In riding, hiking, and skiing around Colorado one of the things that strikes me about the people here is the all-around level of fitness you see on any given day.  No matter how strong you think you are, I guarantee you there’s someone in Colorado who can go faster or longer.  I’ve met trail runners who can knock off a 10-mile 14er in under three hours.  I’ve talked to unicyclists at the top of the Monarch Crest trail.  I’ve chatted up hikers on month-long treks on the Colorado Trail.  Colorado, the land of the FKT (Fastest Known Time).  It’s very motivating and very humbling at the same time.

After the freak snow storm we had this past week the local trails were covered in snow and mud so I decided to take my ride to the road.  This being, Colorado I plotted out a route that involved gravel roads and so decided to ride the cross bike.  I planned to ride from Salida to the top of Marshall Pass and back, a round-trip journey of 48 miles with 3,800 feet of climbing.  An approximate 3 on the badassedness scale.  It was windy and the last remnants of snow was melting on the roadsides, so possibly a 3.5.

A couple of miles into the climb up Poncha pass I see a rider up the road and my natural instinct kicks in.  Reel them in.  As I slowly close up the steep paved road I can see it’s a woman on a fully loaded mountain bike.  Clearly a bikepacker on some epic journey.  As I pass her I comment on the wind, wish her luck and continue on my way.  A little further up the road I spot a guy who is clearly her partner riding the same type of fully-loaded rig.  Once again, the chase instinct kicks in and I close on him and I say hello as I go by.  Not more than two minutes later I hear a voice behind me, “mind if I draft?”  The bike packer dude had come up behind me.  Impressed with his move, I say sure, no problem!

We continue up the pass together and start to chat between gusts of wind and passing semis.  Turns out he and his girlfriend, who I had passed earlier, were several weeks into riding the complete Great Divide route from Canada to Mexico!  We’re talking a solid 10 on the badassedness scale.  They had stopped in Salida for a couple of days to let the storm pass and were just heading out on the next leg of their journey.

He asks which way I’m heading and I say up Marshall pass, which is exactly where he was going.  I ask about his girlfriend and he says he climbs faster so they typically ride at their own pace and meet up at the top.  So me and the bikepacker dude head up the sticky, muddy Marshall pass road together, me on my 21 lb. carbon cross bike, him on his fully loaded, 80 lb. bikepacking rig.  I was happy to have company on a ride for the first time in months since COVID struck.

We talked the whole way up the climb.  His name was Daniel, he was from California and he was something of a bikepacking badass.  Besides the Great Divide route he had traversed Africa from Egypt to South Africa, among several other mind- bendingly difficult multi-week rides.  I was in awe.  I told him about how I ended up back in Colorado and shared some info about the Sawatch range, the upper Arkansas river valley and the curse of washboard roads.

The climb up Marshall pass isn’t particularly difficult but it’s about 14 miles of steady climbing and after several miles I realize I’d told Ms. Seeking I’d be gone for about three hours.  So five miles from the top I told Daniel I needed to turn around.  I wished him luck, snapped a couple of pictures and we parted ways.  I told him I’d tell his girlfriend we rode together when I passed her going back down.

Sorry for the foggy camera lens.

Strangely, I never saw his girlfriend again so I hope she didn’t make a wrong turn somewhere and I hope she and Daniel were able to meet up at the top of Marshall Pass as planned.  I figured since they had made it this far they were far more resourceful and capable at route finding than I would ever be.  If you’re out there Daniel, best of luck on your Great Divide adventure!