[mikesee]

A smiling, darn near swaggering Dave walked into my shop late yesterday afternoon. We chatted for an hour about life, the universe (at least the one encompassed within the Grand Loop) and everything, then at about 6pm he stood up, cleared his throat, and suggested it was time to "chamois up".

While he donned his SuperMan outfit I took a few minutes to inspect and (with his qualified* permission) weigh his bike. Nothing too exciting really--a well tuned bike with lots of water strapped to it.

*Dave: "Sure you can weigh it. Just don't tell me how much!"

Most unique and (to me) eye catching part was his ghetto/brilliant method for attaching two additional water bottle cages to his seatpost:

8 zip ties!

Minutes later we rolled down the street, up past the Tabeguache Trailhead, and westward towards Loma. With thick cloud cover and temps in the low 70's, it'd be hard to call the conditions anything shy of ideal. Curtains of virga circled the valley, with (mostly) light tailwinds as we spun and chatted the flat 20 miles towards the start.

At one point, on the largest, most massive climb of the prologue, I dropped him without hardly trying, proving forevermore (at least in my mind) that I'm way fitter, faster, stronger, and more handsome than him.

Errrr....

It might have had something to do with the fact that I was riding an unloaded bike on a 40 mile evening sashay, while his was fully loaded for another 350+ over ~3 days...

But I'm not so sure. Maybe he can chime in here later...

At Loma he stopped to fiddle with gear, stow and restash a few things, show off his homebrew light system, and generally grapple with the concept of what he was about to attempt.

Then at 8:25 he clipped into the pedals, flashed a confident grin, and fired up the turbo diesel.

Hope to hear from him this evening when he rolls into Bedrock.

I'll let ya know what he has to say.

Cheers,

MC

 

[262741]

Great post! Good luck with the ride Dave. I guess I need to stop trying to figure out how to make my bike a pound lighter.

 

[alizbee]

My goodness, look at that pack!

I can't wait to hear more about the crackheads 3 days in the wilderness.

 

[alizbee]

random douple post....

Give'Er Dave!

 

[Jilleo]

Thanks for the update

Can't wait to hear about Dave shattering this thing. Looks like he couldn't be more prepared.

 

[ionsmuse]

Allez, allez!!

I think his sleeping bag looks huge...

 

[Guest]

My goodness, look at that pack!

I can't wait to hear more about the crackheads 3 days in the wilderness.

Funny, I'm looking at one of those packs right now. Mine is being packed with a lot less stuff though.

Thanks for posting this Mike. I'll be watching to see how things go.

As I type, there are some dark clouds gathering up over the LaSals. It stormed up there yesterday afternoon too. Everything was clear and sunny this morning though. Hopefully Dave took advantage, and rolled up from Dewey Bridge with nice packed roads, and cool temp's. I'm guessing he did!

FW

 

[SlowerThenSnot]

Vivia La Crackhead!

Git er Done Dave!!!!

Can't wait to see what happens!

 

[Stefan_G]

Funny, I'm looking at one of those packs right now. Mine is being packed with a lot less stuff though.

Hmmm, me too! Osprey packs friggin' ROCK! :thumbsup:

Good luck out there, Dave!!! I'll be imagining where you are out there on the loop over the next few days, recounting the various sections in my mind. Hopefully the cooler temps don't bring rain up high. I'm betting on a sub 3-day time for you! Unlike in a 24 hour race, if you get sleepy, you can just stop and sleep for an hour or two, then press on. Kill it!

Man, I hope your water filter doesn't bounce off and break or disappear! That could be a real bummer. Also, the one thing on your bike I didn't notice was the motor?! I always assumed you had one on there someplace based on how fast you are able to ride for hours on end...

Thanks for keeping us posted, Mike! I'm so looking forward to a similar adventure in a few weeks...

 

[Pivvay]

Can't wait to hear the bedrock update!

That's not just his sleeping bag up front but I won't say anything else. I'll let him fill in any questions when he gets back

Go DH!

MC you should have seen his bike on our first Paradox weekend

 

[LyNx]

Damn, you guys are crazy

That's some serious challenge for sure and not surprising to see your (Mike's) name there as breaking the record :crazy: Anyone got this Grand Loop in/on a GPS that can be loaded up into Google Earth? I'd love to really see where this thing goes since I haven't a clue about anything in the US.

 

[alizbee]

That's some serious challenge for sure and not surprising to see your (Mike's) name there as breaking the record :crazy: Anyone got this Grand Loop in/on a GPS that can be loaded up into Google Earth? I'd love to really see where this thing goes since I haven't a clue about anything in the US.

Check out the website MC linked, or Dave's blog, also linked. In short, its a huge a$$ loop that starts and ends in Grand Junction, CO. It follows the Kokopelli, Paradox and Tabeguache trails.

 

[Pivvay]

Plus GPS tracks are currently closely guarded data. Either you've ridden the loop, preridden the course or spent a good amount of time in front of the computer to create them.

 

[mikesee]

Dave's In Bedrock at 7:45pm

Took him ~23:15 to get there. He sounded happy yet tired. Happy to be talking to someone other than himself, tired of everything else (or so it sounded to me).

A few tidbits:

It was a great night, and a good morning, then the afternoon was pretty rough...

The Paradox Trail was a lot more demanding than I was expecting...

My bike is not 29lbs! (I teased him that it was after I weighed it...)

I'm just gonna bivy somewhere around here, then head on out in the morning...

I just don't feel like riding anymore right now...

This is a beastly ride, and I haven't done the tough stuff yet! (nervous laughter follows...)

This is the first ride where I've ever had thoughts of, "Wow! Am I over my head? I never get those sorts of thoughts, but I had a few today. Interesting...

I did stop and sleep 3 times today. It was either that or fall asleep while riding.

I got lost on the Koko about midnight last night, and burned up an hour doing that. That was kinda stupid considering how many times I've ridden it...

I'm gonna go put this tired body in a bag and see what happens. Next time I talk to you will be in person...

Which means that the next report I have from him will be when he gets back here after finishing. Unless he rides off course to Nucla, and if you saw (and hefted) his pack, you'd know that if he does go to Nucla, it won't be for a shortage of food. Heck, he could ride to Nucla via Telluride and still have enough food to finish the GL...

He's ~halfway done with the mileage, but only ~1/3 done timewise. The second half of the GL course is much, much more difficult than the first. More climbing, more primitive trail, more hike a bike, more routefinding issues, and all heaped on top of having completed 24 hours of non-stop riding through a night and a day, followed by sleeping (probably poorly) tonight in the dirt.

That's livin'. Sweet dreams Dave.

G'night.

MC

 

[Pivvay]

Hope you fall asleep with sweet dreams next to the water tonight Dave. :thumbsup: Keep on truckin...

 

[Stefan_G]

if you saw (and hefted) his pack, you'd know that if he does go to Nucla, it won't be for a shortage of food. Heck, he could ride to Nucla via Telluride and still have enough food to finish the GL...

Har, harr...

I bet a few hours of good, solid sleep will perk him right back up. For me, it's always day 2 of these big adventures that seems the hardest. If he can push through the day 2 blues, he'll be hammering all through Saturday and making up a lot of time on the Tabeguache.

Livin' indeed! Sleeping under the stars, and hopefully a nice night out with no desert scorpions or rattlers...

Thanks for the update, Mike! Keep ridin' hard Dave!

 

[donkey]

I believe that's the most water I've ever seen strapped to a bike. I'm fairly certain my thighs would rub through the bottle on the front of the seatpost in no time at all!

Can't wait to read Dave's trip report!

B

 

[Ridemore24]

Yeah Dave!! Just give errhh!

Nice, thanks for sharing Mike.

 

[mvi]

Can't believe his thighs are not rubbing the bottles either.
Is that a bag of baked bacon on the table?
I like the pragmatic bike choice. I would be missing barends in 20 minutes though.

 

[Krein]

I can relate to many of Dave's quotes from Bedrock. Thanks for the updates Mike.

Thought I'd fill the empty space, while we wait to hear from Dave, with a few pictures from today's challenge: the Tabeguache Trail.

<img src=https://www.topofusion.com/images/diary/tab1.jpg>

Believe it or not, there is some sweet singletrack on the Tab. Precious little, but it does exist.

<img src=https://www.topofusion.com/images/diary/tab2.jpg>

Good old Roubideau Trail. When it's this well defined, you count yourself lucky. Even with a GPS, it's no piece of cake to follow.

<img src=https://www.topofusion.com/images/diary/tab3.jpg>

The Divide Road traverses the Uncompahgre Plateau, offering big views on either side. A few flowers, too.

I really wish I had some pictures of the last ~5 hours of the Tab -- where things get really technical and rough. It goes without saying that those are the hardest miles of the race.

I don't think I'm ever going to get this race out of my head.

Keep pedalin' Dave.