I did it alone three years ago; Dave did it seven years ago (B.C....i.e., Before Callie). This year we did it together! The ride is six days of riding with a rest day in the middle. This particular loop is the original loop the BTC used its first year...20 years ago.
We hit the road for the multi-hour drive to Gunnison. At one rest area, I had to take a break. Noticed the women's restroom sign was all shot out. Sort of symbolic for many. This would make a great book cover for a particular type of book.
The weather for the week was unbelievably stable - low chance of rain, winds no more than 10 mph (yeah, right!), and reasonable (maybe a bit warm) temps. On the ride there we saw storms in the distance.
Even with the rain in the distance, it's quite beautiful terrain.
Dave was psyched! :)
Not only were there rainstorms in the distance, but there were pollen storms too. Pine trees, while beautiful, are truly evil as they produce a ton of pollen. There were little pollen tornadoes all around. I happily brought a ton of claritin and used twice the recommended dose all week. It was still rough though.
Wicked pollen storm. Bleck!
We arrived at the Gunnison school where we would all camp before leaving in the morning. Here Dave is pulling up to the spot I was holding for our tent.
Got the tent set up. Got the Monkeys flag flying. Pretty nice little spot! We would be spending the next week in the tent so having good weather was even better to know.
We then drove our car to the long-term parking in Gunnison. This was a muddy field. We were very happy we'd taken the 4WD versus my car. We might still be digging out the Matrix had it been the car we took. We bused back to our tent.
Home sweet home!
Some chose to sleep in the school. In fact, they pay more for that. There are some advantages of this - no setting up and tearing down a tent each day; protection from weather; closer bathrooms. But the disadvantages include sleeping in a gym with 100s of people you don't know; sleeping with 100s of snoring people you don't know. When I did the tour in 2011, in one city no one could get the lights to turn out so the inside-sleepers slept in the bright light all nice long. This camp site was pretty deluxe - in a hallway, but at least not in major dorm style.
We biked to town and got some dinner at a nice restaurant - The Twisted Fork. There was some pretty metal art work around.
After dinner, we headed back to camp and got ready for tomorrow...a ride over to Montrose, Co.
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