Black Rock Canyon and Welcome to Utah!?

After our cliff jumping morning in 'Rado we had the option of taking a detour to check out Black Rock Canyon before heading to our host. While the detour (just miles from our host) wasn't all that appealing, several of us made the 10 mile, 1,600ft detour to check out the park. The rest of the crew was able to check out the canyon after dinner, during the sunset, and I think most people consider it a highlight of the trip so far. Here's a video of the ride along the rim of the canyon!

We were certainly sad to leave Colorado, but I've been so excited for Utah! to enter Utah we descended down a long stretch of red rock canyon. It was intense and beautiful. At the bottom of the canyon we had lunch, and found ourselves eating lunch BETWEEN the entering Utah and entering Colorado signs... so what else could we do but have a game of limbo!

After lunch, we had a really steep 2 mile climb, at 9% grade out of the canyon, and the day started to heat up! But after the peak at the two mile mark, we began our descent into Moab, Utah. It was so beautiful. The canyons were lined with the reddest rocks I've ever seen, and I felt like I was truly in the desert. Now we're in Moab. Today is our first day off since Louisville, KY and tomorrow we'll build with a green affordable housing non-profit here in Moab. I'm very excited, as we'll be working on some adobe houses... so cool. Thanks for checking out the blog!

-rob

Life After the Rockies

So after trail ridge, we weren't exactly off the mountain pass hook just yet. We still had two more 11,000 foot peaks to hit, Hoosier Pass and Monarch Pass. Both beautiful, and difficult, climbs coming within days of our summit of Trail Ridge.

We had our first camping experience in Frisco, CO. A storm was rolling in on us as we approached Frisco, but fortunately the front runners of the group made it to camp way early and set up our tents. Thanks Dennis, Karina, Coop, and Sean! We camped right by a lake and between some pretty dramatic mountains. We even got to have a campfire at night!

The next two passes were pretty wild. They were no joke, as both were over 11,000 feet. And after Trail Ridge, I felt like my body (mainly knees) was stressed to the max. But we pushed on and finished our three mountain passes in the course of four days!

Jenny, one of our trip leaders is a botanist who does research in the Rockies. As a bonus, she showed us an awesome detour where we did some cliff jumping! I jumped from 35 feet, but several more daring riders jumped from a rock that was more like 50 feet from the water. Several of those riders now have pretty red backs (George! Sonya!)

Colorado never stopped amazing me. Each day was seemingly more beautiful than the last. We started getting into a more desert-like environment, and I've been excited to make a post-SCA return to the desert. Here's a video below, a little bit out of order, but you'll see Doug, then Larry flying down Monarch Pass at about 40mph. Yeah!

Trail Ridge! This is it!

From Fort Collins we rode up to Estes Park. We gained 2,000 feet of elevation, and stayed the night, getting ready for our biggest climb of the whole trip... Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park.

This day would take us to the highest point we'll see all trip, right around 12,100 feet. During the day, we climbed for 25 miles, and gained over 5,000 feet of elevation. It was maybe the greatest day of riding in my life. The climbing was tough, be we knew what was ahead. We made frequent breaks to adjust for elevation, but in reality we all knew we had this climb in us. After over 2,000 miles on the road, we were so, so ready.

At 11,000 feet I definitely was feeling the elevation, and had eaten an unbelievable amount of cliff bars and Jody's granola bars! We started seeing snow around that point and were well above the tree line. The views were just amazing. We had a perfectly clear day, and once we reached the crest we could see for miles.

A group of 15 of us reached the summit at nearly the same time. There was much hoisting of bikes over our heads, and chants of "Coast to Coast!" It was a fantastic feeling...riding up over the Rockies fueled by pasta and granola bars. We stopped for lunch at a lodge near the summit, and then began our descent...15 miles of curvy downhill! I think the passing back into the tree line was almost as amazing as going above it. We could breathe easier back at 7,000 feet, and once we made it to our host site for the night, we ate lots of Indian food Noah's parents brought us!

Colorful Colorado and Family Visits!

It's been a while since we've had steady internet access... so I hope you're ready for some picture-heavy blogging. We crossed from Nebraska into Colorado about two weeks ago. The flat and windy stretches turned into some climbs, and we began to sense the Rockies were ahead. Here's a picture of an eyes-closed "race to rob" in the wheatfields of CO.

We first spotted the Rockies about 50 miles outside of Fort Collins. It was an amazing feeling. Colin Hood and I were chugging along, when we realized that, no, those weren't clouds in the distance, they were the snow capped peaks of the Rockies!

We rode the next 50 miles pretty much in disbelief that we had actually biked this far, and we surely were keeping in mind that we would have to cross them.

We spent a couple of great nights in Fort Collins. I was super happy to meet up with my cousins Bob, Jody and Justin. It was a real treat. They even came to a Habitat for Humanity benefit concert where we listened to some serious bluegrass. Jody was kind enough to whip up some vegan granola bars, and delicious chocolate chip cookies. We would take these on our 5,500 foot climb the following day, and many of the riders swore that these bars fueled them over the Rockies. Thanks Jody!

The Center of the USA!

We just crossed into Nebraska after 3 days of biking through Kansas. The Kansas countryside was really remarkable, and I think we all had some pretty unbelievable days of riding. Lots of foggy, hazy mornings, turing into humid afternoons. While we hear the wind coming from the west can be really strong, we fortuantely haven't seen it just yet.

On our longest day of the trip, we biked 95 miles from Manhattan, KS into Beloit, KS. Temps were over 95 degrees, and we were hustling to beat the heat. It didn't go so fast, but we had a blast just the same. I rode with Noah, and we took lots of breaks to stave off the heat exhaustion. I got two flats during the day, but after 2000 miles, I'm getting quicker at changing them on the road. It was a tough day, but it felt great to make it through our 95 miler as a team. Sonya, one of our trip leaders, and a rider on CUS '08 knew of a sweet little ice cream shop in town, and we all went and had some delicious malts right after our ride. The table below was completely filled with glasses after P2SF rolled through.

Riding from Beloit, KS to Red Cloud, Nebraska we had 2 important stops along the way. One was the geographical center of the US, and the other was the worlds largest ball of twine. Yes! We added some of our own twine to the giant ball, and took lots of pictures scaling the mass.

The geographical center of the US is way out in the hills of Kansas. It was such a nice ride along the rolling hills of the countryside. At the geographical center pictured below, we had a snack break and hung out with the rooster that seemed to be guarding the monument.

Tonight we're in Alma, Nebraska, and we have a couple more nights before entering Colorado! The weather out here has been just great! No hail, just some thunderstorms. But they've always been way off in the distance, and make for some of the most amazing views I've seen during the trip. Colorado here we come!

-rob

Kansas!

We've had some beautiful days recently. We road through Missouri in three days, and have spent the past few nights in Lawrence, Kansas, where we just completed day two of working on a habitat for humanity house. Missouri was just beautiful. We crossed the Mississippi to enter the state, and enjoyed coasting on the flat terrain in the northern part of the state. We were educated on our Mark Twain history, and some of the riders went to explore the caves. We spent fourth of July in Richmond, MO where the kind folks at the church that hosted us, let us light off a few fireworks in celebration. It was so cool to be in a state where fireworks are legal! Every backyard had a professional fireworks show.

We left Richmond and entered Kansas. On our last of three 90 mile days in a row, we entered Lawrence. What a place. Reminds me of Asheville a bit, it's got a good crunch to it. Instead of our usual church basement accommodations, we're staying at a Marriott! So good! And since we're about halfway across the country (seriously!) we're feeling like it's a little spring break.

Best part about Lawrence... the build site we worked at. On our first night in town, we ate at a restaurant with the family that will live in the new house. We also worked side by side with them at the build site. They're unbelievably excited... and chatting with them really makes me feel like this is exactly what I should be doing right now.

Check out some of these before and afters! We showed up to four walls, and today we finished up the roof! It's about 1 month of work, in two days! Thanks for checking up on the blog, hope everyone is really well. I'm really loving Bike and Build. Tomorrow we've got a 95 mile day into Manhattan, KS.

-rob

INDIANA!

After our awesome stay in Louisville, we crossed the Ohio one last time to get into Indiana. We were in a big group at this point, so we took the opportunity to try and spell out the name of our next state. Though for some reason, Larry, Carlie and I are taking a break from making our "N." Our next stop was Litman, Indiana. It was such a short day that we took time to enjoy the many corn fields we were passing, and stopping for iced cream. It's a good thing we savored this 45 mile trip, since our next day would be one of the most difficult days yet.

OK, so the next morning we woke at 5am to get started on our 90/90 day nice and early. It was a really warm morning, and totally beautiful. One of our leaders, Kate called me outside, and we watched as hundreds of birds began to emerge from their roosting spots right outside our church. And so began the day that George called "TARrific." Ryan Farr, upon arrival at our host site that night said only three words, "Tar. Gravel. Wind." These three factors combined to make this a super difficult day.

At around mile 60, we got onto some back roads. This would normally be ideal, but it was so hot out that the tar began to melt. We couldn't avoid the tar, and then we would hit these gravel filled roads, and our tires would become coated. So much so, that all of our brakes were locking up ever few miles. Also, with the wind and the sticky tar, our normal pace of 15-17mph, was brought down to something more like 8 or 9mph. It was really tough physically, and mentally but we all pushed on, and motivated each other to pull through maybe our most difficult day.

After our tough and tarry ride, we were happy to have a long and flat ride into Springfield, IL. The trip was 92 miles, so we got into paceline mode right away. Karina, Carlie and I cruised at about 16mph in a pretty decent headwind. In the afternoon, some of the lead riders found an amazing bike path that went on for 15 miles! It was fantastic, and a way to get away from some busy roads. For the last 30 miles of the day, the wind really picked up. They were steady at 20mph! Larry, Carlos and I did a nice job of pacelining, and made sure everyone had fresh legs to finish out this long ride. It felt great riding into Springfield. Two pretty tough days in a row, and though my legs were totally feeling tired, it was great to reflect on some pretty hard rides, and know we made it through together.

We stayed two nights in Springfield. The following day was a build day, and we worked on a house nearly complete in a neighborhood that already had 4 habitat houses. It was so nice to see how great the houses look, and the kids playing in the yard. A big group of us worked on digging out where they will lay down the new sidewalk, while others set up lots of drywall.

Today we had a beautiful ride into Pittsfield, IL. It was 80 miles, and just perfect cycling weather. Tomorrow we cross into Missouri and will stay in Hannibal for the night! And now after a nice dip in the town's swimming pool, it's time for dinner!