San Jose to Denver

As a kid I loved to go camping and one of the attractions of self-contained bicycle touring is to re-live those memories. Up to now I’ve been staying at developed campgrounds complete with hot showers and flush toilets. This trip introduced me to primitive camping. Yes, there was that one night at the base of Monarch Pass where we slept in a tee-pee complete with cots and propane heater but that was just a new and different experience.

I actually grew to prefer primitive camping over developed camping during the course of this trip. In fact, my favorite memories are the 2 nights we camped in the Utah desert with no facilities whatsoever. Don’t mean to get gross, but a sponge, a little water, and baby-wipes do a fair job of keeping you sanitized. It just seems that people content with primitive camping are more down to earth, friendlier, and more enjoyable to be around. Up to now I didn’t know I could be like that too.

Our last night of camping was at Kenosha Summit Campground at over 10,000 ft elevation. This was definitely bear country and at Ranger Rick’s suggestion I put all my food in one plastic bag and left it well away from my tent. I was disappointed to see that bag undisturbed the next morning. Not only were there no bears, but even the birds - including those devilish ravens – showed no interest. This was also the only night of the trip where I fully zipped up my sleeping bag and pulled the built-in hood over my head. Temperature got down to the upper 30’s overnight but quickly recovered in the morning with the rising sun.

Going into this trip I expected about 50% camping and 50% motel. I haven’t tallied up yet but I think we ended with 75-80% camping. There were 2 nights when we stayed in a motel only to learn later that camping was available.

–jerry schonewille

I made it home safely, driving a rental car from Denver International Airport to San Jose over a two day period. It was an easy trip of 1300 miles with about 10 hours of driving each day. I paid more for gas than the rental car, and saw virtually no RV’s on highway 80.

That final bicycle riding day last Sunday was fantastic – 85 miles with nearly 7000 ft of downhill! Rick remained in Evergreen after lunch to stay with friends while I continued on to Denver. Another of Rick’s friends, Thomas – who had ridden up to meet us – showed me the way. We had a sweet 11 mile downhill on Hwy 74 to Morrison where we got on some bike trails that led to the Bear Creek Trail which we rode east until we intersected the Platte River Trail. Thomas rode home while I continued on the trail which passed by the REI store near downtown Denver. I stopped at REI to get a local bicycle map and seek advice on how to get to the airport because that was the only place where I could get a one-way rental to San Jose. Everyone said forget it, it can’t be done by bicycle (argh!). Eventually I worked out a plan to ride to Stapleton where the old airport is located. Stapleton has many Hotels/Motels which are now relatively cheap and frequent bus service to the new airport. Spent the night

Thanks Rick and Sarah for suggesting a stop in Wendover at the Utah/Nevada border. This turned out to be exactly half way home and thanks to the gambling/Casino aspect on the Nevada side of town provided cheap room and food and gas. Funny how part of the town is in Utah with a different time zone and different regulations regarding alcohol (beer) sales.

While driving through Nevada I heard a report on the radio that Mormon Crickets are getting nasty in Eureka and Austin. Estimates are that they will inhabit 12 million acres by end of summer.

Great Trip. As a bonus, I went 4 weeks eating and drinking everything in sight and still lost 8 pounds!

–jerry schonewille

Rick has been doing a great job of reporting our daily journeys. On behalf of Dick and myself, thanks Rick!

Well, here we are at Middlegate Station Nevada with nothing between us and Fallon 50 miles to the west or Austin 65 miles to the east. Yet we have internet access! Go figure. Today just happens to be the annual BBQ at Middlegate Station and the place is packed. We got the last room in their 6-room motel.

Yesterday we awoke in Woodfords and I looked out the window and reported fog. I guess the coffee had not kicked in yet - what I actually saw was snow! I think abour 3 inches fell but as soon as the snow stopped falling we got on our bikes and started riding. 95 miles later we landed in Fallon in what turned out to be our easiest riding day so far. Conditions were perfect in that the wind was always at our back no matter which way we turned and grew stronger as the day progressed. All day we saw storm clouds around us but very little snow or rain fell on us. We coasted into Fallon at 20-25 mph with virtually no effort. Nobody talked about it, but I think we all knew there would be payback later in our journey (there was!).

Today was even easier with just 50 miles of riding and less than 2000 feet of climbing with a tail wind the whole way. We met a rider Ted Phelps who will be joining us for a few days and four other riders traveling west rolled into Middlegate Station shortly after we arrived. Our plan had been to spend the night at Dayton State Park half way between Woodfords and Fallon (we figured we needed some easy days after 21,000 ft of climbing the first 4 days) but the strong tailwinds just blew us by that place. Good thing it did – Ted had stayed at Dayton the previous night and reported the place overrun by mosquitos. It was all he could do to set up tent and quickly get inside to escape the buggers.

Speaking of insects, we got to see tens of thousands of Morman Crickets on the road today. The inside of my fenders are now lined with some of them.

Highway 50 not as lonely as we would have liked but maybe after the holiday things will return to normal. The roads in Nevada have been exceptionally smooth.

I have a voice recorder and I’m taking lots of notes so I’ll fill in details when I get home.

Having a blast and looking forward to more.

–jerry

When packing for a self-contained bicycle tour I only take items that “weigh nothing and take no room�?. Like everything else related to bicycling, that means you pay more and get less. Yet in the end I always end up with 4 full panniers weighing over 40 pounds. No different this time – I’m currently at 42 pounds. I’ve been looking at what I can leave behind in order to reduce weight but every individual item weighs nothing and takes no room! So leaving it behind (and hating myself somewhere down the road when I need it) doesn’t gain me anything. Then I get philosophical. Between me and my bike and my gear I’m pushing over 250 pounds down the road. A few ounces here or there won’t make any difference. So there, I’m done packing!

This blog is a last minute addition – I don’t know why we didn’t think of it before – but I think it might work. No one is bringing a laptop computer but I’m sure we will be able to find internet access along the way. It’s always best to write journals in real time rather than relying on faulty memory weeks or months later. I’ll be taking lots of pictures and hopefully I can figure out how to upload some to this journal.

–jerry