It snowed Monday morning in Boulder.
So we're checking the weather forecasts, hoping to find good news. I-70 over Vail pass says chains required. That's no good. Fortunately, we were going to head south over Monarch Pass. After much bickering, I finally convince Shaun that it'll be ok. We prepare for the trip.
Of course, by this time it's about 6:00 PM. It's going to get dark soon, and it'll be cold on the road. Luckily, Shaun has the proper gear.
[Foreshadowing.]
So we start packing, strapping stuff done, tightening the mainstays, battening down the hatches.
It's getting darker and darker out....
Our Friend Ben Mottinger was quite happy to see us taking off. Him and another friend were leaving the next day, driving to Moab, with the requisite bicycles, climbing gear, and beer.
Of course, we haven't had dinner yet.... I run off to Illegal Pete's, the awesome burrito joint on the Hill.
We finally manage to get our stuff together, and we're off. Now, I CRANKED the brightness on this picture to make it legible. It was quite dark at this point, and fairly cold.
So we head off.We went approximately 135 miles the first day, arriving into Buena Vista around 11:00PM. Why so late? Well, you may notice on the map the two mountain passes you must go over to get to Fairplay. Remember how I said it was cold? Well, combine that with Mounatin passes and us underdressing, and you got the hell that we experienced. The low point was when Shaun ran out of gas 16 miles outside of Fairplay. I stop, and we both peel ourselves off of our bikes. I try to run. My knees refuse to bend beyond a twenty degree angle. I'm yelling at Shaun that we need to keep going. He's trying to warm up his hands, and responds incoherently. I'm worried he might be starting to get hypothermia. He has a reserve tank on his bike, but his hands were SO cold, he could not feel the lever to switch over to reserve.
Bottom line, it's cold as crap.
But hey, we're in the middle of NOWHERE. We must push on. So we continue on, Shaun drafting about 2 feet behind me as we cruise into Fairplay. We stop at the first gas station, peel off the bikes, and run to the door.
It's locked. The clock says 10:05 PM. They close at 10PM. The lady in the store yells, "We're closed, go away!"
Great.
Shaun and I, starting to realize the gravity of our situation, explain that it's an emergency. They grudgingly let us inside, where we warm up with some coffee. Unfortunately, the pumps are closed for the night. What to do? Well, call the police of course! Five minutes later, a county police car rolls around, and we follow him down to the county fuel depot, where we fill up on cop gas for free! We should run out of gas more often - Woohoo! Seriously, it was a livesaver to us, and if you're ever in the area, be nice to thepolicemen there since they saved our butts.
We finally role in to Buena Vista about an hour later, and make camp. Of course, that involved camping illegally, knocking down trees for firewood, and fighting over who got to sleep where. We finally got to sleep around 2AM.
Here's the map for the day's travels.
