Everything that’s happened to me recently has been about frame of reference. For example, I was up at Winter Park early yesterday to preride the course for next week. I arrived at 8AM and the temperature was 47F. Yikes, this seemed very cold… mainly because it was the summer. Image a day in February that was 47F at 8AM. Totally different… frame of reference.
Much to my surprise, the race organizers published a map of the course, including trail names, distance and elevation at intersections. I thought I was golden. Somehow though, I missed the first turn on the course and went straight up the road instead of heading right up Sunken Bridges. The sun glare was bad, but on the map it looks like a straight shot, the trail turning into Sunken Bridges. It would be REALLY convenient if the map had other points of reference including other trails. Like Gilligan, that was the beginning of my two hour tour. I arrived at CR159 as the directions said, went left and saw a turn for Upper Elk Creek. My directions were explicit, turn right at the second junction of Upper Elk Creek. I rode on, not realizing I was lost. A far as I knew I was right on track. I headed up the road, looking for the second trail junction 0.9mi ahead. I continued for almost 1.9 miles without finding the trail before finally turning around. Though I had a map, I didn’t trust it! Past experiences following published course information had been scaring. I turned around and came back to the 0.9mi mark. There I found a rough jeep trail that was at the exact elevation and distance from the first junction. This must be it, I thought. I headed up the trail, climbing steeply. Every time I suspected I was on the wrong track, it seemed to turn right as if it were looping around; I kept on. I finally climbed to nearly 10,500 ft. and the trail simply ended. Damn. Now I knew I was lost. My frame of reference suddenly shifted and of course I blamed the map. I finally found my way down after a few more wrong turns and rode the opposite way on CR159 and bingo, there was a sign for Sunken Bridges and the other trail junction for Upper Elk Creek. At this point I was over 2 hours into my ride, and I’d climbed over 2500 vertical feet. I decided to skip the Upper Elk Creek loop and press on, probably a mistake since I went all the way up there to pre-ride the course. The rest of the loop went OK, my energy level was dropping though, and I was really sore from the day before (I’ll get to that). I made my way through the rest of the course, but near the end, made an error because I ended up going down Tunnel Hill, instead of up the rest of Little Vasquez and down Lower Arapahoe. Without realizing I had made a critical error early on, I blew 2hrs trying to find my way, but I thought I was OK… frame of reference. If I hadn’t been lost two times before following directions from the race organizers, I would have trusted the map sooner… frame of reference. I ended up with 4hrs exactly, 4,400 ft of climbing and 35 miles.
The day before I helped Jeanie’s dad build a retaining wall for their patio. After five or six hours of lifting 75lb blocks I was pretty tired. But after a little rest, I headed out from their place for a ride. I quickly mapped out a ride on mapmyride.com and took off. I was fatigued but felt pretty good. I was surprised when the road turned to dirt. The dirt road continued over seven miles and climbed considerably, some climbs were fairly steep, up to 18%.
Coming down the backside, I passed by some cows off the side of the road. I’m pretty certain these cows had never seen a bicycle… ever, until I came flying down the hill next to them. Three of the cows FREAKED, with the look of terror in their eyes, they sprinted away from the road looking over their shoulders as if I was chasing them. hehe… frame of reference… that’s a country cow for you. Have you ever seen a street cow (grazes along the side of the road) lose it’s cool. Nope. Frame of reference.
