This isn’t just a clever title. More than two months on from this epic adventure with seven friends, and the first thing
that comes to mind is the daily hanging chamois ritual.
Each day of this seven day trip ended with eight chamois hanging in different
parts of the cabin in various states of stink, some dripping on top of bunk
beds (ahem -- Jason), while others accompanying us at the dinner table.
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| Chamois photo bomb |
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| The daily end-of-ride routine |
Immediately though, my thoughts
shift to what an absolute stellar time we had riding our mountain bikes from
Telluride to Moab this past August. This was truly an international gang – four
Americans (Kenny, Jason, Adam, and I); two Brits living in the US (Tash and
Laura); one Brit living in Britain (Helen); and one Aussie living in the US
(Katie). The whole plan was concocted by our fearless leader, Laura, who
rallied up Tash and I from DC, much of her MIT cycling team gang now living on the West
Coast, and her sister from Britain. We all made our separate ways to Telluride
and met up at a rented condo to assemble bikes and start our grand adventure.
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| Downtown Telluride -- the whole town is maybe five blocks long |
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| Bikes unboxed and ready to roll |
Given the pedigree of the pack (MIT,
LSE), there was no shortage of geekdom, with evening conversations ranging from
space travel to deforestation and everything in between. This was of course
till the lemon drops came out (purchased and consumed legally in CO except by those
among us who couldn’t due to work restrictions). Then the conversations shifted
to how long it would take a bear to tear down our cabin door or to other urgent
concerns such as the mysterious and leaky gas stove.
While the evenings were relaxing
with laughs and good food for hungry cyclists especially with master chef Kenny
at the helm, the real fun was the biking during the day. The
San Juan hut-to-hut system is the real deal. Its legitimately good mountain biking on
singletrack but each day also has easier dirt road and doubletrack options. The
huts are filled to the gills with food and not just non-perishables – they have
coolers filled with cheese, eggs, meat, and drinks that are restocked on a
regular basis. Without the weight of sleeping bags or food and water for seven
days, the riding is significantly more enjoyable. Most of us just carried one
large handlebar or saddle bag and a camelback. Bikes ranged from hardtail to
high end full suspension.
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| Typical hut exterior |
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| And interior |
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| Master Chef Kenny hard at work (Photo Credit: Jason Sears) |
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| Laura resting after a long day of riding. Tash is asleep on top bunk (Photo Credit: Jason Sears) |
The riding did not disappoint!
Although I must admit the first day was tough. I recently discovered that I
don’t deal that well with high altitude without proper acclimatization so I
knew that starting out in Telluride (at 9,000 feet) and going up to Last Dollar
Hut (11,000 feet) on the first day was going to be difficult. But the views
were magnificent and the weather cooperated and we made it up to the hut with
plenty of daylight still remaining.
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| Day 1 crew. Others were either ahead of behind |
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| Views weren't bad |
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| Stopping for pictures (Photo Credit: Jason Sears) |
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| MTB Camaraderie (Photo Credit: Jason Sears) |
The fun part of riding all day is
that at the end you can pretty much eat anything you want and not feel guilty
about calories. We took full advantage of all the food available and got
creative with pasta, potato, and meat dishes – all great with the clear
exception of Kenny’s Spam charcuterie platter one day which wasn’t a hit. Not
surprising as spam tastes like, well, spam.
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| Day 1 musings (Photo Credit: Jason Sears) |
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| Planning out the next day's ride (Photo Credit: Jason Sears) |
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| Sunsets were spectacular (Photo Credit: Jason Sears) |
Given the international crowd it
was fun to compare uncommon terms used in different countries. For example,
what we call an outhouse in the US is called a longdrop in Britain. Quite
literal, these Brits, as it is a fair bit down to the compost pile from where
you sit. Note to self: never use an instadrop!
Day 2 brought rain and
thunderstorms with plenty of lightening. Tash and I trailed off to put on rain
gear and saw at least ten lightning strikes in the distance. Thankfully,
weather in the mountains moves very quickly and soon the dark clouds were past
us and sunshine returned. There wasn’t much singletrack along the way, however
there were options available to ride after we reached the second hut.
Several
of us went off without bags and had a blast. The trails in this part of
Colorado are fast and flowy until they’re not and you quickly find yourself in
the middle of rocks. The unfortunate truth about riding rock gardens is that
you can clear them better if you ride with speed and power, but many newbies
struggle with speed on technical terrain so it can be a double whammy. But fun
was had by everyone. It was quite amusing to watch and wait while Laura
dutifully pulled out and consulted her paper map at every trail intersection,
highly suspicious of the GPS track loaded on my garmin. Needless to say the
garmin was always right.
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| MTB selfies |
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| Kenny showing off |
There was also a bear encounter
when an overenthusiastic cub ran across the trail in between Helen and the rest
of us behind. Mamma bear couldn’t have been far so we decided to make loud
noises to ward her off. Sadly our collective brain bank couldn’t come up with
any songs that we all knew so we resorted to singing happy birthday loudly to
the baby bear. Imagine coming across that scene in the woods!
Day 3 was perhaps my favorite as
Tash got to ride a lot of singletrack and enjoyed it quite a bit. There is a
personal sense of accomplishment to see your partner become a better mountain
biker. Or maybe its just serving my own interests as now we can go on more
mountain biking vacations! Other interesting aspects of day 3 were Jason and
Helen getting lost and almost freaking out but not quite, separating from Adam
and Katie, re-finding them at a later intersection and eventually making it to
the third hut where the rest of us had prepared a yummy meal for all.
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| The train is on its way |
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| Helen fueling up at lunch |
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| "Me no likey this trail -- hiss!" |
Day 5 had some super fun singletrack. Katie
and Tash decided to take the dirt road option and the rest of us went for the
singletrack. It did not disappoint. First we descended down some mega steep and
technical shoots with lots of loose rock and sand. Thanks to my dropper post I
rode this fast and with confidence. Soon the trail opened up in the valley to
magnificent views all around.
But moments later, disaster! Or
at least a few of us thought so. Adam and Jason had tailed off a bit on a
descent and we waited for them a bit further ahead. And we waited, and waited.
Then we got really worried. So Kenny and I started walking back to check on
them. Thankfully, it was just a mechanical with Adam’s chain really jammed up behind
his cassette. No amount of pulling or tugging got it loose.
We had a cassette tool with us
but no wrench so leave it to the MIT engineering nerds to figure out a
solution. First they found a rock which had a sufficient crack in it to fit the
chain tool. Then they used allen keys to file open the gap a bit more so the
tool could fit deeper and more secure. The idea was to use this engineered rock
wedge as a wrench and rotate the wheel around it to loosen the cassette. I’d
love to tell you that it worked but sadly it didn’t, the rock was too brittle.
Finally, a non-engineer in the group (i.e. me) suggested trying to yank out the
chain with more leverage. And guess what, it worked! But we had to loop the
chain around the crank backwards and then give the crank a big kick and out
came the chain. Science: 0 – Brawn: 1.
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| Adam's got some serious arm strength! |
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| Jason at it again with his camera (Photo Credit: Jason Sears) |
We weren’t done with our
mechanicals for the day, though. The last part of the day was an insanely steep
dirt road descent which pitched down 25%+ in places. I was happily descending
like a banshee till my front wheel started squirreling violently. Somehow I
managed to slow the bike down just in time for a turn away from the abyss and
stopped the bike several feet later. That was a close call. After some flat
repair we all made it to the next hut without further incident, thankfully.
The other memorable part of the
day was when I decided to give Adam MTB tips on riding with confidence thinking
he was a newbie, only to discover later that he is a Cat 1 road racer! He then
proceeded to lay the hammer down at every single hill that followed – doh!
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| Mountain Panorama |
The final day was mostly downhill
and promised to be exciting. We were going to ride the Porcupine Rim trail down
into Moab. For those who don’t know this is quite a spectacular trail that drops
you down amidst steep and bouldery slickrock. Some of the crew opted for the
full experience while others rode for a bit and then traversed across to the
dirt road. Some even managed to ride the slickrock trail which is a mountain
biking rite of passage.
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| Porcupine rim trail (Photo Credit: Jason Sears) |
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| Approaching Moab |
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| Resting on a cliff |
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| Feeling on top of the world |
Finally, we rolled into Moab
tired but extremely satisfied. After well deserved (and needed) showers and a
celebratory dinner at a local restaurant, everyone disbanded to make their
separate ways back home. Tash and I stayed an extra day to go visit Arches
National Park, which ended up being a nice way to unwind and relax off the
bike.
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| Delicate Arch |
This was such a fun trip! We’re
already plotting to get the gang back together for next summer.
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| (Photo Credit: Jason Sears) |
