TRANSAMERICA BICYCLE 2015: Days 48-54: High on a Mountain Top!

48: Pueblo, CO to Canon City, CO (50.9 miles)

49: Canon City, CO to Guffey, CO (32.1 miles)

50: Guffey, CO to Alma, CO (52.3 miles)

51: Alma, CO to Frisco, CO (29.2 miles)

52: Frisco, CO to Hot Sulpher Springs, CO (65.1 miles)

53: REST DAY in ESTES PARK

54: REST DAY IN ESTES PARK (hike excursion in Rocky Mountain National Park)

Feeling pretty great! Highest point on the trail!

Ear Worms:

Kansas – Carry On My Wayward Son

Rockwell – Somebody’s Watching Me

Loretta Lynn – High on a Mountain Top

Oh dear! I've let so much happen since my last post! (Maybe that's why I haven't had time to write a post!)

So where to start? I'm taking a couple of rest days with friends from music camp, Anne and Teresa, in Estes Park before making the last part of my solo trip before my friend Brigid meets me in Jackson, WY where we will ride the rest of the ride together. SO NICE to really take some time off to relax and hang out and play some music... and see an incredibly beautiful place right here up against the Rocky Mountain National Park. Already got to see a moose and several bull elk with their velvet and a little baby calf elk and of course several deer. Took a really nice little hike to Alberta Falls and Blue Lake and just took some time to finish up some work that was starting to weigh on my mind a little. Now I can start into the last month of this trip with a truly present mind. I'm entering the really familiar territory now, so I just want to keep the "curiosity and sense of wonder lens" as I ride through it. For example, riding from Kremmling to Hot Sulpher Springs I could have sworn I had been teleported right back to my home area in Montana. It was a little uncanny actually. And it could have been easy for me to just zone out, think I’m back in a place where I grew up.. to loose my exploring mind. But I’m not going to do that!

Mountain west life

So I can tell you about how I gasped and got really excited at the first site of the snow peaked mountains when I reached the top of a little climb out of Canon City to the Royal Gorge. How immediately I felt at home seeing those mountains. How something in me just relaxed a little and felt at ease and comfortable. Even Indian Paintbrushes, my favorite flower in the whole world, dotted the landscape!

First glimpse of the Rockies - my happy place.

Or I could tell you how I had my first real descend over my head, a requirement amongst all touring cyclists, from Hartsel to Fairplay when not only was my mind in a bad state, but I also was dealing with 16 mph head/cross winds and a highway with no shoulder and drivers who apparently did not want me to be there! It was the strangest thing to feel this foul mood and pretty intense anger! I kind of felt like I wasn’t myself, but thankfully I’ve read enough blogs to know that this really happens to most touring cyclists at least once on their trip if not more. I’m lucky it only lasted 17 miles! I finally just told myself to get myself together, start peddling and get these last five miles done! Good thing too because as I got into Fairplay (yes this is the town that inspired the creation of South Park), it started raining and the wind picked up to something wicked!

But I could also tell you how I climbed my way up to the highest point on the entire Transamerica Trail. To the top of Hoosier’s pass at 11,500+ feet! While not nearly the hardest climb of the trip (what did I tell you about the Appalachians?), it was certainly one of the more satisfying. Just to hang out up there, with these beautiful snow covered peaks surrounding me, eating an apple and really feeling this sense of accomplishment, not only at reaching this particular point, but also having cycled my way from sea level in Virginia, though two whole mountain ranges, the high plains, different cultural environments, and plenty a tiny town. Thinking about all the amazing people on this journey who had helped me get to that point, both directly on the trail and from afar. It was a proud moment for sure.

Loving the green and snow peaked mountains

And I could also tell you about the amazing Warm Showers hosts I've had. Like Marie and Peter, who hosted me at the last minute in Alma, highest incorporated town in the United States! (Yep, I can check that off the list!) Feeding me and giving me a comfy bed before my big climb to Hoosier's pass. Or Geff and Mary Anne, hosts extraordinaire. Touring cyclists for 25 years, they not only hosted me, but three other cyclists. We stayed up late sharing all our stories from the road. Overall thing we agreed on: bicycle touring will 100% restore your faith in humanity. The kindness and generosity all of us had experienced on the road was incredible. And Geff and Mary Ann are giving back in a pretty amazing way. (Yes, I got to enjoy a hot tub soak!)

Geff and Mary Ann - hosts extraordinaire!

But what I really want to tell you about if a little tiny town tucked away, unseen by most of the rest of the world. I want to tell you about Guffey, Colorado.

You know you've come to the right place when the sign announcing the name of the town

is shared with a bicycle!

Guffey, Colorado. Population maybe 50? (Okay Wikipedia says the last census had it at 98.) Speaking of Wikipedia, here is what it says about Guffey:

“Guffey has received publicity for electing animals as mayors of the town, although such an office does not officially exist. According to local folklore, the two main political parties in Guffey are called the "Democats" and the "Repuplicans". The last known Mayor of Guffey was a cat named Monster[4] (elected in 1998).

The town is perhaps less famous for its annual Fourth of July Chicken Fly,[5] during which chickens were ejected from a mailbox atop a ten-foot-high (3.04 m) platform; prizes were awarded for distance.[6] The last year for the event was 2011.”

And yes, that Chicken Fly was the brainchild of Bill Soux, who I’m pretty sure single handedly saved Guffey from becoming a ghost town. Bill has restored all the old buildings in town, some now converted to sleeping places for people like me. (I was put in the bunkhouse which used to be the gold assay office.) He is one of the most creative, totally independent, unique people I have met. He and his helper Dan hang out at the “Guffey Garage,” his work place and when you come by they sit you down by the fire, old western movies playing on the fuzzy TV, offer you beer from the “Guffey Historical Beer Fund fridge” (too bad I don’t like beer) and just chat and tell stories with you. They then send you down to the Freshwater Saloon where Judy will treat you right, getting you good food, conversation with all the locals, and just a general good time.

The Guffey Garage - yes I got to take a ride in that car!

Guffey was just a gem of a place that I really didn’t know still existed. No cell service. Just a handful of really amazing people that welcome you to this tiny little town with two little streets running parallel to each other, in between them all the crazy buildings and artwork that Bill has created all these years.

And I never would have known about this place had I not been taken there on the seat of my bicycle. There’s a whole lot of pretty amazing America to be seen and experienced!

***you will now see a ton more pictures from the past few days. To see more photos of the amazing Guffey, just keep scrolling to the end!

MORE PHOTOS FROM THE PAST FEW DAYS