What are you looking at?
At some point in 2014 I became aware of Alistair Humphreys idea of micro adventures and his website of the same name. The basic idea of a micro adventure is to go on overnight adventures close to your house. Not to make it too complicated. Just go out and see your own backyard from a new perspective. This idea struck a cord with me. I read a lot about other peoples adventures and put places and things to do on my bucket list. But life seems to be full and planning a full scale adventure seems to be a dream, not a reality.
This idea rattled around a bit and what came out was the goal of a series of micro adventures. It is this: to ride to each of the states that border Colorado from (or to) my house. Look at a map of the United States and you will see that Colorado is almost a square and is bordered by seven states. Quick, before you read further name them.
The easy ones are Nebraska, Kansas, Wyoming, New Mexico and Utah. The tougher ones are Oklahoma and Arizona (at the four corners). The great part of a personal goal is that you get to make up the rules. So here is my short list. 1) I have to either start or end at my house under my own power. 2) It can be one way. 3) I have to touch the state line. 4) There is no time limit. 5) I can’t combine trips. For example I can’t ride to the Four Corners and check off three states.
Wyoming Barn
So last fall I decided to get the ball rolling by checking off the easiest state from my list, Wyoming.
Here was the plan. Straight forward and set up for easy to execution.
- Attend to dad duties until 9 am.
- Ride to Wyoming
- Kristy to pick me up around 4 pm and drive me home.
I won’t bore you with all of the details. But here are some of the highlights. The morning was an easy ride from Boulder to Fort Collins along the western foothills. The afternoon was a bit more difficult. Not only did the topography tilt upward but in an effort to avoid traffic I found myself on winding dirt roads with assorted styles of washboard. Out of Fort Collins I took Taft Hill Road north and wound my way via dirt roads over to Owl Canyon. At Owl Canyon Road I connected with Hwy. 287. After an ice cream break at Livermore I headed north until I connected with Red Mountain Road.
On the map, Red Mountain Road looks like a short cut. It’s not. It is 17 miles of dirt road, mostly uphill and mostly washboard. The only exception is a very steep downhill section. It was wasn’t easy keeping the bike in control on that short stretch.
Railroad water tower
After another steep climb I passed from Larimer to Laramie County and possibly due to my brain being rattled on the dirt road I thought that I had more to do. So I kept going. I’m not sure what I was looking for. Maybe a visitors center or a large “Welcome to Wyoming” billboard or a cowboy atop his horse welcoming me to the windy state, but none of these were present so I kept riding. The road turned from dirt to gravel and my speed went to nil and my trail became more and more squirrelly. After awhile I really didn’t want to ride uphill through this rock garden so I pulled out the map and realized that I had gone too far. I turned around and headed back to Larimer County.
Kristy had been tracking me all afternoon and while she was driving up she saw the little green dot on the IPad cross the state line and keep going. She was wondering if I had sprung a leak. I rode back toward my ride but didn’t have the heart to head up another steep hill, so I dismounted and waited for my ride. Stage 1 complete.