Sit up there for the last. Like, my butt's just numb. I've been thinking I'm a little bit closer to knowing what childbirth feels like. I've been wondering if I was ever gonna be able to have kids.
It got so cold when it was raining that I couldn't even shift with my thumb anymore. I was using the palm of my hand to just push it down.
So compared to yesterday, yesterday, like, today.
Was hard, but it was like, I don't know, like kind of this fun challenge to overcome. Yesterday was just terrible. Today was way better.
That's good.
How's it feel driving?
A lot easier than biking.
So last night, after the girls picked us up, we drove into the town of Creed, which we were excited to visit for two reasons. One, it's the set of this wild, wild west themed Netflix show called Godless. And two, we were all really excited to eat at an actual restaurant.
It is so quiet. Why are you in the middle of the road?
Which, by the time we got there, ended up being closed.
It is closed and there's nothing open. They. They suggested the gas station. I'm not sure what they thought we could eat there.
The gas station actually ended up being closed as well, and we ate ramen in the van last night. Now we've left the campground and we're heading back to the trail. But first.
We'Re getting hamburgers.
We're doing it.
It's happening.
Okay, I'm going to get.
This looks beautiful. There's this general store that feels like it's in the middle of nowhere. Like this town could not have more than 100 people. But we heard from someone back in Creed that they serve delicious homemade hamburgers.
I give it like a 6 out of 10. Everything is delicious except for the burger itself.
It's pretty sad with how hungry you were that you're disappointed. It must be really bad.
I think when we're on the bikes, I just, like, hype food up in my head to this level that it could never possibly reach until you eat my dinner. Oh, wow.
Wow.
Yeah. Five metaphor.
I've needed this in my life. I'm going to feel like crap this afternoon.
You're telling me. Laser burning off.
What is it, 1212 miles today?
It's something like that.
Yeah.
This isn't where we're starting the bike trip. I just took my bike off the rack for no reason.
Okay, to the tr.
I'm not bringing this book.
Good idea.
We can do it.
Is there anything else we don't need to bring? We need water. I might have to keep that toilet paper handy. I'm keeping the filter. You never know.
Today was supposed to be a rest day. We slept in, ate hamburgers, and then we were just gonna get dropped off and finish the segment that we didn't finish yesterday, which is still what we're doing, but we've now realized it. It's over 2,000ft of vertical elevation gain and 12 miles between us and where we're camping tonight. So not near as big a day as what we've been doing, but definitely not a rest day.
See you in a few hours. There it goes. The easy way up.
This is the next three hours of our life. Putting one pedal in front of the next and just not stopping while literally climbing a mountain from 10,000 to 12,000ft.
This is definitely a little more boring, but it's easier on the butt. How you holding up?
I'm good. I'm really good, actually. Kind of feels good to be back on the bike in a weird way.
Feels good to be burning off those burgers. Yeah.
My stomach still feels like hanging over my shammy waist trap. I don't know, it makes boring day a little less.
So much more fun. We just made it to the summit and the girls left us a present for the dads. This is how the kids refer to us, the group of men. Even though Jesse and I are not dads, we're still called the dads.
They have three dads. Know we have some explaining to do.
Customer. This way.
Yeah, you know, it's.
Oh, that was a nice break.
I think we're breaking the speed limit.
This is terrifying.
No.
How are you beating me?
You tuck. Too late.
Get out of here.
I came out of my tuck to slow myself down to 35 miles an hour.
That's so scary. You almost hit a deer on your bike.
That went by so fast.
An hour and a half with the beer break.
So today actually did end up being a rest day. It only took us an hour and a half to do that whole thing and.
Now it's only six. And we're already getting things ready for tomorrow morning because the goal is to get out of here by 7 to do our biggest day yet. 7,000 vertical feet of climbing. So this one I'm packing. Food wise.
These waffles are probably my favorite thing to eat. These pop tarts are supposed to be cooked, but still tastes pretty good. Haven't tried one of these yet. Looking forward to that. These. It's like eating chocolate icing with caffeine in it. I don't know where that came from or anything about that. And then a water bottle and also a full 2 liter water bag. So the water bag takes up this entire side and then.
All the food.
And the water bottle. Easy access right up front.
There it is. So 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 above 12,000ft.
Above 12,000ft in the middle of this is 13. So we'll be poking up above 13 for some time too. And we're trying to do 7,000ft of vertical each day up in those and rarefied airs.
It's going to be interesting.
The reason that we're spending so much time prepping for tomorrow tonight so we can get an early start is not only is it going to be our biggest day in terms of elevation, but there's also no way for the vans to get to us. So we have to finish.
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 kind of feel like I'm drinking and driving when I have this.
Not as good as chamois butter. We're also sharing a deodorant sized applicator. Who's next?
Gonna do power nap?
According to Walter, only naps for six. What are you doing?
All right, I'm gonna see if I can do this without hitting a tree.
Ah.
I think it's good. It just got caught right here.
Yeah, I think it's totally good.
I was thinking on the way up, you know, there's like, these places in.
The world.
Are like spiritual houses. Like Sedona, Arizona.
Taos.
Yeah.
Mount Shasta. This place is like the opposite of that. It's like where the energy.
It's a negative energy vortex. Yeah.
Like a black hole. The way he pulled out that toilet paper is like he was prepared to use that.
Well, okay.
Like, he didn't know if we had any or not.
He just had this serious look at this. He's like. He's like. Does anyone. Does anyone else have any other toilet paper by any chance? It's like this just soaked. It's like soaking wet.
Like, what?
That's all you want? That made my day.
I'm admit something.
I don't have enough hand strength to wipe my butt properly.
I've never heard Nate say something.
So I almost used all of your tissues because I couldn't have put pressure. Oh, man. Yeah, that was a lot. Spam was the best part of your day.
Saying something.
It. But it was almost bad because as soon as we ate it, it was.
Like, well, yeah, what do we have to live for now?
We should have dragged that out little longer.
Nothing. I didn't even have spam.
All right, what were our stats for the day?
There's not a category in here for mental anguish. I feel like that number would be really high.
Did y' all ever answer the question, how much would someone have to pay you to do it again tomorrow?
I think we landed on 10,000.
Yeah.
10,000 bucks. Dang. Y' all are cheap.
Destiny, did you have. Did you have an accident down there? It was like you had diarrhea all over yourself.
Got right up the bump.
I think when you're suffering through stuff, everything becomes a little funnier. Yeah. We went on a cattle drive.
We went on a cattle drive. We got video proof of this.
We were riding across the road. There were literally like cowboys and like, 400 cows going down the road. And we were just riding behind them.
They were.
They were getting out of control. Once we got there, we sort of straightened out the cattle drive and then they pushed him on in, and we gave a tip of the hat to the cowboys.
