Montrose for the Fourth

Funny thing, now that Ben has riding companions, I don't get nearly as much information from him as I used to!

 The group crossed into Colorado  the other day during an incredibly long ride. Ben said he was in the bike saddle for 13 hours.

Noah was particularly exhausted at the end of that day. Looks to me like he didn't even have the energy to put up a tent.














But they found a great bike shop in Dolores called Lizard Head Cycles who worked on Noah's bike, fixing several issues. Not sure what all was wrong with the bike, but Ben said their attempts at en-route repairs left the repair guy laughing rather rudely at the bike. But he was magical and fixed everything for them.

While at the shop they ran into some cross country cyclists who were riding with a support vehicle. For some reason they really irritated Ben, so the next morning he showed them what real touring is all about. There was a steep hill outside of town, and he passed every single one of them on his fully loaded bike, making fun of the fact they didn't even have more than a bottle of water on their bikes. Then, to add insult to injury, at the top of the hill he stopped long enough to swap his rear tire with his front tire to more evenly distribute the wear. He told them, "Of course I have the tools to do this. Who would ride across America without basic stuff to change a tire?" He really can be pretty obnoxious!

The next night they stayed in a campground near Placerville, and then rode to Montrose for the Fourth. They needed to get into the campground by 2:00 for some reason, so Ben rode on ahead to make sure they got a spot. The person working the desk was going to charge them $60 for a tent site because they had multiple tents. Ben said he looked over at a ginormous family tent with about 12 people and asked how much they were charged. She decided he might have a point and cut the charge in half.

We think we might drive up and meet them in Pueblo or Lamar Colorado next week, since that's just a five hour drive away. We have even offered to give Noah a different bike if he wants it, since he has had so many problems with the one he is riding.

I think Ed has enough bikes and bike related stuff to share, don't you?