Well, it took the adventure itch out of my system for a while, but I just rode the last ~120 miles or so of the Colorado Trail, from Carson Saddle to Durango, in 2 days, actually about 37 hours total..... and it totally fried me in body and mind. There was Lots of high alpine rocky nasty bike pushing roller coaster with no end in sight, then when the descents come up, they're often so gnarly that they're just as tiring as the push/grind uphill, but at least on the downhill, the miles tick by slightly quicker. This was interspersed with brief sections of world class beautiful flowy fast singletrack, and knock out views just about everywhere.
Lessons learned:
-bring real food, maybe even a stove. I quickly got sick of junk food.
-don't use alloy spoke nipples. one broke in the back and I had to ride another 30+ miles without it helping any. I broke another earlier this summer, and they were both rear, non drive side outside spokes - the ones with the highest angle into the rim putting the worst forces on the nipple. I'll swap them all out for brass on this wheel - the 37 nanograms of weight savings just isn't worth the risk.
-car camping and relaxing short rides make a lot of sense
-there can be too much of a good thing......
-casual bikepack touring on moderate dirt roads with friends and less agenda sounds more fun.
-Based on my time for this section, I could probably finish the CTR, but also don't want to subject myself to that much condensed torture. Two days was enough.
EDIT to add a few more lessons I forgot about last night:
-The two bladder system worked well - while the betadine is purifying one, drink out of the other one. Leave the unpurified hose clipped to the back of the hydration pack until it is ready.
-Bring a normal bottle or nalgene. Drinking that much water out of a hose gets old.
-Flow rims instead of Arch rims are worth it on this trail. When you break a non drive side rear spoke nipple, and already run tight tire clearances with the frame, its nice to know at least you have a tough rim. There are millions of giant rocks and drop offs, and I'd rather pedal an extra 4 ounces of aluminum then push a lighter broken wheelset...... the extra tire width is nice too from the wider rims.
-I'm so glad I got over the whole rigid singlespeed thing. Fun for places groomed for bikes like Hartman Rocks and Fruita, but only for the true crazies in the
High and Wild country.
-Getting air time on a loaded bike is so much fun. Thank you
CTF trail crews for shaping those water bars into sweet jumps.
So, I'm glad I did it but it feels so good to stop.... it is good to push this hard occasionally.
then I hitch-biked back to Silverton, which took two rides after dark, then another bivy in the woods halfway there, then another ride down Wednesday morning. Then a friend met me and we did pretty much nothing, all day, except make breakfast burritos camping style, take a loooong nap, pick the mother lode of wild raspberries, then drive over Engineer Pass back to Lake City.
Tomorrow I move back to Grand Junction for year two of Mechanical Enginerd School for "fun" of a different sort - Calculus III, Statics, Materials Science, and General Chemistry, plus side jobs tutoring math and physics, wrenching as needed for
Brown Cycles, and of course, sewing custom bike bags.
