Yes Tour: 2nd Epilogue and summary of tasks

"Please Mr. Tow Truck driver, don't tow their cars."

Chelsey here wrapping up the Y.E.S. Tour
Statistics: (Tour total)

• Days it took us to miss our bikes: 3
• Miles: 1080+
• Days riding: 32
• River Miles: 54
• rock climbs: 108
• Slackline walks: too many to count
• Handstands: 1000's
• Sun- Salutations: 108
• Gallons of Milk: 20+ (Sam alone drank 15)
• Flat Tires: 33
• Workshops taught: 27
• Child patients visited: 24
• Serious crashes: 1
• New Friends: hundreds
  

Well, the tow truck driver was not at all into my charm, Jason's peaceful warrior approach or Sam's motion sickness. He must hear all sorts of excuses all of the time, but our story was very legit. Even the police were behind us. We went in with lifted hearts, (I even dedicated a round of back bends to him), but once we entered his domain, he had his walls up, including shades shielding his eyes. For towing our cars 2 and a half miles, he charged us $350. We talked him down from $500, which was the best he could offer us. He said "I know you guys are into all of that Charity stuff and all, but I have $20,000 rent every month. If I didn't have that I could charge you $25." He was surrounded by cars that he has towed and now owns because people just up and leave them. He tells us, as we are walking out to retrieve our stuff, that he is about to sell a BMW and a KIA, each worth about 10 times what our cars are worth. The entire time, he does not let us get a word in. We all have so much to say, but at the same time we feel sorry for this guy. Here we are, hearts open and fresh off of an amazing tour where we had the privilege of playing with so many amazing people. Here he is, owning a shell gas station and towing people for a living. The towing part is not so bad, but his actions tend to lead him to constantly dealing with unhappy people and he seemed to have a lifetime of walls up. We understand that he has to pay his employees and that he was just doing what the "guy with the gun" told him to do, but there was a certain disconnect. We were willing to pay all the hard costs of the tow, but to pay 10% of our donation money was heart breaking. We had to pay him the money in order to get our cars back. We are in the process of writing the Vail Daily to see if we can make this into a story (kinda a good cop/challenging towtruck driver kinda thing). The tow truck guy had also ripped Sam's car apart looking for drugs, and for someone like Sam (who lives in his car) it was quite invasive. We also gave him the chance to let this be a donation to The Beads of Courage, he could have used it as a tax write off, however, he was not into it. It certainly was a huge energetic challenge to let it all go, and to move on.

"I tried all of these faces... but none of them worked."

The good news is that we have our cars back. Many, many thanks goes out to the Vail Police for being so supportive and helpful. We also are very thankful for our friend Rachel who looks after us at our safehouse #44. She tried everything in her ability to help us out.
Aside from that, this tour couldn't have ended more perfectly. There is always a little twist at the end of our adventures, and lots of the time, it happens every day. We are quite used to it. The main thing is is that we are all healthy and in high spirits. We had an amazing time here in Colorado and are for sure going to come back again and again.. and again! To have been able to bring awareness to Yoga, Sustainability and Beads of Courage to so many communities was our main goal. I think we went well beyond that goal and even surprised our selves with what the outcome was. We were able to raise over $3,000 for Beads of Courage , do 108 climbs, 54 miles of river, do well over 108 handstands (I think I completed 108 in one afternoon alone), countless sun-salutations and thousands of walks across the slackline. We were on the road for 32 days and completed 1080 miles. Much to our surprise, we are eager to get back on the bikes and do another tour. We are thinking 10,080 miles across the country next time. We had many, many memorable experiences on this tour, so many in fact, I think we would have to make a whole separate website for it. However, to the best of our ability, here is a list of some that come to mind:

• Being able to be a part of bringing communities together.
• All of the amazing home stays.
• All of the offers to adopt us.
• Meeting the children at The Denver Children's Hospital
• Getting to pick out 2 entire outfits from Beckons Organics at Becky's house
• Having Glenn meet us on his bike in Pueblo
• Getting surprised with Marcee's connection to us through beads of her own.
• All of the amazing food that was cooked for us! (Anne and Pat, Katy and Keith, Becky, Stephanie, Amy and Caroline.. and many more!)
• Seeing our friends Adi, Ben and Rachel at the very end of our tour
• The amazing gear (Ibex bike shorts, Ergon grips, Pac Outdoors paniers, U-hydration, Eastern Essence food, etc)
  
• Having a guy stop twice to give us food and water.
• Getting inspired by so many amazing people
• Getting to the top of awesome passes.. and then getting to go down them at mach speeds!
• Being able to do this tour fully sustainably with some of my favorite people
• All of our spontaneous random slackline and handstand stops
• Sam's chocolate chip cookies
• Dan's dry sense of humor
• Tom's ability to ham it up for the camera
• Sam and Tom's russian acrobatic show
• Jason's motivation... (even if we didn't like it at the time)
• all of the yoga and rock climbing .. and slacklining.. and, and.. ok I should stop.

Thank you once again for all of your support and donations. We will continue to work with Beads of Courage for our adventure races and awareness tours. Lots of love, Team Yogaslackers


YogaSlackers YES Tour 2009 at SpotAdventures

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YES Tour - Epilogue (kinda)

We had intended this blog to be sort of a summary of the totals of the Tour. To talk about the fun at the Telluride Yoga Festival. We wanted to report the amount of money we raised for Beads of Courage, the number of people we reached, etc....but we have run into a bit of a problem.

A week ago, we were notified by the police that our cars (which we'd left in Vail) were about to be sold at auction. We'd left them in a free parking garage, with no posted signs about parking limitations. Our friend and Vail local, Rachel, was checking on them every few days. A week before the end of the tour, they were both towed after having a police sticker put on them with a "move in 24 hours or else" notice. The PLC was towed first, and the police notified because the tow truck driver saw drugs in the door. After a search with the drug dogs, it turned out that what the driver had seen was a bag of Mate and the bombilla (metal straw for drinking mate tea). The police searched the entire car and also found a Vicadin from Sam's recent eye surgery in an unmarked bottle. The police emailed us, to tell us the cars were to be auctioned.

We called the police, as did Rachel, and explained the situation. An officer named Ryan was incredibly understanding, and had the vehicles moved to the police impound lot, rather than the city one. He couldn't do anything about the $500 towing charges, but sent us over to talk to the towing company.

So that is where we stand. We are meeting with the towing company owner tonight. We are hoping that if we tell our story, he will understand our journey and who we were doing it for - the kids. Wish us luck.

YES tour day 31, 1080 miles

Miles Biked: 70
total miles for trip: 1080+
Elevation gained: 4500ft
Gallons of milk: 1
flat tires: 0!!!!



Our last day of bicycling for the YES Tour. We were all pretty excited, but not at 5 am. We needed to get an early start to try to make it to Telluride before the registration closed and also to try to beat some of the heat and wind. We ate and packed up quickly and were on the road by 6. We were able to ride quite a bit on an urban trail before we had to cut back to the busy main road. Unfortunately the heat and wind were against us before we got to Ridgeway. Once again we were able to ride for a while on a paved trail which was a very nice break from the shoulder of the road. We passed 1000 miles on Sam's odometer right before town and did a little dance of celebration. In reality we had passed this milestone 30 or more miles earlier because for some reason it didn't register in the rain.

In Ridgeway we stopped for lunch at a grocery store. A gallon of milk and chocolate syrup revived Sam along with some sandwiches and fruit. Then we headed West out of town and up towards Dallas Divide. Somehow the wind turned to be mostly against us again. This was becoming a frustrating theme. There was a lot of construction on this road. For the first bit we rode on the left shoulder which was quite nice because the construction was in the left lane and the traffic was in the right lane. Later we had to be on the right shoulder with traffic going past far too close to us. Finally we got to the summit of Dallas Divide at 8970 feet, 3000 feet higher than Montrose. On the other side of the summit the headwind was a lot stronger, and with our downhill speed the apparent headwind was really strong.

We stopped to think about taking the Last Dollar Road but decided that heading downhill on a dirt road would be too dangerous with the slicks. The descent to Placerville was long and would have been very fast without the headwind. As it was, we still went quickly dropping 1700 feet of elevation. We refilled our water bottles and headed up the road to Telluride. Somehow this last push seemed worse than most as we slowly ground our way up the final hill on a tiny shoulder with traffic zipping by right next to us. We might have had a tiny tailwind here, but that just seemed to make things hotter as we cooked in the sun. The final elevation gain was only 1500 feet or so, but it seemed much harder than some of the bigger passes we had done. Eventually we crested the final hill and the final miles to the condo we were staying at. This was the final biking leg and brought us over 1080 miles total. It was wonderful to get off of the bikes, but we couldn't rest yet. We took off the panniers and then headed over to take the wind powered gondola to Mountain Village for an opening reception (dinner for us) of the Telluride Yoga Festival.

This completes the bicycling portion of the Yogaslackers Colorado Y.E.S Tour, at some point we will put together a post with a complete summary.



YES Tour day 31 at SpotAdventures

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Day 30: No Mercy from the Wind

Miles: 67
head wind: 20 mph
Ice cream bars: 6

Today was a classic Yogaslackers day. We woke up, packed, ate and milled around till the clock said 11:59am. We had said we wanted to be out of there by 12... not a minute late or to soon, we were off. Jason got a flat right on time. We had gone 1/4 of a mile and were still in the Gunnison city limits. Luckily we had just bought a full patch kit from Rock and Roll Sports. By 12:15pm we were off to our next destination, Montrose. Right away the winds were against us. It looked like an awesome day for windsurfers and bikers going the other way.. but a grueling day for us. Thankfully the scenery was awesome, and the winds helped us from sweating to death. Half way through the ride, we made it to Cimmaron. We stopped into the Newberry market and scarfed down 6 ice cream sandwiches in the time span of 6 minutes. At the top of our final pass for the day, Mt. Cerro I ran up to a pipeline high above the highway and did some sun salutations and arm balances. Jason came up to join me, we did an acro pose and were done with the pipeline. The wind and the elevation took mercy on us for the last 16 miles. The head wind came down to 16 mph and the rest of the way was downhill. We rolled into Montrose just as it was getting dark. My friends Amanda and Liam of Dream West Expeditions put us up in their warehouse for the night. By 10 pm our bellies were full of Eastern Essence yummy indian food and we were sleeping soundly. The perfect end to our 2nd to last day of being on our bikes!!

Yes Tour Day 29

Statistics:

Miles Packrafted: 10
Miles ran: 10 (5x2)
dumpsters dived: 2

After another relaxing morning at the hostel, we split up with Jason and Tom walking to the Gunnison River to complete the 54 miles of packrafting for the YES Tour. It wasn't 108, but half of that was a more realistic goal for packrafting. See day 27 for the significance of 108. The rafting was super fun, and we often opted for the exciting looking waves which resulted in a quick cold swim for Jason. He managed to surf all the way across a play wave before flipping in the next wave. We also floated past a golf course and found a paddle. Jason is still behind in the paddle score, but he is gaining ground. After getting off the river and packing up the boats we had to jog nearly 5 miles back to the Hostel to make it back in time for the slackline workshop.


Meanwhile Sam and Chelsey had gone to the park with some others and practiced slacklining. Then we all returned for the slackline workshop. A number of the people that attended already knew how to slackline, so we had one beginner line and one advanced line going.

That evening we visited the 100% discount bin behind the local grocery store for corn chips, sweet corn, pastrami, mushrooms, and lunchables. Everyone was pretty excited to get some nice free food. These helped fuel us the next day.

This map includes the paddling:
Yes tour day 29 paddling at SpotAdventures

Map created by SpotAdventures:GPS Geotagging

This map has no paddling:
YES tour day 29 at SpotAdventures

Map created by SpotAdventures:GPS Geotagging

YES Tour Day 28

Statistics:

Gallons of chocolate milk: 1.25
Tired Yogaslackers: 4

Today was mostly a day of rest - as much as the YogaSlackers are able to rest. Originally we planned to do some pack rafting, but it just didn't happen. Instead we managed a bit of sleeping in, a bit of morning relaxing, a bit of yoga, and then an acroyoga workshop with over 40 attendees outside. With a large group it would have been easy to get almost nothing done, but with many strong people, we were able to get a lot in the extended 2 hour class. It looked like a thunderstorm was going to make a mess of things. The gusty winds blew some mats around but only a few drops hit us before it cleared up again. Jason became rather hoarse trying to be heard though the weather.

Jason here: It was amazing for me to be working with such strong and talented fellow slackers (Chelsey, Sam and Tom) which allowed us to work with 45 people new to AcroYoga and share a impressive amount of the fundamentals. I am so thankful to be able to extend people's limits through this work (acro, slackline, climbing) and feel so comfortable doing it because of the people helping me to teach.

I just want to take the time to acknowledge them, as they are often in the background, while I am "teaching", but without them I would be far less willing and able to do what I do.



YES Tour Day 28 at SpotAdventures

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YES Tour day 27, 108 climbs

Statistics:

total climbs for day: 27
total climbs for tour: 108
Miles biked: 12
hills named "Kill Hill" biked up: 1

We started our morning at the Wanderlust Hostel with some coffee or tea and a relaxed pace. Then it was off for the much hyped breakfast special sandwiches at the Firebrand before we got down to the real business of the day, rock climbing. We biked 6 miles to Hartman Rocks. Unfortunately the last bit was up the aptly named "Kill Hill" which wasn't all that high, but it was very steep. We started climbing at Buddha Belly, then moved to another area where we did 4 more climbs, some in the rain. We were joined by one of Chelsey's friends, Alyssa, who helped her weather the excesses of experienced male rock climber suggestions and heckling. We were grazed by a few thunderstorms here, but managed to keep climbing. Then we moved on further up the hill to do a 5.6 slab that turned out to be more of a sketchy 5.10. Instead of that one, Chelsey lead another climb that was actually more 5.6. Then for a finale we ascended "Penis Rock", a free standing pillar with a 4 bolt tricky face climb up it. This brought our total rock climbs for the YES Tour to 108.

The reason 108 was chosen as the goal for many of the YES Tour activities is because of it's significance in Eastern Religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and connected yoga and dharma based practices. It is the product of 9 and 12, 2 squared times 3 to the third, the hyperfactorial of 3, it is a refactorable number. In Hindu Astrology, 9 is the number of planets and there are 12 Zodiac signs. The Hindu deities have 108 names, the mala has 108 beads, there are 108 sins in Tibetan Buddhism, there are 27 lunar mansions with 4 quarters each... you get the idea.

We bicycled carefully back down Kill Hill (it is scary going down steep dirt roads in slicks) and back to the hostel for a barbecue and more catching up (photos and blogging). Maybe 108 hours of sleep would completely revive me.




YES Tour Day 27 at SpotAdventures

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YES Tour day 26 Salida to Gunnison

Flat tires: 2
Miles biked: 72
Elevation gain: 4,250 ft
Top Speed: 42.5 mph
high speed crashes: 1
time off bikes: 10:20 p.m.

We all slept in a little bit after the grueling day and late night of day 25. we consumed a large amount of oatmeal and liquids we headed off to the 4th of July farmer's market in Salida. In addition to the usual arts and local produce there was a circus school performing at the market. We set up a slackline and did some yogaslacking and taught some people a bit as well as acro demonstrations. Too soon we had to leave to prepare for the trip to Gunnison.

Sam was trying to clear up some issues by text message on his telephone and was probably getting blisters from all the texting. We packed up and ate not enough food, waited out a sudden and heavy downpour and were back on the road heading west around 2:30. Another bit of rain as we headed out of town got us wet but not soaked. The sign said 60 miles to Gunnison and we were pleasantly surprised. Then a mile later we turned the corner and the sign said "Gunnison 66". Something so little can be so demoralizing. But it wasn't as frustrating as the uphill. We were heading for Monarch Pass, so uphill was the name of the game. Eventually it got to the point where we just put it in low gear and kept pedaling. We stopped to refill water at a campground and then continued up. Luckily where things were steepest there was usually a passing lane so that the cars and trucks weren't passing quite as closely. Up Up Up we went. At least the scenery was beautiful. It cooled down nicely and finally we topped out Monarch Pass at 11,312 feet above sea level. Unfortunately we got there just as the little summit store closed at 6:00. More accurately Jason and Chelsey got there then, Sam and I got there a bit later. We inverted a bit to drain our legs, took some pictures, ate the last of the food, redistributed our water, and put on some more clothes for the descent.

The descent was a bit scary but mostly fun, especially as I wasn't pulling the trailer. We bombed down at high speeds (Sam hit 42.7 mph without pedaling, but in a tuck). Soon we were at the bottom and refilled our water bottles and talked to a guy in the middle of a race down the continental divide by mountain bike.

The next stretch went fairly quickly as it was mostly downhill and we kept in a tight paceline and zipped right along. This came to a literal crashing halt when we spread out a bit going down a hill over 30 mph. As we regrouped Chelsey merged into where Jason was and her rear pannier hit his front pannier. He recovered but the trailer wobble was enough to throw him off balance and he went down at about 28 mph. Needless to say this wasn't pretty and damaged his panniers, bicycle, left side, clothes, and hands. We spent some time patching him and the bicycle up (flat tire, ripped panniers) before heading down the road again.

Another 10 miles down the road Sam's tire went flat. By now it was fully dark and there was a fair amount of traffic as people were heading home from the fireworks. A car pulled up behind us to see if we were ok, and it was a guy from CDOT who patrolled this stretch of road. He put on his orange reflective vest and kept the car behind us to help keep traffic away from us. Then an ambulance stopped (it turns out there was a bad accident up the road, and on the way they saw us and decided to make sure we were ok too). We patched this flat (a double pinch flat from some big bump Sam had hit at high speed). Of course we didn't see the second hole until we had patched the first and started pumping the tire up again. Then we were on our way for the final 8 miles into Salida. We were very happy to get to the Wanderlust Hostel recently opened by Amy, one of Chelsey's friends. We were exhausted, but also starving, so we cooked up a heap of Eastern Essence food, showered, and went to sleep. Sam actually fell asleep texting.



YES Tour: Day 26 at SpotAdventures

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YES Tour day 25: Trials, tribulations and smashed pecans

Miles: 103
Elevation gained: 3200 ft
Flat tires: 7
Inter-team conflict: 1

Jason here:

Our plan was to wake up super early and bike the entire distance from Pueblo to Salida. Coffee was in our mugs by 5:15 AM, homemade bread toasted, buttered and masticated by 5:30. I'd only gotten 3 hours of sleep, but the rest of the crew seemed rested and ready.

We packed and headed out into the cool morning. At the river (a few hundred yards after we started) we stopped to take pictures of the world's longest mural and to do a little photo/video shoot of handstands and yoga. After all, it was our earliest start so far, and we only had 100 miles to go. Why not take our time? What could go wrong???

A mile later I had a flat. When we stopped to change it, I noticed goat head thorns (nasty three pointed thorns that stand up like a tripod) all over my tire. A moment later, we realized that both Sam and I had thorns all over our tires. I reached down, pulled one out and "pssssssss" the tire started deflating.

My two tires were covered with them and when I'd pulled the tubes out, we realized that each tube had been punctured over a dozen times. One of Sam's was really bad too, but his other only had 4 holes.

Luckily we had 3 spare tubes, and we cut up our remaining patches to try to repair the least damaged tube. We painstakingly removed all the thorns from the tires, and 90 minutes later, we were ready to go. Back on the road.

Or so we thought. Less than two minutes later, we had another flat...we repaired it.
Ten minutes later, another, and then another. In the first 2 miles from leaving Pueblo, we had 7 flat tires. And with the trailer, and the racks - changing each one was a bit of an ordeal.

The cool morning turned warm and then hot. By 11AM, we'd made it only about 5 miles, and if we'd calculated it right then, our average speed would've been less than 1 mph.

Thankfully, the rest of the day was flat free. We climbed slowly up the Arkansas River valley. We were all in our own worlds during the beautiful, long and, exhausting ride. The long time together with no breaks started to manifest in petty disagreements and mis-communications, especially between Sam and I. Sam thought I was puching to hard, I thought we were taking too many breaks.... Eventually it came to a head during a stop at lonely riverside gas station/cafe. I thought we were just stopping for water (I really wanted to make Salida by darkness), Sam was lured by the homemade milkshakes and cool indoor temps.

It was certainly one of our low points as a team. There was obvious tension, and I ended up riding ahead from the group and pushing hard and purging my emotions through pedaling. I ended up in Salida an hour ahead of the other, and was able to have a nice practice on a concrete street meridian while I waited.

That night we crashed at a friend of a friend's house. Everyone was exhausted, and Sam, Tom and Chelsey went to bed without dinner.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

What the..?!?!

I looked at the clock and it was 1:30 AM.

BANG! BANG! BANG!!!

The house owner had returned home from a night of play with friends, only to realize she still needed to make a pecan crust for her 4th of July dessert. She was crushing a giant bag of pecans with an even more gigantic bowl. It went on for 30 minutes, and in the end became so surreal that Sam and Tom got up and went to the kitchen and ended up chatting about all manner of things until nearly 3.

For me it was just another night of less than adequate sleep.

It was our longest day yet. 102.5 miles.
Yes Tour: Day 25 at SpotAdventures

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YES Tour Day 24: Flying by

Day 24: in which the Yogaslackers go flying but do not bike to Salida

Miles Biked: 21
Miles flown: around 170
Yoga classes: 1
Ice cream servings required to restore Sam: 2

Today we planned to go flying and then bike towards Salida. As it often happens things did not go according to plan. We took advantage of not actually having to be anywhere early to sleep in a bit. Pat, our host is a pilot with an aiprplane and he was kind enough to offer us an airplane ride and we couldn't refuse. Eventually we bicycled off east to the airport, but we waited until things warmed up enough to create some turbulence. We piled in and took off and headed west. We could see the river and their "house" and the bike path we planned to take for the first part of the ride. In almost no time we were over Canon City and then Royal Gorge. The turbulence was getting to Sam and he started to turn the color of his favorite shirt (yellowish-green). He got rather sick, but figured he was empty and had us go on to within sight of Salida, then we turned south and went over the Crestone Needles. There we saw a large Elk herd up on a ridge line. Then we coasted back down to Pueblo. This was the first time I had been in a small airplane in the mountains and the views of the peaks and ridges as we flew over and by them was amazing. I snapped a heap of photos which will probably not do the views justice at all.

This link is the track of our bicycling plus the plane ride.

YES tour day 24 at SpotAdventures

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Once we were back on the ground, we returned the favor and flew Pat in the hanger, much to the amusement of some of his co-workers there. Then we biked back into town for some sushi lunch (we could tell Sam wasn't well when all he wanted was red bean ice cream) before returning to the house to balance the pain of leaving around 4:30 p.m. or later with the pain of getting up early and biking all the way to Salida in one day. The pain for tomorrow won out over the pain for the day. This also allowed us to go to one of Marcee's yoga classes at the Fountain of Health yoga studio. Then we played on the slackline Pat set up on the roof and worked on our media (photos and video). More ice cream revived Sam before another healthy delicious dinner. A final soak in the hot tub helped prepare us for the pain of the long uphill ride to Salida scheduled for tomorrow.
Note: Jason here, it is now 2 am in the morning. I just finished this video of our climbs up to date. I hope I can get up in the morning.


Day 24: bike to Airport at SpotAdventures

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Day 23: Newsworthy take 2

Miles Biked :8

Hours Slept: Not enough

Photos taken: over 500

Money Donated (2 days in Pueblo):over $1400

Once again the news did much of our late night work for us, now if only they could sort and cull hundreds of photos too. We got up before the sun and rode into the news station this morning at 5:30am to be on the air at 6:05 am. Craig the meteroligist on KOAA of Pueblo invited us to come do a show on air after his flight in the park. They not only wrote all about us on their site the night before, but had us come do some acro and talk about our cause and events in the Pueblo area. Between Glenn and Marcee at the Fountain of Health Yoga Studio, our hosts Anne and Pat and KOAA channel 5, we had over 25 people at all three of our workshops today! At 9 am - 11:45 we taught a theraputic flight workshop, at 2 pm-3:30 we taught a slackline yoga workshop at the local school ( our CO Springs Hosts Stephanie, Ian and Patrick dropped by for a suprise visit:)and at 5:30 to 8:30pm we taught a basic acro yoga workshop. Some people came to all three events! Our amazing hosts kept us going with coffee, pizza and thai food. Pueblo has a very special connected community. We feel very blessed to have been able to cross paths with these folks and look forward to coming back. Before we began our first workshop, Marcee, the owner of the Fountain of Health Yoga Studio had a very special surprise for us. She completed the beads of courage cycle by showing us her own strand of beads that her students, friends and family had all blessed for her during her time of struggle and hardship. She has them hanging like a alter in the front of her studio. I was able to give her one of our beads of courage that had been on the journey thus far. It has given me the courage and inspiration to keep pedalling up massive hills, to climb hard routes, to go down rivers and to keep trying countless handstands! We are now off to bed after a long rewarding day, tomorrow we get another surprise before leaving this place, then it is off to Salida!

YES tour Day 23 at SpotAdventures

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Day 22 - Newsworthy

Day 22 -

Some days we get lucky. Today was one of them. It could be because of the amazing place we are staying, or the amazing people we are meeting, or the new routine Tom and Sam learned, or the fantastic food, or the disciplined practice this afternoon, or the plentiful chocolate milk....

It could also be a little bit because someone else did our work for us tonight. We had an amazing day, and tomorrow starts at 5 AM. Here is the blog for day 22 courtesy of KOAA news channel 5.


Tom here, adding a bit more to explain what we did today, before I forget it all in a wash of new experiences. We slept in as much as the bright morning sun allowed and caught up on our photos and video. After lunch we did some yoga and practiced some new moves and routines until it was time to bicycle to the hospital to do some demonstrations and create strength bracelets with the kids there. From the hospital we moved on to a city park to set up the slacklines and do some demonstrations and teaching slackline until it started to get dark. Then we biked back and got schooled by the robo-pong machine.

YES tour Day 21

Day 21 In which a "short" ride somehow grows into a long ride.

Statistics for the day:
Miles biked : 64.5
Dirt Road miles: 20 (I think)
Pitches climbed: 8
Handstands: at least 7
Flat tires: 3
Chocolate milk: 2 quarts
sore butt cheeks: 8
Water Bottles consumed: I have no idea, but an awful lot.

It seems like more than one day looking back at it. Things started with packing, loading the bikes, and saying goodbye. Not surprisingly, this took longer than we planned. Then we headed off in the "wrong" direction to the Garden of the Gods. There we did a really fun 2 pitch climb up one side of a vertical fin of rock. This climb "Montezuma's revenge" featured lots of nice exposure up Montezuma's Tower. We did some yoga poses on the summit, but I wasn't willing to risk an ugly fall by trying a handstand. After first lunch we were back on the road before noon. At some point in Colorado Springs we had some navigational challenges and got turned around. We knew something was wrong when Pike's Peak was on our left. While slowly crawling up a hill a man stopped and gave us some water. Heading down the other side we realized this road wasn't curving around like we thought it would so we stopped to consult the map and he pulled up with some more food. It is very uplifting to witness the amazing kindness of strangers we have been blessed with along this trip. After some confusion with the map we realized that backtracking a bit was the best option, so we turned the train around and headed back. As we approached Fountain, Sam got a flat back tire. He was smart enough to get it where we could stop at a gas station with water. He patched the hole and drank a quart of chocolate milk , we ate our second lunch, and we were on our way again.

Soon my back tire started getting squishy and it was hard to keep up. I wasn't smart enough to do this where there was shade and water though. We pulled through the cones of a construction site and realized both my back tire and the trailer tire were flat. No wonder it was so hard to keep up. It was a tiny shard of glass in my back tire and a bit of wire in the trailer tire. We cut the last patch in half and patched them up and headed on.

As we got out of "civilization", the shoulders on the road got thinner, but luckily the traffic did too. By now we were all getting a little cooked from the sun (our usual afternoon thunderstorm wasn't hitting us). After another long hill up into the wind we stopped for a break with some slack-barbed-wire walking and sitting as well as handstands in the middle of the road. The cholla cactus were blooming which was nice, but there were also clouds of midges on our legs and biting flies which weren't. We actually looked forward to loading up and pedaling off to get away from the bugs. We dropped the midges, but the flies were able to keep up and bite us while biking.

We turned south onto Meridian, which was a dirt road. Something we didn't realize when planning this route. It was a pretty good dirt road with very little traffic, so we could ride anywhere on it in search of a line without washboards or loose sand. Sometimes this was successful, but I was getting worked by the loose sand. I had a few close calls where the trailer started fish-tailing and my front wheel would just jump back and forth (I was badly back-heavy). Then it happened and the front tire skidded sideways and down I went. Luckily it didn't seem to hurt the gear rack or my bike, just my hands, back, pride, and nerves. This is also about where we were running low on water. It was the low point of the ride for me, hot, sunburned, dusty, parched, bruised and scraped, tired, and on edge. We were all really happy when the road became paved.

We stopped at the first gas station we got to and all drank many water bottles worth of icy water and NUUN (and Sam got another quart of chocolate milk). Glenn, (one of the people we had contacted in Pueblo) wanted to ride out to meet us, but somehow we passed him and then waited for him to come back. We followed him into the downtown area stopping at a fountain cold wet handstands for Jason and Chelsey, and to pick up more escorts for a mini tour downtown. We stopped at the Fountain of Health yoga studio for a tiny acroyoga demo before unloading our bikes and moving into another wonderful and unique place. This time it is an old downtown building with a theater that is converted into apartments.

The "short" day of downhill biking had grown from around 40 miles to more like 65 with a headwind for much of it as well as blazing hot sun and a good stretch of dirt road. I for one was very glad to get out of the saddle. My shirt and skin was salt and dust caked. We were treated to a healthy and delicious dinner and then we moved into the hot tub on the roof and watched a thunderstorm approach over the city.



YES tour day 21 at SpotAdventures

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Day 20 - everything goes to "hail"

Day 20,

we did yoga lots
rock climbed and biked in the rain
yogaslacker fun


Statistics for the day:
pitches climbed: 23
sun salutations and yoga poses: lots
thunderstorm soakings: 1
milk and cookies: lots
coffee: lots
miles biked - off road: ?
on road: 10?
kids fed and put to bed: 2



wet Yogaslacker Tom reporting in. Actually I am dry now, but we all got thoroughly soaked by another afternoon thunderstorm. Last night wasn't much later than any other night, but somehow the morning seemed to come sooner. We got up and assembled in the backyard for a rather rigorous (at least for me) yoga session. Some parts of me that I usually happily ignore got stretched and worked most severely, and I rather suspect that if I wasn't going to be so sore from biking tomorrow, I'd be sore from the yoga. Then the coffee machine got a workout as did lunch. The missing host, Paul returned from a multi-day trail ride and there was much rejoicing.

At a typical leisurely yogaslacker time we biked back to Red Rocks taking a slightly scenic route in the park (more off-road miles with slicks) to the Solar Slab beneath The Whale. We met up with our hosts here who also climbed a bit. We managed to crank out 23 more pitches and dodge one thunderstorm before a direct hit put an end to the climbing for the day. Jason just managed to get off the last climb (a 5.11 slab that would have been nearly impossible in the rain). By the time we got the climbing gear off and stowed the big cold drops were pelting down in a serious way. Some of the Yogaslackers -cough Sam and Jason cough- didn't bring raincoats and got really soaked and chilled, and when it started hailing too, they got painfully pelted.


I have a big visor on my helmet and I don't think I could have seen anything without that, especially when the spray from the front wheel or from the wheel of the bicycle in front hit me. One sort of nice thing about the spray off the road was that it was warmer water. We considered getting out the packrafts to run the gutters but decided it probably wasn't a good idea. Then we all showered and got on dry clothes and were back to human. Now came the hard part of the day, watching the kids. We figured we'd end up hog-tied and hanging upside down getting licked by the dog while Ian and Patrick ate chocolate, but a combination of Chelsey's sweet talking and Sam's chocolate chip cookies kept us safe.



Tomorrow we ride to Pueblo, and I get the TRAILER OF DOOM! (but it is mostly downhill).
Here is a video on important yogslackers life skills:

Day 19, life on the line

Jason here:

Miles biking: less than 1 mile
Distance walked on the line: almost 1 mile

As advertised on our flyer, from 12-4 today we hung out in Monument Park. We had two slacklines set up, and a bunch of rugs laying around for Acro play. We were by ourselves for the first 45 minutes (no one ever seems to want to show up for these sorts of things right when they start) so we ammused ourselves. Soon though, people were milling about and woman from the class last night showed up with her son and his friend. The slacklining instruction began.

Over the next 3 hours, people came and went, some staying for only thirty minutes, and some staying for 4 hours. A 16 year old wrestler named Justin got so addicted to the line that he stayed till we broke everything down. By the end, he was standing up from sitting down, switching knees at will, doing arm balances,and balancing on the line for minutes at a time.

Everyone did really well, and some of our students from the Acro class did repeat performances of the sequence they'd learned last night, and it was quite impressive.

We passed out samples of Java Juice, U-hydration, and Raw Rev bars, and were treated to some more of the wonderful peanut butter cookies from last night's post acro picnic.

In between teaching people how to unlock their balance potential, Chelsey practiced about 5000 handstands, Tom worked on advanced arm balances on the line, Sam drank more milk, and I lay around eating cookies and dried apricots.

At 5PM the thunderstorms came up, so we took down the lines and biked the grueling 6 blocks back to the house. There we played with the dog, climbed into the treehouse, and did dangerous things on the kids zipline until we nearly killed Tom.

Just another great rest day.

Day 18 The Sky opened up Again....

Chelsey Here:

Today,while biking to Red Rocks here in Colorado Springs we thought of some new statistics to report on. For example, in addition to our miles, handstands, climbs and sun salutations we will now be reporting on the gallons of milk that Sam has consumed thus far, the amount of times Jason has lost his buff, sunglasses.. general belongings and the amount of times I attempt handstands over the amount of times I succeed (Tom has not been with us long enough for a statistic of his own, however it won't be long).
Miles:22
Handstands:3
Climbs: 21
Gallons of Milk: 5
Lost belongings by Jason: 15
Chelsey's handstand attempt: 30/3

We are making way in our 1080 miles and our goals of doing 108 everything. Today we calculated that we are about half way through our miles, river miles and climbs. I am pretty sure that we will surpass our handstands, sun salutations and walks across the slackline. We have about three more weeks left of this amazing tour, we are feeling very fortunate and grateful for how our bodies have been holding up and for all of our amazing hosts!

We are now in Colorado Springs staying with friend Stephanie. Her and her family live in this amazing house that was built in 1901. We are on the third floor, which is proving to be a work out (I am wondering if we can count that as part of our trail miles?). It is complete with stainglass windows, beautiful wood floors and a history that can be felt. This morning we woke up to americanos and Jason's Egg Surprise. He once again took everything there was in the fridge, cooked it up and it became not only edible, but delicious. Stephanie topped it off with a delicious smoothie. By noon thirty (a classic yogaslacker departure time) we were on our bikes in search of good, fun climbing. After adding some much needed off road miles on to our total mileage, we found Ripple wall in Red Rocks. We were able to crank out 21 climbs total before the lightning started to strike a little to close for comfort. Jason made it to the top of a climb just as the drizzle turned into a solid down pour. Wet sandstone equals sketchy climbing. We raced each other home, up and down the "double over head" hill climbs. An hour later, after some pineapple and acro play time we were on our bikes again racing back to Red Rocks. This time around, thanks to everyone at the Bija Studio and Stephanie, we were able to teach an acro yoga class in the company of some amazing scenery. The sky had opened up for us. In 2 hours we were able to teach these strong yogis and yoginis a full acro flow.

We ended with some much needed thai massages for our strong bases. By sunset we were passing around homemade chocolate chip coconut cookies, chocolate covered walnuts, and hummus and crackers. In true yogaslackers form we played hard outside until the moon took the sun's place. For the second time, we raced back to the house hitting green lights the whole way home. We are all now happy and full off of homemade pizza and rhubarb crisp. Once again, I am very grateful for all of our amazing hosts and all of the amazing people we have met along the way. Thank you so much for your energy, your spirit and love. We feel very lucky to do what we love and share it with others. Beads of Courage has been an awesome opportunity for us to pass on our energy to those who are less fortunate as well, thank you for helping us make it happen!

YES our Day 18 at SpotAdventures

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YES Tour Day 17

Yogaslacker Tom reporting - (since this was my first day, they said I should write the blog entry). After driving from Flagstaff the previous day and arriving after midnight, I was a little groggy in the morning. That was soon cleared up with some fabulous hospitality in the form of pancakes. Sam was pretty excited that I have a hardtail bicycle and thus can attach the trailer to it, but he took pity on me and decided not to make me take it (I think he was worried about breaking me on my first day). While we were loading and packing the bikes they realized I had knobby tires and said they would break me like they broke Dan. Luckily we were able to borrow a set of slicks from our host. After a salmon salad lunch and more procrastination and last minute packing we set of at a civilized 1 pm for the ride from Denver to Colorado Springs. The first 10 miles or so were on a nice but winding bike path. It was pretty hot and muggy but that was dispelled by the gust front from an approaching storm cell. The majority of the rain slipped behind us and we were treated to a cooling sprinkle and strong tailwind.

Sam got an instant flat when something (glass?) sliced his sidewall. We stopped and replaced the tube and slacklined on a chain that was across the convenient driveway there. We also watched the next approaching storm cell complete with lightning show. While pumping the tube up it blew out again. It turns out the slice was large enough to allow the inner tube to pop under high pressure. We braced the sidewall with a Raw Rev wrapper and patched the tube. Then we were on our way again.

By now we were on 83 heading south. Some of the time it had a decent shoulder, and sometimes the shoulder was a white line and a dropoff. Then the rain hit. This time it was large cold drops. Soon we were pretty wet and chilled. Chelsey was smart enough to put on her rain coat, but the rest of us just kept pedaling. After what seemed a long time, the rain eased off and we began to warm up again, especially as we headed up a rather long and persistent hill. It seemed to go forever and I was quite thankful that I didn't have the trailer. At the top of the hill we were on a expansive high grassy plateau. Chelsey was quite a ways up ahead of us by now and us men were grumbling about giving her more weight. There was another large storm cell in front of us, and I thought it would slide off to our left. I was wrong. It started out gently, but soon large icy drops were pounding us. It was coming down hard enough to cover the road with water and the spray soaked the last dry spot on my belly and got my glasses covered. Did I mention it was cold? It was. Eventually it slacked off and while not exactly warm, we weren't so chilled. We had come 55 or so miles now, and my hands and butt were not so happy with me. There was another storm cell off to our right, so we put on some warmer clothes (leg warmers, raingear...) That kept the rain more than spritzing us. Then we hit some long downhills and Chelsey disappeared in front of us. (grumble grumble) in trying to catch up my thighs started to burn for the first time. Sam and Jason took pity on me and rather than keeping up with her blistering pace they hung back with me (or so they claimed).


When we passed a megachurch and could see the Air Force Academy we needed to pull out the atlas to navigate. This is also where Sam's tire started leaking again. Every 10 minutes we had to stop to pump it up again. This interval seemed to decrease with time.

Due to some laziness (to avoid a large detour) we got onto I-25 for a few exits. That was an interesting experience. Cars had been blowing by at 65 mph for much of the day, but 75 or 80 is a different level. The edge was wide enough that it wasn't too terrifying except the on and off ramps. Those were bad. At least it was downhill so we were cruising along over 20 mph. In fact road debris thrown up by the trailer hit me in the leg and the face. I backed off another 30 feet. After a few scary bits we were all happy to get off the highway.

Now we were on the final stretch, but we still had to stop to pump up Sam's tire a few more times. Finally we were biking through neighborhoods and just as it was starting to get dark, we got to our destination. A lovely old house with room to spread things out to dry, food, company, and an enthusiastic dog...

I don't think it was the farthest I ever bicycled in a day, but it was with a load, and it was the longest I had bicycled in an afternoon and I was very glad to get off my bicycle. I was pleased my homemade rack system worked.

YES Tour Day 17 at SpotAdventures

Map created by SpotAdventures:GPS Geotagging

Jason here - We are all super pleased to have Tom with us, as he neatly filled the holes in the team since Daniel left to take care of his knee. Tom is an incredibly talented photographer (as was Daniel), an amazing climber, slackliner, and an amazing sufferer. I am looking forward to strapping the BOB trailer to him as we go up and over Monarch pass in a few days....I just have to be careful to keep him at least semi-healthy till then.

Yes Tour videos

Here are two brand new videos - the first is the YES tour trailer and day 1-12, the second is a compilation of the first three cities and events (Aspen, Steamboat and Boulder). Please watch them both and let us know what you think!

Yogaslackers bring enCOURAGEment to Denver Childrens Hospital

Chelsey Here:
My anxious feelings woke me up early this morning. I meditated for a while, trying to coax myself back to bed. I finally fell back asleep after succumbing to my hunger pains for some of Sam's cookies. After eating two cookies and a glass of milk I finally fell back to sleep. Becky woke us up with homemade pumpkin and blackberry scones. By 8:30am we had our mats out in her back yard. We had a beautiful, fun practice in the company of Becky, her son Zane, her daughter Peyton, and two more friends of theirs. We had a fun warm up and then ended with some juicy, deep partner stretches. By 10:45 we were refreshed, fed and ready to go share our energy with the children at the Denver Children's Hospital. We were greeted yet again by Laurel, Ivy and Margie. Jessie, Tyler and their mom also made a guest appearance. The girls are all talented climbers competing in the national circuit, and have become amazing young YogaSlackers as well. With the girls help, we were able to put on quite a show in the middle of the atrium. Some children, their families and nurses were able to come watch. 2 hours later we were taking some of the nurses up into the air, giving them much needed therapeutic inverted massages. The girls passed out joy, hope and courage coins, while the moms passed out care beads to all of the passing nurses.
After our Demo, Sam and I taught a short and sweet yoga class... our third yoga class for the day! At 2, we were lead up to the children's oncology unit. I had a mixture of excitement and nervousness inside me as we rode the elevator up to the 7th floor. I must admit I am still digesting this whole experience. Jason, Sam and I were all more than overjoyed to be able to meet the children and have them pick their Beads of Courage from our hands. These beads have been through a lot, and have cultivated so much good, healing and loving energy. One in particular had been with Sam for the last 6 months... up and down Mt Rainier, down miles and miles of rivers and up countless climbs. Sure enough, that was the first bead to be picked by three little girls. They were waiting down in the atrium for their sister who was getting a bone marrow transplant. We gave all most all of our YES Tour beads away to the kids on the unit. John Cary, a fourteen year old boy was super stoked to receive our beads. We were in turn honored for him to have our beads. He hiked up and over the Continental Divide with a tumor wrapped around his heart. Now that is strength. We had fun swapping adventure stories, and told him to come join our team once he was feeling better;) We met lots of parents as well and were able to give them a bead of courage. The parents love being apart of the program as it helps them cope with their child's illness in a lot of the same ways.



After a long day at the hospital we rode 5 miles back to our safe house. Becky was cutting fresh strawberries and making guacamole when we walked through the door. We had not eaten anything all day so coming home to her fresh, home cooked meals are beyond words. We greatly appreciate them!
After we nourished ourselves on almonds and strawberries... and of course cookies.. we were off to the pool again for some more food and good conversation. We were in good company with Becky, her family and their family friends. While feasting over a delicious meal of salmon, salad, strawberries and kiwis Becky, her friend and I reminisced about our favorite clothes. Every girl has those few articles of clothing that they absolutely loved and just cannot let go of even though it is down to it's last threads. It was so fun talking to a clothes designer who just gets it. I am for sure going to send her my mojo wonderwoman tank.... you never know... It could come back! We biked home on full bellies, feeling very grateful and alive. Tonight we will most likely be up late editing and packing up for our ride to Colorado Springs!

Day 15: Becky's grand adventure

From YES tour Day 14-15

Jason here:

In Denver we are lucky enough to be hosted by Becky Prater, one of the founders of Beckons Organic - a beautiful yoga inspired organic clothing company. We first met Becky at the Estes Park Yoga Conference (or some similar venue) and became fast friends. Chelsey had also been wearing a Beckons top for years on the river, but had lost it sometime earlier this year. So we were in good company.

After amazing waffles for breakfast, Chelsey was invited to look through the racks of clothes and pick out a few things. She was in heaven, trying on all the beautiful tops and skirts and dresses...I still don't think she has decided on what she wants.

We spent the early afternoon at a local pool, swimming and practicing yoga and Acro, until a huge rainstorm came in. The pool closed, and the five of us (Becky and her daughter, Peyton were with us) rode home in the cold rain. That evening Becky rode with us again (in the rain again) into OMtime studio for a benefit class that Shannon Paige Schneider was teaching for our cause. We arrived a few minutes late and soaked, but excited for Shannon's magic. She did not disappoint.

At the end of class, we were all connected through a big web of touch when she turned the floor over to us. We kept the energy really connected, and transitioned seamlessly into AcroYoga therapeutics. Choosing 3 volunteers, Sam Chelsey and I demoed by way of flying total newcomers in 5 minute massage flows. When those three were done, we took three more up. As the night went on, it turned into a jam, and we taught people to base, and fly more advanced moves, spotting when necessary. Shannon has some really strong students and it was amazing to see what some of them could do.

Despite knowing us for several years, Becky had never had the nerve to fly, but that night she flew on each of us in turn, culminating in some inverted acrobatic moves.

We were also re-united with Mercedes (the girl who led us down from Estes Park - see YES tour day 9) and got to thank her again with some great flight time. An impressive yogini, we actually didn't even recognize her until we'd spent most of the evening together.

Playtime lasted until 10PM we headed home. It had been a long day, and Becky had already ridden further than she had in a long while, and overcome her AcroYoga fear in a big way. To top it off, on the way home she crashed her bike when a car didn't see us crossing the street (we had the right of way, but didn't have light on). She went down in a perfect skid on her right side, and has a nice little road rash. She took it like a champ, and we were all much more careful on the way home.

To celebrate our great day and survival of the night, Sam baked a double batch of chocolate chip cookies. It was another late night, as we all stayed up long enough to sample the various batches.



YES Tour Day 15 at SpotAdventures

Map created by SpotAdventures:GPS Geotagging