The Big Adventure

By Hank Poore, PRC-Saltillo Blogger

Last year, a best friend of mine named Helen texted me and asked if I wanted to come up to Colorado and bike on West Elk Loop and I said YES.

Early last Friday me, my mom, my sister, and my mom’s friend flew out. We landed at 9 am and we went to Rocky Mountain national park and hiked for a while. When we were done we drove up to Evergreen to stay with my mom’s friends for two nights.

We woke up Saturday morning and drove to Staunton State Park and I got to sit in a track wheelchair, and apparently I didn’t know how to drive a power wheelchair even though I’ve been driving for almost 19 years. The employee had a joystick that could override the wheelchair which made everyone really annoyed.

That night was the send-off party for me and Helen at a restaurant called Launch Colorado. Sunday afternoon Helen came over to our friends house and picked me up in the iKOR van and we drove to our rental house in Crested Butte. We woke up Monday morning and drove to where we were going to start our bike ride, and the first day we rode 50 miles up mountain passes which was hard. We biked 25-50 miles each day.

The 3rd day we rode on a road called Kebler Pass which was the hardest day because it was all rocks and no pavement at all. Let’s just say we cussed a lot that day . The last day was my favorite day because it was all downhill and we were flying down hills which was AWESOME.

That same night we went out to eat and talked about our favorite parts of the week, then Friday morning we went back to Evergreen and Helen came over to our friends house for dinner. when we finished I felt like I accomplished something huge that not a lot of people have a chance to do. The views were amazing , every time we turned it look different than the other turns and the towns we biked through had their own charm in their own ways.

We woke up Saturday morning and flew back home and I am not happy to be back at all!