TransAmerica Trail Ride
08-03-18 Today we rode out of the Rocky Mountains and into the desert. We got rained on early that morning but not for more than a hour. The temperature quickly changed from a cool 60 degrees to the mid 90’s within 30 minutes of leaving the mountains. We ended the day in Moab, UT.
08-02-18 Today we took a local’s advice to ride up Imogene’s pass. This proved to be quite the challenge. This trail went from Ouray to Telluride and was 17.5 miles long. This took us 2 hours to complete. However, the views were worth the hardships. Go check out our YouTube channel for all of our GoPro footage –https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC4Xae_A3sAYHX6T7BFWyU7w
08-01-18 We came to the bike shop early to finish up work on the bikes before we moved on. We set off for Ouray, CO around lunch time that day. This took us over Cinnamon Pass, California Pass and Corkscrew Pass. These steep rocky dirt trails had peek of 12,960 feet.
07-31-18 Today we showed up at the bike shop only to be informed that there were no mechanics there. Both of them called in sick that day. So we ended up doing the work on the bikes ourselves. It took us most of the day.
07-30-18 Today was an off day in Gunnison, CO waiting for our bikes to be worked on. Since we had time to kill we rode some trails we found for hours. Here are some pictures of the ride and a link to some drone footage. https://youtu.be/AvgjUYqqORQ
07-29-18 Today we rode to Pikes Peak, a 14,115 foot tall mountain. It was very cold at 30 degrees Fahrenheit and with threats of a storm on the horizon, we didn’t stay for long. There will be GoPro footage of the climb soon. After we reached the bottom of the mountain, we realized that I had a flat tire. With hopes of a small leak we pumped the tire back up and tried to head to Gunnison, CO. After about 20 miles of riding the tire had gone completely flat forcing us to change the tire tube on the side of the road. This delayed us about 30 minuets, but we were able to reach our destination shortly before dark. We will be in Gunnison for a few days getting the bikes worked on.
DEA7FBEE-9A2B-498B-B9A8-AE66EECF5836 3B7B6B2E-FA89-4F40-9803-9FAA451B143C Last night brougt some of the worst storms I have ever seen. Ironically we were next to Dorothy’s house in Liberal, KS. It was very muddy early in the morning causing dad to end up in a deep mud ditch. We had to drag his bike back to the trail because it was stuck. After that things dried up as we headed to New Mexico which was hot and dry desert. There we saw a road runner and some antelope. We ended up in La Veta, CO a small quiet town.
07-27-18 Today we rode the straightest trails yet. 25 mile sections of nothing but flat straight dirt road. These straight, isolated roads allowed us to run a constant 70 mph. The sand was a bit tricky going that fast but we skated through. We saw many oil wells today constantly pumping away as well as wind turbines. We ended the day in a town called Liberal in Kansas. This is the home of Dorothy from the wizard of Oz. BCFF98F0-7264-44C3-94FE-6D2801635839
07-26-18 Today we hit the prairie. The roads went from rocky and twisty to flat, straight and dusty. This allowed us to make good time but not good enough. We stopped about 100 miles short of our planned 375 mile day. There are plenty of cows on the prairie and even a few donkeys. We also saw an abandoned coal mining operation. The equipment was left to rust out in the fields.
07/25/18 – This is Kathy posting for Henry tonight (no wifi again), but they were able to send a few pics from the trail. Today they stayed dry at a toasty 97 degrees, as they traveled through the Mississippi Delta and Arkansas. They mainly traveled through farmlands today and spotted a crop duster along the trail. They talked the pilot into allowing Henry into the cockpit, but Henry couldn’t talk Chuck into flying them them the rest of the way to Oregon 🙂 They’re 50 miles from Oklahoma, so should be lots of flat plains and easy travel for the next few days.