Day 42: mooooooooo

Colorado Springs, CO to Denver, CO — 82.5 mi, 3707 ft

Today I woke up feeling a little scared. We’d been anticipating the Rocky Mountains the whole summer and we were finally surrounded by them.

After a little bit of dilly dallying in bed, I went upstairs to retrieve my dried laundry so I could change into my bib shorts and jersey but when I got there and stuck my hand inside, the laundry was still damp. Carmen and I decided to spin it for a bit more and instead repack the car with all our many many things. It’s funny now 42 days in, we’ve unpacked and repacked the car probably 42 times so we know the exact place that every single item should go so that everything can fit neatly and our driver can still see out their rearview mirror. Packing the car is literally a jigsaw puzzle that we’ve mastered. For example, Carmen’s silver hardshell suitcase goes on the rightmost seat of the middle row and our cooler goes right on top, Caroline’s black softshell suitcase goes sideways in the middle seat of the middle row with the seat folded down, and our snack box goes in the leftmost seat of the middle row. It’s all very satisfying to think about.

Still waiting for our laundry to dry, we sat down for one last breakfast and homecooked meal by Aarushi’s family. It consisted of delicious mango shakes with mangoes brought all the way from California, poha, halwa, omelets, toast, the largest cinnamon rolls you’ll ever see brought by Tatiana’s grandparents, and more.

Nate and Erica (Nate’s girlfriend who was visiting) showed up a bit later and we finished up breakfast at the most packed dining table of the whole trip with a total of 13 people, almost double the usual size of the team.

Soon after, we headed out and as Nate was driving today, Aarushi’s dad, uncle Sandeep, used Nate’s bike to join us on our route. Honestly, none of us including Aarushi knew what to expect of this because although we’d become used to this mileage, it’s not usually possible for anyone to just grind out like 80 miles.

At last, after many photos being taken by every single family member and visiting loved one, we began our ride! Until 1.5 miles later we stopped at a neighborhood lemonade stand. We each bought one or two frozen lemonades for $1 and they were amazing.

After scarfing down this lemonade, we continued our ride and very quickly I was stunned—it was so pretty.

A couple days prior, in anticipation of Aarushi’s family visiting, I was telling the team about how the first time I met Aarushi’s parents and brother, I noticed they all walk in the exact same way. It’s really funny that you can get to know someone so well down to the way they walk and then realize that it just came from their family. As we kept biking as a group, Caroline Carmen and I noticed that Aarushi’s dad and Aarushi also bike in the exact same way! The same cadence, same posture, same side-to-side sway. We all smiled and laughed at this.

The first few miles were on busy main roads going out of Colorado Springs which I would usually not enjoy but it was hard to be too upset because the views were seriously impressive. I remember it wasn’t even a couple days ago that the mountains looked like tiny specks in the distance and now I could see all the ridges and trees. Surprise surprise, it only got better from there.

All I was thinking about for this first bit of the ride was how insane people just live here and can casually walk outside their homes to such insane views.

We reached the first rest stop and the first thing I saw was a volleyball net!!!! Then a little further in the clearing of the lake I saw dozens of people swimming and floating!!!!! I told the team that we need to swim and play volleyball. Unfortunately, since we still had a somewhat long day ahead of us, I was left with blank stares. Nate had also initially parked a bit far from the nice shaded picnic benches so I called him to park closer so we wouldn’t have to carry the cooler and snacks so far. I went to find the only empty closer spot and stood there with my bike. Multiple cars drove by and told me to move but I shamelessly (actually very shamefully) stood my ground.

Soon, all 13 of us were gathered under this pavilion eating as many snacks as possible. Tatiana’s grandparents brought us like three gallons of iced tea and Erica brought like 5 bags of dried mango and granola. We are very spoiled.

Aarushi’s dad was the one to finally get us going again because (as we quickly realized) he’s more locked in than anyone on the team. In this second leg, we ended up doing some mountain biking! Caroline and I were biking behind Drew and Carmen (the two mountain bikers) and followed their lead going up and down these little dirt trails. At first, I was feeling too scared to properly enjoy the thrill of the ride. After each mountain biking segment, Drew and Carmen would ask, “did you have fun?” To which I would firmly respond “no” but that firmness slowly dwindled as I began to see the fun in it. It was kind of like a rollercoaster but your fate is in your own hands rather than in the hands of the rollercoaster mechanics.

The trail went on and on through the hills and beautiful vast meadows. After each turn there was a new surprise that was both scary and fun once you’d successfully maneuvered through it. Eventually, Caroline and I fell behind Drew and Carmen as we approached obstacles more hesitantly and slowly. So as we navigated the trail, we reached a fork in the road and I went the wrong way but quickly realized my mistake. I turned around and told Caroline to go the other way but it was too late. She was barreling downhill toward me and couldn’t brake since this specific part of the trail was covered with sand and there was zero traction. It was straight out of a tom and jerry episode, I was screaming at Caroline STAHPPPP and Caroline was like AHHHHHH I CAN’T STOP. But it was fine we somehow managed not to collide and turn around to go the right way. Our next surprise, a pasture of cows! Instead of explaining just how fun this experience was, I’ll just insert this video here.

After biking a bit through the cows, while simultaneously mooing at them and trying not to slip and fall in the sand, Caroline and I are startled by a loud mooOOAAAAAAAAAUUUH. I almost fall off my bike as we turn around and see Drew and Carmen racing toward us from behind. Turns out they made the same wrong turn at the fork in the road and ended up behind us.

The four of us finish up the mountain biking portion together, every once in a while I scream aloud as I try not to swerve off the trail and all I hear is Carmen snickering at me from behind…

Closer to our second rest stop, we pass by a Safeway and Caroline and I celebrate with each other because we both know that means we are officially on the west coast best coast. Our second rest stop was meant to be at a boba shop but we arrived 7 minutes too late. Despite my peering through the locked glass doors longingly, we were not allowed in by the employees. We ended up going to a tea shop down the street called Teaology which was, as Drew likes to say, the most “liberal” cafe there ever was. To paint the picture some more, I got a jasmine sparkling elderflower refresher, Caroline got a watermelon matcha, and we split with Carmen a spinach and sun dried tomato muffin and an earl grey blueberry muffin with lavender icing.

After a much too long lunch break at this cafe and Aarushi’s dad having to usher us to get moving again, we continued on. This next leg had basically the only serious climb of the whole day. Right before the climb started I began to feel rain drops on my face and looked up at the sky to see where the clouds had come from. When I looked up however, there were no clouds. The rain drops was actually my front tire sealant spraying up at me because I had gotten my first puncture. Usually when this happens, the solution is to keep biking so the sealant can dry up and close the puncture (kind of like how skin scabs when you get a cut). So I kept on biking up this mountain. As we huffed and puffed up this hill, Aarushi’s dad mogged everyone and left us all in the dust. It was actually crazy.

Our last rest stop was at Aarushi’s family friend’s house, Abhijeet and [INSERT name]. They made us some delicious protein smoothies and we shared stories about our journey so far. Before long we had to keep biking so we wouldn’t be stuck biking in the dark.

As we got closer into the city and to our host’s house, we biked through many various parks and neighborhoods and wow I just fell in love with Denver. Every park was so beautiful and full of people enjoying being outside. There was also so much biking infrastructure everywhere, I think more than I’ve seen in any city ever. I daydreamed about moving to Denver and biking this same route every weekend because it was just the most awesome day ever.

Half a mile from our destination however, a driver coming the opposite way down a narrow street yells out to me, “GET THE F*** OUT OF MY WAY YOU GODD*MN F***ING IDIOT.” I held my composure and kept biking but that was definitely a negative point for Denver.

At our host’s, Kate and Manuel’s house, we are welcomed by the crunchiest, coldest, most refreshing grapes I’ve ever eaten and my favorite food ever, pesto pasta. Both of them are MIT alum and one Spokes alum so we debriefed our time at MIT/spokes. We then discussed the logistics of tomorrow for a bit. It was decided that I would take Aarushi’s driver day so she could take my bike, her bike, and Caroline’s tire (which was also struggling today) to Trek to get repaired. We then showered and went to bed. All in all it was the perfect day and, all of us agreed, our favorite route of the trip thus far.

Until next time,

Nunu