Terran Speaks

(A word from Bruce and Heidi’s oldest son Terran, age 15)

This trip has been no less than a strange adventure. In some cases it’s a pattern; get up early, pack up, eat breakfast at the hotel, leave. At other times it’s definitely unique; biking with my father, going to bluegrass concerts, and watching out for unchained dogs. The changes in the countryside are huge, from mountains to nothing but grass (no offense Kansas), and the people we meet are super friendly, and always curious about our van.

Of course there are always downsides, but my only one really is the lack of cell service and Wi-Fi (my addiction for ya). Ignoring that fact, our RV is full of everything we could need for a trip, including movies, I-whatevers, laptops, and books. The only problem is remembering to look up and enjoy the beautiful scenery.

We’ve made many stops during the trip, including countless dollar generals, bookstores, and bike shops, but also neat towns – including the homes of Superman and Popeye, and towns with a population of only 200. Each town had some awesome eats and a look all its own, with attractions from the Sante Fe trail to the history of Oil Drilling.

I never knew how different the country really is. We might all be Americans but we could just as well live on opposite sides of the world. We’ve tried to integrate along the way – we bought cowboy hats, a banjo, and fly fishing rods….and my mom attempts an accent no matter where we go.

This trip has been no less then amazing. Each part of the country is beautiful in its own way. It is an experience you cannot describe, only do. It would definitely be something I would hope to do again in the future.

Day 35 – Gunnison to Montrose

So I’m sure not every day in the Rockies will be like today, but I can sure hope they are. Beautiful weather, more downhill than up, and relatively short. Seriously, it was a lot of fun…. Tho JP wasn’t feeling well, so hopefully that doesn’t happen again 🙂

Today was supposed to be a social ride… We had 2 local riders who were going to join JP and I for the trek in to Montrose. Unfortunately they ended up not being make to make it. Then, this morning, JP got up not feeling well. So instead of a pack ride with 4 of us, I went out solo shortly after 7a.

It was actually cold this morning… 48 when I rolled out of bed. I left the hotel with arm warmers, a vest, and knee warmers on. Even with all that, I was definitely cold for the first 10 miles.

Heidi was on her way in the MCC shortly after I left. Somehow I missed the hot air balloons taking off, but she saw them on the way out of town.

The ride today took us past the Blue Mesa Reservoir, a 15 mile long reservoir on the Gunnison. Very scenic and I’m sure filled with amazingly good fishing tho there was no time for that.

Along that section, I got passed by the SAG vehicle for the 4K for Cancer ride. Yesterday in Gunnison we saw some of the riders from this ride walking around town. Heidi got to visit with some of them for a bit and found out many of them are from the Baltimore area. They are riding the “Heartbeat of America” route that goes up and down the country like an EKG. Super impressed with their ride and we wish them a lot of luck. We had hoped to run into them again along the route, but it looks like we’ll be missing each other by a few days.

After the reservoir, there was some climbing. The climbs in the Rockies generally aren’t very steep (8% max) but they’re definitely long. I got 2.8k’ of climbing in today, but that came over probably 15 miles of road on those climbs. Lots of long, slow gear turning. On the flip side the downhills tend to be fun without turning in to white knuckle events.

JP started feeling better after some rest and SAG’d up to the second major climb of the day. He got on the saddle, powered up the hill, and came cruising in to Montrose. Nice to see him on the road even if he wasn’t feeling 100%.

The ride in to Montrose from the top of the last climb was basically 15 miles of downhill. It was fast and tons of fun. At some point I was on a flat stretch and thought “boy am I going slow”… I looked down and I was cruising along at 19mph. After the previous 5 miles at 25mph+, 19 felt slow. Cool.

After the ride, we went looking for a place to fish. The folks in Gunnison told us about the Black Canyon and all the awesome fishing there.

When we got to the ranger station to pay our admission fee we were instructed that the maximum length for vehicles going down to the river is 22’… and the MCC clocks in at  24.5′ long. Lame. Strangely the ranger at the booth said “well, you could try it and see if you get in trouble for it.” Uh, no. I’d prefer the MCC not get stuck somewhere on a 1,500′ descent down a canyon wall.

With no trip down to river for fishing, we went for the visitor center on the canyon rim. As it turns out, the Black Canyon is a pretty damn big canyon. I had no idea.

Even the boys thought the canyon was cool.

The visitor center had an observation deck where you could walk out right to the edge of the canyon wall to get a good view of how crazy deep and narrow this canyon really is. Heidi’s not a fan of heights so I thought this was as close to the deck as she’d get:

Nope, she went right down with the boys and snapped some shots.

After the canyon trip, Dax was wiped out. I’m sure he was comfy, but honestly this looks painful.

After Black Canyon, we were still looking to do some fishing. A bit of research later we found a pond just south of town that was well stocked and perfect for the boys to continue to work on their fly casting skills.

They weren’t kidding about “well stocked.” Bobby caught 4 fish in about 15 minutes.

I caught one while I was screwing around with a rod. Terran… well, he got some good practice in. He’ll have to get his first fish further downstream.

For all the downhill we had today, we’ll pay the price tomorrow. We finish the day in Telluride at nearly 9k’ after 2 relatively long, sustained climbs. What goes around, comes around I guess. Till tomorrow…

Day 34 – Rest Day in Gunnison

So… Yeah. Colorado is awesome. I swear, since we crossed the border we’ve had the most amazing vistas, food, conversations and experiences. Jeez.

Today was a rest day, which is our day to stock up, clean up, and go do some exploring. We bought a couple of fly rods yesterday and went through all the effort to get fishing licenses, so we figured we should probably go fishing today. 😉 I was really excited to take the boys fishing, but I’m not 100% sure they were. I got them up late (7:15) and after some breakfast we went out in search of fish.

The folks at the Gunnison Fly Shop had some suggestions for places to fish, including going up the Taylor River. We didn’t know anything about the rivers in the area, so we took their word for it. I did some research last night on public places to fish along the Taylor but I had no idea what to expect.

A little Colorado geography lesson… the Gunnison is a fairly major river the runs west through southern Colorado. It’s formed just north of the town Gunnison at the confluence of the East and Taylor Rivers. Apparently the fishing at the confluence is really good, so that’s where we were shooting for.

We got to the head of the Gunnison and started up the Taylor. Unfortunately the road was closed due to construction, so we had to turn around (always fun in the MCC) and went up the East River instead. About 4 miles up river we found public fishing just outside a state hatchery. Curiously, the river near the hatchery isn’t stocked (go figure). Also, as Bobby and I explored we found out that what the area lacked in fish it made up for in mosquitoes. We decided to push on.

A little farther up the road we found the detour to get back over to the Taylor. We took the detour… which very quickly turned in to a dirt road going up and over a mountain pass. A dirt road with a shocking amount of traffic. There was clearly something up the Taylor.

After clearing the pass, we were back on the paved road up that went up the Taylor through a large national forest. After looking at a map, we figured out there was a reservoir at the top of the road that fed the Taylor. Not knowing where to fish or really what else to do, we decided to hit the reservoir to check things out.

14 miles later, we crested the hill and found it. A 230+ acre reservoir fed by snow melt that was built in 1934 at an elevation of 9,400′. It was a pretty amazing sight.

There’s a small park up there with a number of people camping, a fair number of RV’s running around, and very little else. It’s incredibly isolated and amazingly beautiful. Considering we just went out wandering, it was an amazing find.

All that said, the reservoir didn’t look very good for shore fly fishing, so we went back down river a bit to find a place to fish. I haven’t fly fished in probably 20 years, and the boys never have. Most of what I know about fly fishing I learned last night watching Orvis videos. Safe to say, fishing was definitely an experience. For the most part the boys did very well. We had a few issues managing all the line that you have to deal with…

And we bought two rods yesterday so two of us at a time could fish. We really didn’t plan on Dax being one of the folks fishing. He probably spent 2 hours just waving the rod around and splashing it in to the water.

We didn’t catch any fish, but I did have one really solid bite that I couldn’t set the hook on. Also, I caught a few trees including this one. Looks to be about a 40-footer. I’m getting it stuffed and will have it on display at home this fall.

Also, while I don’t “Facebook” I hear there are a number of people on there who like my hat. For those of you who like it, here’s an action shot with the hat.

The whole Taylor River valley is pretty amazing. Impressive cliffs, wildlife, the river…. Oh and the dirt road mountain pass had some pretty amazing views too.

There’s still snow in the peaks. Awesome.

JP and Art spent the day in Crested Butte. No pictures from that excursion, but they had a great time. They went to the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame and apparently JP wore his cowboy hat so he would not look like a tourist.  😉

We both had dinner at the Twisted Fork in Gunnison. Heidi, the boys, and I ate there last night and loved it so much we went back. Tonight we ordered “every appetizer except the garden salad”… we basically used their appetizer menu as a tapas menu. It tasted great and we went home stuffed.

A big thanks to the crew at the Gunnison River Fly Shop. Seriously, we walked in total noobs and they took care of us. I feel like we got amazing service, good prices, and some great conversation. They even gave us advice on where to fish tomorrow afternoon in Montrose. W00t.

Tomorrow is a 66 mile ride to Montrose. We lose 2k’ of elevation, but there’s some climbing in the middle. Sleepy time.

Day 33 – Salida to Gunnison

Well, we made it out of Salida, but I have a feeling we’ll be back. 😉

After my issues during the ride yesterday I decided to pass on climbing up Monarch Pass.. 5k’ of climbing didn’t sound like my cup of tea. JP, however, was on the road early and took a shot at the mountain. He made it up about half way which is pretty damn awesome… I think that’s his longest straight climb ever, and a hell of an effort to finish above 9k’. He SAG’d up to the top of the pass, which, coincidentally, is on the Continental Divide.

JP cruised down the backside of the pass on his bike and continued on until mile 44. A fantastic ride given how much effort it took in the first few hours to work up the Pass.

Meanwhile, Heidi, the kids, and I were enjoying breakfast in Salida. We finished up and started to head out of town. On a lark, I took a turn in to a neighborhood to check out what neighborhoods in this area actually looked like. After driving around for a few minutes, we hit the road again… but rather than going over the pass, we went back to Salida… and walked in to a ReMax office. No, we didn’t buy a home, but we spent a fair bit of time talking to the agent about the area, schools, weather, etc. Safe to say we’ll be heading back to Salida in the future to keep scoping things out.

We drove up the pass and stopped at the Divide as well. There were some amazing views from up there, but it’s really hard to capture how impressive it is with a camera. Here’s an attempt.

The mountains on the backside of the pass are quite different than the east side. More rolling, more green. But still very mountainous (yes, we can start the East Coast vs West Coast mountain argument now).

We stopped at the bottom of the pass in Sargents. After some thought, I decided to jump on my bike and ride in to Gunnison to see how I felt. I’m glad I did because it was a totally different experience than the day before. I seem to have shaken off whatever I had going on and pedaled in the last 32 miles in to town. Now, granted, I lost 750′ in elevation over that stretch so it wasn’t exactly a difficult road. I did, however, have a headwind so it wasn’t crazy easy 😉

Gunnison is a nice town. A lot of bikes, but not as many as Salida. It has more of a “western” feel to it; the big rodeo just finished up last week apparently. Also, there are a LOT of RV’s here. I mean, the streets are lined with them.

We had a great dinner at an asian fusion type place here in town. So far the food in Colorado has been the best we’ve had the entire trip. Plus they had Alaskan Amber on tap at the place we ate at, so Heidi was in heaven.

Tomorrow is our rest day. “when in Rome, do as…” so tomorrow we’re going out fly fishing on the Gunnison River. We picked up a couple of fly rods from a local outfitter. We also picked up fishing licenses for Heidi and I… which was harder than you’d think because apparently there was a power failure at the company in Tennesse that handles the licensing for the state of Colorado. … yeah, the woman at the Department of Wildlife was a little miffed about that. But we’re good to go and know where we’re going to fish tomorrow. I’ve done a little fly fishing, Heidi has fly fished once, and the boys never have. This should be interesting.

Until tomorrow.