Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Last chance for day dreamers to live what they dream of

So im done I guess. 2200 miles, 29 days.
From Colorado it was all down hill after our 24 mile dirt climb up to 11,910 feet. There was ice and snow on top. We hung out at 10,000 feet for a few days freezing our asses off. 13 degrees one morning.

Matt got super sick one morning and puked a bunch. Then he rode 20 miles and puked a bunch more. Then we rode 4 miles and he passed out after looking like one of the zombies from the thriller movie. Oh and after he puked more. So it was 8 miles downhill to a town, and he was so out of it he couldnt even do that. He was blown. I spent 2 hours trying to hitchhike a ride into the town of Cuba New Mexico. Finally a guy pulled over and picked us up. He drove us straight to a hotel, went inside and hugged the owner and left. She said it was all taken care of and to stay as long as we wanted. Holy shit are strangers nice.

We bought our first dinner since leaving, a big pizza without cheese. Matt puked it up 4 hours later. The next day Matt felt good enough to leave around noon. We pedaled on into some looming clouds. 1 piece of hail rolls towards us.. funny, when one split matt's lip and hit my face so hard that I stopped riding it wasnt funny. That was one of the most brutal days, nowhere to sleep, crazy cold hail/rain stuff ...

Well then we rode a few days down to Pie Townnew mexico, rad town. 180 miles from there with nothing...

Matt's friends picked us up in New Mexico, 100 miles from the border. Chris and Morgan drove 12 hours there, turned around and came home right after. Crazy. LA was overwhelming. So many people, so much traffic too much food. ....

Some stats off the top of my head.
29 days/28 riding days
2200 miles
3 showers
7 dollars spent on lodging TOTAL THE WHOLE TRIP. campgrounds/hotels/hostels. bad ass
shortest a jar of peanutbutter lasted - 11 hours
most flats in 24 hours - I think 9 by Matt with 1 day to go
Most Surly's on a trail above 10,000 feet that day in CO - 3
Cheapest Pancakes - Ovando MT - 2.99 for HUGE cakes
Best Coffee - The bike hostel off of towghatee pass in WY

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

your friend clearly had altitude sickness.... a serious acute illness that requires the victim to descend to lower altitude and seek medical attention. Passing out, as you friend in the story did, was not your run of the mill passing out. It was him nearly dieing, well I'm exaggerating.

"Get down to base camp my puking compadre." Look out for big horn sheep, but that's another story- for a blog I don't have.

Signed,

Ted
Chicago