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| This photo was taken at the turn-out just before the locked gate, about two miles from where the pavement ends. |
After competing in the Grand Valley Cyclocross race and then doing some riding out at Lunch Loops on Saturday I decided to do something... well, unconventional for this time of the year. I loaded up the hard-tail along with my "pacers" Neko and Sparky and headed to Lands End Road. During warmer months Lands End is a popular way to access the Grand Mesa from Grand Junction. It is also an excellent ascent to test and train your climbing legs. From where I parked today, the top of the Grand Mesa is approximately 14.5 miles and numerous switchbacks up the road. I like to think of it as Colorado's own unpaved (and longer) version of the famous L'Alpe d'Huez. I reasoned that having my dogs with me would help to keep the pace from getting out of hand and that it would give me a good reason to head back when it looked like they were about done for the day. However, as we began the climb I could tell that neither of them were showing any signs of weakness and I was feeling a hell of a lot better than one has a right to feel this late in the season. As I made a bit of an acceleration to test their legs, my boys responded and loped up alongside me like a couple of demented Tour de France spectators... We plowed and lonely furrow up the road, crossing patches of snow as we ascended. Less than half way up the climb the line to my Osprey hydration pack froze, leaving me with a bottle of GU Brew to sip on. Around this same time the snow depth began to increase ever so slightly from less than an inch to between two and four inches depending on wind exposure. This is the point where any slightly less than reasonable (if they had any reason at all thy would never have initiated such a foolhardy, masochistic endeavor) person would turn around and head back to their vehicle, blast the heater, go home and watch the rest of the football games on TV. Well, I don't have cable, I knew I would reach this point of contemplating a turnaround and then kick that contemplation in the teeth and... Sparky and Neko were having too much fun in the ever deepening snow. So, being freed from the shackles of common sense I pushed on with the knowing that as much as they love me, Sparky and Neko would have no qualms about gnawing on my frozen carcass (if it came down to it). I reached down to finish off the last of the GU Brew only to find it was much more frozen than not and this should not have come as a surprise because my hands and feet were slowly going numb as the wind and the elevation increased and the temperature plummeted. I could see the second to last switchback up above me and as the rear tire spun and skidded over the numerous patches of ice hidden just beneath the snow I approached a Ford pick-up that had probably been abandoned during hunting season. These sights are not unusual in the Colorado high-country and I was tempted to take a photograph of this particular feat of physics as it looked as though I could send the old Ford to the rocks below by simply hitting it with a snot rocket. I vetoed the photo-op as I knew I was in a race against time, the time when my fingers could no longer operate the brakes or hold onto the handlebars. At this point I knew my dogs and I would triumph and reach the top of the Grand Mesa where we would be greeted with howling winds and nothing to block the icy gusts. With the exception of some frost collecting around their faces, my boys were in their element and loving the snow as well as the myriad of scents that I am certain they were taking in as we crossed elk, fox, coyote and rabbit tracks. I made a final surge to the road sign that indicates it is 18 miles back the way I came to Highway 50 and a quarter mile to the Lands End Observatory. I managed to take a few photographs, slip on a windproof vest and gnaw away at a nearly solid Clif Bar that I am sure took just as many calories to chew up as were in the bar itself.
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| Mountain-top finish... |
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| This is nice and all but when can we play fetch!?!? |
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The long, snowy and winding road that leads back to.... kibble.
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Normally I, and anyone else who has climbed Lands End, would be all giddy about the descent but as bad as I am at math, I figured the wind-chill created by descending above 15 miles per hour would be in the neighborhood of -5 below zero or so... I already had to look down at my hands to make sure I had a good grip on the bars and that at least one finger was on the brake lever. My feet felt like a couple of stones. As much as I was in a hurry to get back to the truck and crank the heater to 11, I knew I had to go slow for two reasons; reason number one was that Sparky and Neko have a maximum sustainable speed of about 12 miles per hour for our given return distance and number two... I was in serious danger of hypothermia and or crashing on the icy upper stretches of the road. As I rode the brakes and worked on wiggling my fingers and toes every so often I could feel the temperature warm ever so slightly.
Soon, we had descended beyond the worst of the snow and ice and the road below revealed itself. Neko and Sparky ran on behind me, darting from one side of the road to the other, cutting the switch-backs and scampering to greet me. Looking back up at where we had been not so long ago, the top of the Grand Mesa was veiled by a curtain of falling snow and I knew that months from now, when I think I am at my limit in some race and need to push on and suffer even more that I will take strength in the memory of this day.
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| "Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go."-T.S. Eliot |
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