A Strain on the Marriage or Learn to Navigate by: Steve Parker from San Diego
Last summer, my wife and I decided to explore the Rockies. We packed up our stuff, and drove to Aspen, CO. (excellent mountain biking - but all riding out of here is invariably uphill).
After a week or so in the area, I inspected a topo and decided that riding up Aspen Mountain would be a fine afternoon activity. I determined there were three routes to the top. (1) Summer road - 3300' vertical over 3 miles. No, I thought, I'm still getting acclimated to the altitude. (2) Little Annie Mine road - 3300' over 10 miles. No, I thought - too much pavement riding to start the ride. (3) Midnight Mine road - 3300' vertical over 7 miles. Aha, that sounds like a nice ride. We filled our water bottles and off we went.
Not surprisingly, the ride begin as a moderate climb on a graded dirt road. This was rather pleasant, as we were riding through pine and aspen forests, with beautiful views. For the first hour, no problems.
The second hour of climbing began. I was slowing down. My wife began walking on some of the steeper sections. After about 1.5 hours, my wife asked, are we there yet? I responded, "I think it is just around this switchback".
17 switchbacks later, we were riding through beautiful meadows of wildflowers. (if you could call it riding). My wife had been threatening to turn around now for the last half hour. Now she was calling me various names, and threatening to take away my topo and making me eat it. We forged ahead.
17 more swithbacks passed. Our water supply was gone. My legs were like overcooked spaghetti. My wife was not speaking to me, and would not look at me because a dried-up drool crust had formed on my face. As the air had become quite thin (I reckon the altitude was about 11,000'), our judgment was quite impaired. We forged on.
Then I saw it. A small building at the top of yet another swithchback. Funny how energetic one gets when the end is near. We rode / walked / crawled to the top of the last hill. There it was - the Sundeck Restaurant - the top of the gondola 11,300 feet. We made the climb.
My wife saw him first. A waiter was carrying a large tray of beer, wine, and ice water. We stalked him as animals of prey. My wife demanded water. In true Aspen fashion, the waiter responed "this is a private party." If we had not been dehydrated and exhausted, I'm sure my wife would have put his head on a stick.
Go To Page: 1 2
