Seasons Greetings 2011 from Seth–n-Jode!
COLORADO TRAIL: The Colorado Trail from Denver to Durango is arguably the most demanding mountain bike route in the country involving over 500 miles of trail with 80,000 feet of elevation gain. This summer we rode the Colorado Trail. Jody calls it the “Best Trip Ever.” Of course, if you know anything about our past adventures, the “Best Trip Ever” must involve some challenges. Each rider needs to have a sturdy bike and a complete camping outfit including: foul weather clothing, tent, sleeping gear, cooking rig, spare parts, and other essentials. As you might imagine, the mountain bike is THE single most essential piece of equipment one needs for such an adventure. Three days before the trip, I break my bike frame. Oops!
After some frantic calls, I find a Durango based bike frame builder who agrees to perform a rush weld repair. He’s aware of the forthcoming ride and carefully avoids offering any warranty. I resolve never to look at the weld, embracing the mystical practice that “If I don’t look, it can’t crack.” Unfortunately, about halfway through the ride we cross paths with a fellow Colorado trail rider who sees the weld and innocently asks, “How’s that weld holding?” As you might expect, Murphy’s Law immediately applies to such invitations. I anxiously look closer…to discover a large crack flanking the weld repair.
With total frame failure imminent, we have no choice but to limp into the nearby town of Salida, CO to explore potential solutions. Jody is crushed and begins checking on bus schedules to slink back to Durango. I cast my lifeline to the team at Absolute Bike Shop. They direct me to a welder they’ve heard about that works on aluminum.
I gingerly ride over to Willy the Welder’s shop and, seeing nobody, shout “hello” into the darkness. After some minutes, Willy the Welder saunters out of the shadows. I display my broken bike frame and sheepishly voice my request, ”I need a repair that will hold this bike together long enough for me to ride into Durango. I don’t care how it looks.” He spits a slug of tobacco juice on the ground while tapping on the thin aluminum bike frame. He explains that he’s never worked on a bike before and is only familiar with welding on bigger stuff like…oil rigs. I implore him beseechingly “Willy the Welder. You’re my only hope.” He chaws a minute, pulls at his beard, scratches himself, hitches his pants up, and after some long minutes responds ‘Okey Dokey.”
I have no place to go so I sit against Willy’s shop wall listening to the sounds of him hammering, grinding & welding. Two hours later, he emerges. I look down to see that he has welded what appears to be two building I-beams to each side of the frame. The bike now resembles a crossbreed between Iron Man & Frankenstein. I can barely pedal for the extra weight, but Willy has delivered on my request. Jody and I can continue on our trip!
On our second to last day, we significantly misjudged the difficulty of the “Indian Ridge” section and arrive at our camping spot on Kennebec Pass well after dark. We’ve been surviving on instant potatoes and Ramen noodles for the last five days and after walking our bikes the past few miles, are too exhausted to cook up yet another such unappetizing meal. We decide to go to bed hungry but, while searching for a spot to pitch our tent, we unexpectedly come across a family in the midst of packing up their picnic. Though we try to act sensibly, we are unable to pass by. We spy vegetables, cheese, meat, and wine…a veritable cornucopia of tasty sustenance! We stand immobile five feet away, staring at their picnic, drooling uncontrollably.
Thankfully, the family intuits our craving and graciously invites us to the remnants of their bountiful feast. We try our best to remain civil, but instead attack their picnic scraps with savage zeal. We grab, grunt, and shovel voraciously. The family displays great courtesy in simply backing away to allow us to excavate the spread on their picnic blanket unmolested. We’re licking our fingers and burping when they tentatively ask if they can get their blanket back.
The next day, we meet our friend Ben for the final ride into Durango. Thankfully he brings us Jody’s spare bike which - unlike the bike she’s been riding for the past few days - has working brakes. Besides my broken frame, Jody’s brake failure, (oh and my lost rain jacket), our three week trip has progressed flawlessly. Remarkably, we haven’t gotten seriously lost and, for us, that is an accomplishment for the record books. Note to self: having Jody navigate with good maps does make a difference.
The trip into town is awesome. We complete the ride into Durango with no major injuries. The sun is shining. The birds are singing. Baskin Robbins ‘super double fudge deluxe banana split’ is awaiting! The minor scars and unusual characters we met on the trip only serve to color the fantastic memories.
COMMUTING TO WORK: This day unfolds like a nightmare. Waking from a dead sleep, Jody and I race madly to catch the early morning 6 a.m. flight to Denver. We start the car at 5 a.m. after a quick bowl of cereal. We have barely an hour to drive twenty miles to the airport, park, pass through security, and board the plane. Though this timeframe would be completely unattainable for a larger airport, it is “possible” for the small Durango regional airport. Barely.
About a mile from our home, I reflexively check to ensure my smart phone is in its hip holster and, much to my dismay, discover it missing. Like many professionals today, I’ve come to depend on its power somewhat like Gollum in the Lord of the Rings. I’ve outsourced my memory of events, phone numbers & email addresses to the device. I evaluate the “possible” timeframe of catching the flight against the difficulty of working for a week without my smart phone …and decide I’m willing to push the threat level to “extremely risky” and race home to collect My Precious. I pull an illegal U-Turn and hightail it back.
I screech to a stop, frantically open the front door, and dive onto the dining table for my phone. But it isn’t there! I’m dumbstruck and begin stumbling around babbling possible explanations involving ghosts & UFOs. Jody starts crying. After a frantic but fruitless search, we jump back into the car for the twenty mile trip to the airport. We’ve lost ten crucial minutes in this unsuccessful recovery attempt.
As you might imagine, I’m no longer fully compliant with the speed limit. In fact, I’ve just opened the Nitrous Oxide Tank valve and pushed the “Go Baby Go” button. Fire is shooting out from our muffler. The front end of the truck has just touched ground when, in the pre-dawn darkness, I fly by the police cruiser parked on the side of the road. I briefly imagine outracing the police car to the airport and slipping into the plane before capture. My second fantasy is of Thelma & Louise diving off the bridge over the Animas River. Good sense prevails and I slow down to await my punishment. The consequences for taking up the ‘extremely risky’ plan is now clearly going to include an expensive speeding ticket & missing the airplane.
The next tense moment passes in slow motion. But miraculously nothing happens. No flashing lights. No siren. My adrenaline fades in a few minutes and with it the memory of the police car. Was there really a police car? Was I just having a nightmare vision? There is no spoon. I gradually edge the truck back up to Warp speed for the remainder of the drive and we screech to a halt in the airport parking lot. We have ten minutes to take-off. We run through the security line when the airline is calling for final boarding. We jump onto the plane just before they latch the door. We decline the coffee service on the flight as we’re already feeling a bit jittery.
The mystery of the missing phone troubles me all day. Jody sends a text message to our kitty sitter, Amelia, asking her to keep an eye out. Her reply solves the mystery, “I was wondering why you left the milk on the counter and your phone in the refrigerator.”
ITALY: This fall, we joined our friends, John and Kelly Parnigoni, on a road bike ride in Italy for two weeks through the Tuscany Valley. We biked from Florence to Rome. In a display of restraint, Jody did not take charge of planning this ride. But, she would like to make clear, we did get lost. Let me explain in some detail.
We’re riding our road bikes when the paved road becomes dirt. The road is uncomfortably bumpy, but the riding isn’t really too bad… until the incline grows to 15%. The gravel plus the steep grade now combine to make the ride exceedingly challenging, but the riding isn’t truly dreadful … until darkness falls. In complete darkness, the ride becomes essentially unfeasible. John, Kelly, and I silently take a vow not to “shake the baby” by vocalizing our collective worry within Jody’s range of hearing. Though we have no camping gear whatsoever, we scan the surrounding forest for sheltered spots in which we might safely hunker through the night. We ride “by brail” in the darkness on the weathered dirt road, holding the handlebars fiercely to avoid crashing when thumping over unseen potholes.
After hours of this punishment, we finally see city lights and enter a small town. It is near midnight and the town is completely asleep. At this moment Jody proclaims “This is the best trip ever.” We all look at her in astonishment! We’re tired. We’re hungry. We haven’t a place to stay. We don’t speak Italian. Then I have an epiphany. This is exactly how Jody likes it best. The bigger the challenge…the better the journey. It has taken me about 20 years to completely & fully reach this understanding.
WHITE RIM: We joined a group riding the White Rim Trail this October for a five day mountain bike ride in the Canyonlands of Utah. We’d ridden this trail about twenty years ago with some friends. I invite our friend Todd Langley to join us and he agreed immediately. I then ask him “Have you ever been on the White Rim before?” He looks at me oddly before replying “Yeah… I rode it with you.” I’ve been racking my memory to recollect if something took place during our previous trip to repress his memory. Then again maybe I am getting a bit more absent-minded. I’m committed to the former. :)
CABIN: This summer, Jody and I finished cutting and stacking the downed trees on our mining claim. We estimate 500 trees were scattered over about an acre of steep mountain hillside. Finishing the campaign against this daunting challenge became our summer obsession. We have both become accomplished ‘sawyers’ in the process. We would regularly depart Durango to drive to the cabin, wearing torn clothing with smelly chainsaws, fuel, and chaps in back. Mindless of how our appearance diverged from our mountain vision, we would wave to our neighbors, explaining that we’re en route to our “super uber cute” cabin. As a matter of fact, we now have a ‘coiffed’ wildflower filled meadow and an attractive entrance sign inviting you to the “Free Coinage Lode Mining Claim. We’re pretty proud of the whole affair.
We haven’t recently encountered the porcupine that was featured prominently in last year’s Christmas letter. We’re not disappointed, but we both feel a sense of unease. Perhaps he’s gathering friends for a replay of his stair eating extravaganza? Who knows?
CAREER: Our work lives have changed quite a bit. Traveling back and forth to work every week in Denver was very taxing and Jody decided to quit the company soon after the ‘misplaced phone’ incident above. This fall, I was released by SAIC as part of a company layoff. Jody and I are both consulting in our professional fields while we recalibrate our career paths.
IN SUMMARY: This year has felt like one of those priceless ‘endless summers’ from our youth. The glow may be visible to others, since when Jody told a new friend about her career status, the friend responded “Is your husband retired too?” :) Perhaps we are indeed young at heart. When preparing for my birthday party in July we splurged on a wide array of Spiderman house decorations & cake icing. The friendly cashier asked, “How old is the lucky birthday boy?” Jody gestured towards me while replying casually, “He’s just turning 46!”
We remain thankful for our friends, family, and health. If you ever have a hankering to visit the Durango area, please do give us a ring.
SMILEBOX SLIDESHOWS:
We’ve created slideshows set to music of our 2011 adventures. Turn on your speakers and enjoy!
Colorado Trail Mountain Bike Trip:
Silverton Cabin Before and After:
Italy:
http://secure.smilebox.com/ecom/openTheBox?sendevent=4d6a637a4f444d784f446b3d0d0a&sb=1
Fall Mountain Biking:
http://secure.smilebox.com/ecom/openTheBox?sendevent=4d6a63334f4459304e44633d0d0a&sb=1
Yampa River Kayaking:
http://secure.smilebox.com/ecom/openTheBox?sendevent=4d6a51344f5467334d44553d0d0a&sb=1
Mountain Biking With Canadiens:
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Jody and Seth Furtney & Thomas the Tom Kat
11 Molas Drive, Durango, CO 81301
Jody Phone: 970-385-5567 / Seth Phone: 970-385-5547
Jody
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Reader Comments (1)
I'm envious, sounds like a fun year. Wanted to tell you I have a blog of my own, www.iaoscc.wordpress.com (Improvise Adapt Overcome, Serenity Courage Change)Ya'll should check it out.