Mind Over Mellitus

My mountain bike trip from Telluride, CO to Moab, UT (almost) was as spectacular as it was uncomfortable.  11,000 foot views. Huge descents and climbs. Great company. Strep throat and food poisoning.  Not quite the story of triumph I hoped to bring back, but a great lesson for me.

View from the “kitchen”, Last-Dollar-Hut, CO Rockies

I am a bone-headed “finisher” when it comes to tough challenges - to a fault. Ever since I was cut from my Pop-Warner football team at twelve (entirely deserved, as the smallest, most inept player), returning at sixteen to complete two varsity football seasons at Davis High and win the Coaches Award. I had to prove to myself that I could do it.

The first day out of Telluride was an amazing climb, from 8,500 feet to 11,000 feet, to the first hut, used in winter for back country skiing. Though we felt our thirty pounds of gear each (clothes for all weather including snow, bike parts, tools, water for the day, basics for a week), without the stocked shelter we could have been carrying twice that.

The last third of the climb was a bear. My heart was pounding in my ears - probably scaring small animals. The air was ever so thin. But none of this was the issue.

Reclining after an epic ascent from Telluride

That night my sore throat was the sneak preview of what became full-blown strep throat.

Our trip was charted from ski hut to ski hut along our route. Eight bunks were crowded into each tidy little shack with canned food, cooking fuel, and fresh water tucked underneath. Perfect for our group of eight friends. NOT perfect for a low-carb diabetic diet however, and I ended up subsisting mostly on nuts, canned fish, cheese, plus bacon and eggs for breakfast.

Typical ski hut decorated by our mountain bikes…

More soon about the trip!