Brek Epic Day Four

Crap. Today was hard.

Today’s route had us do a circumnavigation of Guyout (gee-oh). It one of the many mountains here in Summit County. The course was being billed at 45+ miles and around 9,000 feet of climbing. Some of that going up over some high alpine pass that was above treeline (around 12,500 feet elevation). It was amazingly beautiful and really hard. Lots of slow climbing and some hike-a-bike too.

We made it up and over the pass in about two and a half hours. Immediately on the other side there was a snowfield to navigate – about 100 feet of slipping and sliding down with the bike. FUN! Then some steep descending on what is best described as a “goat trail”. We cruised down this with couple creek crossings along the way. More fun!

When we reached the “bottom” at around 10,000 feet, it was time to go back up. Yep, back up. This time on a dirt road. Back up to treeline. This section was called Michigan Creek. It was long. But we were feeling good and made good time. We hit the aid station, topped off our bottles and grabbed some food then it was back on the bikes for a bit more climbing.

At right about treeline we turned on to some singletrack. Time to go down! And down we went – dang, that was fun! Lots of rocks and roots and it was a blast. We ended up catching and passing a handful of people on this section. Mary even said she was having fun! Yeah!

This was a long descent, probably a good 30 minutes or so. Did I mention fun? Well, the fun had to come to an end. Shortly after this we reached the 3rd and final aid station and then it was time to go up (more up!) American Gulch road. Road is giving it a little credit. It was a not so great condition double track. Up we went. And up some more. It was not fun.

Finally. Finally! What we think is the top – we traverse along on this rough doubletrack (ATV trail) and feeling ready to start heading down back to town, but no! There’s more going up. Dang. This is solidly five – five and a half hours into the ride.

More cruising along this doubletrack, when Mary crashes! Crap!! She went down pretty hard on her right thigh and arm. She got up and said a couple choice curse words. Then hopped back on her bike and just said she wanted to get this over with. So, on we went. We round a bend and we can hear music and the announcer at the finish. Yeah! We’re close! We’re almost done!

But no. The Breck Epic isn’t that nice. First, we have one more little climb, then cross the road then cruise down through more singletrack and up and over and around and up and down and around and where the heck is the finish!! I have to admit, I might have said a couple curse words right here myself. But finally, yes finally we made it across the finish line. 6:02  WOW. Just over six hours. But we finished.

I’m tired. You’re probably tired just reading this. Ha!
But, my bike is clean. Dinner is cooking and I’m already thinking about tomorrow…Wheeler’s Loop. From what I understand this is another big day. Just think, only two more days! Ohmygod two more days.

If you want to read Mary’s version of today’s events, go here: www.mountainflyer.com
If you want to see what we’re doing, go here: www.breckepic.com

Thanks for reading!
Heather