Day 14: Brush Mountain Lodge (CO)

For all riders Rawlins is a psychological milestone, because this city marked half the way of the route. Once you get there quitting the race is more difficult than ever.

I got up at 9:30 am and thought the misery with my camera yesterday was just a bad dream, but it wasn’t. I calculated my options. Dropping the race was one of these. I felt totally blue and I had no desire for another psychological day on the bike. But before I would make over-hasty decisions I first took some time during a breakfast to think it over.

Three weeks before the race I sent a parcel with some special carbohydrate-based nutrition like Xenofit and Power Bar energy gels to the post office in Rawlins. This could be an option to mitigate my permanent empty legs.

Brush Mountain Lodge just 90 miles south of Rawlins was my second milestone on the route. And before the race I was really looking forward to visit Colorado.

I gave myself one additional day and relied on the fact that the further I go on the route the more difficult it would be dropping out of the race.  

But I was not sure if I was able to accomplish more bad news maybe something like my parcel hasn’t arrived and stuck somewhere in the customs. That day my further participation in the race was dangling on a string.

On the way to the post office I met Thomas. He camped in the Basin last night and made the final push to Rawlins in the early morning and he didn’t think to get to the lodge today. The same with me. Before I finished all my business here together with a late noonish start and the previous day in my bones I would never be able to ride 90 miles today.

Some good news at the post office – my parcel arrived. Now I had to rearrange my gear for loading up additional 4lbs (1,8Kg).

After I finished my full resupply at a supermarket and tackled the first climb on a very hot paved road out of town I was just about to turn around, taking a motel and calling my quit. I still struggled with the loss of my camera, my empty legs and my full loaded bike and backpack that seemed heavier than all the days before. My mind cinema was in full swing and I was not able to switch it off. I did the first climb in walking pace. The pavement turned into gravel. The lot of climbs that were already seen from the distance and the barren land didn’t lift up my mood.

After countless hours I reached the Medicine Bow forest, the first trees after two days. The scenery with the first Aspen trees I saw in my life pulled me a little bit out of my gloomy mood. The famous Aspen Alley did the rest. But time for photos was limited due to the bloody-minded mosquitoes.

In the dusk I hit the state line of Colorado. Taking the mandatory photos of the sign “Leaving Wyoming” was not possible (the photo below is from Thomas). Just two seconds after I stopped at the sign I was taken over by hordes of mosquitoes. Only with a certain speed I was able to shake off the beasts. Before the race I separated the whole track by states. Unfortunately, my track and my map on the GPS ended and I had to switch to the new map with the Colorado track. The question was what to do now? Brush Mountain Lodge was just 13 miles (mostly uphill) ahead. In my calculation, I don’t know why, it was more than 20 miles.

Setting up a camp together with my little friends was absolutely impossible, so the mosquitoes took the decision for me, basically. But on my GPS I tried desperately switching to my Colorado map while I was keeping the necessary pace. I was able to switch to the other map, but as soon as I loaded the new track the GPS completely crashed. This happened three times. Finally the fourth attempt locked the track to the map without any shut down. Apparently I had a deal with the luck today.

It was almost dark when I switched on my flashlight. Riding in the dark seemed to be a habit. But what I learned at all my night drives before and later on in New Mexico: Mentally it is a huge advantage if you don’t see the climbs!

It was already completely dark when the light beam lightened up something big on the road ahead of me. As I came closer I identified an animal was lying in the center of the road. I slowed down and when I was just 30 feet away I recognized a dead deer with a head bathed in blood. Nice! Yesterday night the bull and today this deer that was apparently struck by a car.

In the meantime I did this hop-on-and-off-the-bike-game again. My legs went on strike. The miles went by as slow at as on the other bad days before. I guessed someone heard my inner desire for a bed, something to eat and an ice cold coke.

I turned round a corner and suddenly the lodge appeared from nowhere. I was totally surprised and at once really glad, because I expected to get there at least 10 miles later on the route. It was close to 11:00 pm. Scott Thigpen and Rich Otterstorm were sitting at a big table when I entered the lodge. Kirstin, who runs the lodge and got a reputation as a trail angel during the years of divide racing, welcomed me. Due to its isolated location the lodge is a very welcomed service point on the way to Steamboat Springs. And Kirstin does a fantastic job at this outpost.

I also expected to see Thomas in the lodge, but when Kirstin checked the leader board he had a camp somewhere in Wyoming close to the state line.

In the knowledge of the lack for carbohydrates during the Tour Divide I emailed Kirstin some month prior to the race a recipe for a sweet meal that is very popular in our Alps region (I am gonna write some more details in the Cordillera). Unfortunately, she was not able to get all the ingredients. Quite honestly, I wasn’t really disappointed. During the entire race I was eating so much sweet stuff the whole day that I was sick and tired of it. I felt like eating something hearty. Kirstin served pizza! That was the right stuff now! In the lodge everybody already knew about the loss of my camera. Obviously my post at the forum was partly successful.        

Aspen Alley