What a ride! Vacation/Nationals Mann style. Continued Again

Others have told me that we are crazy for the things we do.  Most of the time I feel like they are wrong.  This time though, I think we were definitely crazy.  The sort of crazy that you find when you have that wild, crazy, passionate love.  When your whole being swoons for something.  That kind of crazy is what had it's grip on The Mann Show.  Technically it still does, but now that we are home and not on the road anymore, it is more like that short period of time after some amazing sex.  Metaphorically speaking, I am laying here looking up at the ceiling and basking in the afterglow...

Day 7 Tuesday July 19, 2011

The morning came all too quickly.  When I got out of the tent I looked around on the ground to try and figure out what it was that the deer had been gorging on.  I couldn't find anything out of the ordinary.  Though I don't know what "deer crack" would look like, if it exists you can certainly find it in Campsite 3 on Corral Canyon Road outside of Sun Valley, Idaho.

After preparing some coffee and breakfast we packed up camp and headed out for our ride.  We had debated not riding again in Sun Valley.  We were feeling the pull of Crested Butte.  That amazing destination that we make it to all too seldom.  We have this amazing long distance relationship with Crested Butte.  After the high adventure on Monday we were both ready for some more enjoyable single track and less HAB.  In the end I decided that it seemed unfair to leave Idaho without at least a second ride.  The drive to Crested Butte was supposed to be some 728 miles or nearly 13 hrs.  That is one heck of a drive.  Likely not going to happen all at once which meant we were going to either lose a day of riding, or wind up splitting the drive and riding somewhere in the middle, the sort of compromises that we just don't want or like to make!

In any case we rolled out in good spirits hoping to find a bit less adventure and more fun.

Soon the dirt road gave way to single track.  The climb was much more reasonable than the previous day's fare.

I wound up only having to HAB a short section near the top where the chunky rocks kept me from putting down the necessary power to propel myself up the steep incline.  The views were quite excellent... 

...and I always enjoy being able to point out where we started the ride.  :)

Once at the top of the climb, well it wasn't really the top as I had continued past our turnoff before Allison yanked me out of my climbing stupor to show me that we were supposed to have turned right, we started a most excellent single track descent.

The Sawtooth Mountains were breathtaking and the trails were fabulous!

After some ripping fun single track descending, we climbed some more.  The plan for what would happen next was congealing in our heads.

We enjoyed this second day of riding in Sun Valley but the call of our beloved Crested Butte was too strong to resist.  We decided that after the ride we would get some food (wanted to try the other pizza joint in town, the second one was better IMO) and some coffee (Java on Fourth is very very good) in Ketchum and then head south.

We bid farewell to Idaho but again didn't know where we would lay our heads to rest.  I can assure you that rest was needed.  I was fairly tired after the 3hr 45min bike ride, not to mention my lack of sleep due to the deer frenzy the night before.  Some discussion took place around stopping off in Grand Junction to check out the Ribbon Trail but it didn't really strike a chord with either of us.  We had our hearts set on high alpine single track.  Meanwhile the little TDI hummed southbound.

We stopped on the north end of Salt Lake City and Allison whipped up some salad to fuel us.

We stopped somewhere near Grand Junction to fuel the car for more driving.

My memory is a bit fuzzy after that.  I don't remember where I asked Allison to take over driving.  I had been awake for almost 24hrs.  I simply couldn't stay awake any longer and was afraid of making a mistake.  The deer were kind to my weary eyes and didn't jump out in front of us, but that didn't ease my nerves.

I have to be honest though, I worry about Allison driving under these conditions.  When she did take the wheel though she was a rockstar!  She kept the little TDI pointed in the right direction as I took a little nap and the sun rose.

She informed me after my nap that I had missed an amazing sunrise.  I was content with having snagged an hour of sleep!

After I woke we were driving past Blue Mesa Reservoir and we spied this fellow enjoying his breakfast.  He didn't let our passing bother him and it was incredible to get the opportunity to see such a beautiful animal up close. (albeit from the safety of our car)

So technically it was a new day.  Though due to driving all night and not sleeping more than an hour, I will arbitrarily end this very long day of the trip with the reward of our all night efforts.

Pulling into town with the sun rising over Mt. Crested Butte.

We had arrived in nirvana.  The plan: don't sleep till night time, eat, set up camp, enjoy the first day in Crested Butte.  What better way to celebrate our arrival than to enjoy breakfast at Izzy's and coffee from Camp 4!

Don't worry about the "Closed" sign, the photo was taken in the evening on the day we were leaving.  Izzy's was open on this wonderful Wednesday morning.  A note however for future trips is that Izzy's is closed on Tuesdays.  I don't think I like Tuesdays anymore.

To be continued...