Day 1 complete!

  After leaving Platteville, Colorado, everything was going absolutely terrific. However, we did discover that Jordan could not pull the trailer with the bike setup we had, as he tried, and the trailer and the wind combined just took over the bike.

We made Greeley, Colorado (70 miles) just before 3:00 PM, which meant we had 26 miles to go to the campsite. As we made our way through town, we had the first of three flats (at the exact location)! Well, actually, there were two, but because I (Londell) was an idiot and pinched a tube, we had to replace it again. Two were on Jordan's bike (one was a Londell error pinch flat), and one was on the trailer.

The biggest pain was when we realized we did not bring a Schrader valve pump for the trailer. Fortunately, I was able to wave down some people who were able to fill up the tires so we could at least get going. However, that was not after we had wasted a good 20 minutes. 

Londell changes tire #1

Jordan fills tire #1

Londell changes the second tire...

Jordan emphasized and was absolutely correct that the safe thing to do would be to ride back into Greeley to find the appropriate pump and replacement tubes. This was a little bit out-of-the-way, but it was the best decision. We went to the closest shop, as shown on the iPhone app—it was closed. We went to the second closest shop, and it was not even there. Shop 3 was just closing, but he didn't have everything we needed.

We decided to ride the additional 2 miles to the main shopping center area with a Wal-Mart. What surprised me was how many stores did not have the tube we needed for the trailer.  We were able to get everything we needed at Wal-Mart. Typically, we would not be huge Wal-Mart fans, but Wal-Mart trucks were generous today and slowed down as they went around us. This was different for most of the truck traffic we encountered. 

Jordan caught a rainbow right over where we were headed while I was in Walmart.  

This resulted in a 12-mile detour.  So, if we were going to make camp, it would mean close to 110 miles.  We finally left Greeley, Colorado, at 5:30 PM and had about 26 miles.  The headwind and traffic made this a challenging 26 miles.  With about 10 miles, sunset required us to use the headlamps.  With the darkness, road conditions, and traffic, we were lucky to go 10 MPH.  We took several small breaks as well.

I would like to give you pictures of our campsite, but that's impossible because after 112 miles we reached the campsite in complete darkness.  We were greeted by a camper who informed us the campground was full.  He also told us there was a site reserved near the creek that appeared empty, and we could try that site.  It was dark, but we were able to find the site. We quickly set up the camp, and Jordan made an excellent sweet-and-sour chicken from a dehydrated meal. It was delicious since we had not eaten since 12 o'clock, and it was now 9:30 PM.   It was such a blessing to have the jet boil!

Overall, a day that started with great success took a turn and made the last 40 miles, actually 50 miles, difficult. We did the absolute best we could, and I am ecstatic that we made the campground at the place listed as stop one.  Shortly after arriving at stop one, the Charlie horses started to fall into my legs.  They were so painful and woke me throughout the night.  I would like a good nutritional meal, vitamins, and E-caps to take care of that for tomorrow.

We are both quite exhausted, and we are going to go to sleep as early as we can. Fortunately, tomorrow's ride is only 60 miles. I will try to take a picture at the campsite in the morning.  


SUMMARY OF DAY 1:  A total of 111.1 miles and 12.8 MPH (riding time only) and a total on-bike time of 8 hours 44 minutes and 23 seconds.  It was just under 13 hours for the day, with a temperature range of 44.6 F to almost 95 F. The total ascent (according to Garmin Connect) was 1,079 feet, which was a decent of 2,150 feet.  We had a net decrease of 1,233 feet in elevation, going from 5,971 feet to 4,738 feet.

Our 10 miles splits from MapMyRide (time includes breaks, and mph is based only on riding time) were:

  0-10 in 0:45:10 - 14 mph
10-20 in 0:50:04 - 13.6 mph
20-30 in 1:13:35 - 13.7 mph
30-40 in 0:44:28 - 14.2 mph
40-50 in 0:56:25 - 14.1 mph
50-60 in 1:30:18 - 16.3 mph
60-70 in 1:55:58 - 13.5 mph
70-80 in 1:40:23 - 10.5 mph
80-90 in 0:53:45 - 11.7 mph
90-100 in 1:01:15 - 11.2 mph
100-110 in 1:05:18 - 11.4 mph