Day 8: Rude Awakening

Miles: 68
Rock climbs: 1
Handstands: 8

Chelsey here:
We woke up from a sound, deep sleep to car doors slamming and children laughing…. Not what we were expecting. Sam and I shot up out of bed simultaneously, realizing that what we were hearing wasn’t a dream. Jason was the last to wake, not believing Sam or I when we said that there was someone outside. Sam and I gave Jason up as bait- telling him he looked the best out of all of us. Jason got dressed in his cleanest dirty clothes and bravely went outside while Sam and I prayed they didn’t have shotguns. After all, we were in the wild west! We had put our bikes in the barn the night before so they must have been pretty surprised when this long- haired grizzed out guy appeared out of nowhere.

The two women and two little boys turned out to be really nice and even invited us into the house for some water. After packing up our bikes and watching the boys hunt ground squirrels we were off towards Rand in hopes of a café with some eggs.
10 miles later we were in Rand, which was unfortunately totally dead. There was no diner, and the one store was closed. We did however find an old fashioned coke machine which was extremely exciting for us… it’s the little things that keep us going.



After a breakfast of granola and Raw Rev bars in the parking lot, we were on our way to cross the Continental Divide for the second time in two days. On our way up to the top of the pass we met our first fellow bike tourer, Trey. He had biked all they way from San Antonio and was on his way to Vancouver. We exchanged bike and food tactics. He gave us some home baked pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, in return we gave him some Raw Rev bars and U-hydration tablets. I wish the world worked like this all the time, the bartering and trading system is where it’s at! Spread the love!

At the top of the pass we did some handstands and acroyoga counterbalances to get the blood flowing in other areas of our bodies. On the way down from the top of the pass we, spotted an amazing climbing area. Jason went to check it out while Sam and I waited for the report. There was a rope and anchors, but no bolts that we could see. Jason scrambled up the face in his bike shoes until his instincts told him to come down. We all agreed to come back in a few months and put up some routes if no one else had yet because of how awesome it looked. There was at least 20 climbs ranging from 5.8- 5.11 in a beautiful area!
We peddled on down the hill scouting out the rock features up high and rapids down low. We got to Granby just before the local café closed. The women there were extremely nice and they gave us 8 banana muffins and two breakfast burritos. We gladly scarfed them down while we caught up on our blogs and recharged our batteries. After we were fully recharged, we headed up the hill to Grand Lakes. By the time we got there, there was no campsites to be had… so we pedaled on past the entrance of Rocky Mountain National Park. A few miles later we found a picnic area with a prominent no camping sign. Exhausted and ready to sleep, we pushed our bikes deep into the woods. It was our first night using our new Hillberg tunnel tent, and we were overjoyed by its design and roominess. The fly and vestibule were green so we felt safe and camoflauged when the rangers made their final rounds. I fell asleep with a bit of anxiety knowing what the next day had in store for us.




Note: we do not condone camping illegally but we are very conscious that $30 saved on a campsite, or $25 saved on food is money that will go towards the kids and Beads of Courage. We have limited ourselves (since the beginning) to a $10 a day group budget – only $3.33 each! Good thing we have lots of friends, and lots of luck.
Thanks again to: Eastern Essence, Raw Rev, U-hydration, and all of our generous in-town hosts!

YES Tour Day 8 at SpotAdventures

Map created by SpotAdventures:GPS Geotagging