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Gazette Articles
You can see it in Matt and Greg Rafn's eyes. You can see it in the way they hurry to the edge of the mountain and look down at the road that snakes into the clouds beneath their feet. This is probably - no, definitely - the coolest thing they've ever done in their lives. But, like the kids, they're about to embark on an adventure that will leave them breathless, partly from effort but mostly from the thrill. In Colorado, there are only two of 54 fourteeners (peaks taller than 14,000 feet) - Pikes Peak and Mount Evans - where cars ' can drive to the top. Until a few years ago, the roads to the summit of one of those mountains - Pikes Peak - was closed to bike travel or hikers. But recently a handful of concessionaires obtained permission to transport riders tip the mountains and put them on mountain bikes for the trip down. Two of them - Challenge Unlimited and Pikes Peak Mountain Bike Tours - are based in Colorado Springs.
On this day, it's a Challenge Unlimited ride that has Matt and Greg Rafn so pumped. They had gotten up early - really early for a vacation day - and, pruned with bagels and orange juice, were on top of Pikes Peak by 7:30 sum. That kind of "look what we're doing! What have we done?" feeling is common among those .who sign up for a Challenge Unlimited ride, says Tin: Campbell, president of the company. She and her 15 employees have become accustomed to their clients' doubts, fears and excitement level. "We tell them the ride up in our van is the scariest part of the trip," she says.
The view, the clouds, the distances they can see. This ride should be great, a coast, a breeze. But did somebody just mention there are uphill sections? "I thought this was all downhill," Sharon says, gamely getting on her bike and trying not to notice the physical effects of living at sea level and traveling to 14,110 feet above it. As the guides ready the bikes for this group, the excitement grows. Riders venture to the edge of the Hat-topped mountain and peer down at the road. They put on, then take off, sweat pants and gloves and fleece vests, and put them on again. They adjust their helmets. Then they hop on their bikes and, slowly at first, take ort the mountain' highway. At the first switchback, they regroup and wait for the slower riders. It's a pattern they'll follow all the way down, but as they get more comfortable on their bikes, the braver ones (read: Matt and Greg and a few others) will push themselves. The ride lakes about 31/2 hours. The only skills riders really need are the ability to ride a bike and squeeze the brakes. The companies provide the bikes. In this group, there are no scrapes, no end-overs, no face plants, not even any sunburns. Just a little sweat, and a lot of energy expended. Campbell's company has taken hundreds of riders down the peak in the seven years since she obtained a permit. She remembers when her idea of riding down a highway that has been closed to bike or fool traffic for decades was met with skepticism. "But we had heard about that mountain ride in Hawaii, where riders go down Haleakala on mountain bikes, and thought it would work here, too," Campbell says. So she presented her idea to the Pikes Peak Highway board. "I was a wreck, but I got up "in front of the board and showed them how we would take riders up and then down the highway. One of the guys said, That is the dumbest idea 1 ever heard.' But another one suggested we give it a try." Pikes Peak Mountain Tours, run by Drew Niehaus, followed Campbell to the mountain in 1993. He, too, just renewed his permit for five years and also pays a per-rider fee. Today, both offer two rides down the peak each day in the summer and fall. "Great fun. Amazing," he says at the bottom. "Just think how much mileage we can get out of this story back home," says Richard Thompson from Florida. "Careening down a mountain on a bike. It's great, stuff." Challenge is adventurer's life -- and now it's her business Tini Campbell has led treks through Nepal and bike rides through the rolling green hills of Ireland. She celebrated her 50th birthday on 22,835-foot Aconcagua in Argentina, and has rafted the wild rivers of Costa Rica Through her business, she also organizes and leads adventure-travel groups on those Nepal treks, Costa Rican adventures and those idyllic Ireland trips. "I loved having to walk from one village to the next. I loved the adventure of it all." Several years later, Campbell went back to Nepal as a leader of a group, and her adventure travel business was born. "I've been there almost every year since. I went to school and finished college, got divorced, and started offering more trips." And she's excited about an upcoming trip she believes nobody has done before - mountain hiking on the Tibetan plateau. She's also planning a golf-bike tour of Ireland. Campbell is philosophical about, the direction her life and her business have taken. "Everybody's Himalayas are a different height."
Tini Campbell DIARY OF A RIDE DOWN PIKES PEAK
Mile 1: This can't be that hard, right? It's all downhill. Piece of cake. Of course, it will become considerably more thrilling the more I tell the story later on. Mile 2: This is living. The world is spread out below, where early-morning clouds rest on valley floors. Up here it's sunny, and you can feel the chill of the air only when you pick up some speed. Who needs 21 gears, anyway? Mile 2-1/2: I guess I do. Nobody told me there were uphill stretches on this trip. Not that I can't handle it, but this one-eighth of a mile of heart-pounding incline at 13,000-some feet is tough. I almost didn't notice that marmot (they call him Waiter on the highway) standing at attention on the road's shoulder, casting judgment on our hutting, puffing group of riders. Mile 3: That's over, I hope. Now, we're back to the reason we came here: lots of downhill with switchbacks and curves and potentially deadly views (Wow! Look at that. Whoops|). Luckily, the Challenge Unlimited guides know about the scenic value of this trip, and they stop often. They say it's so we can take pictures, but 1 think it's because we're still a little red-faced from that unannounced climb. Mile 4 1/2: So this is Pikes Peak. I've climbed the trail to its summit, taken the Cog train up and driven the highway a dozen times. But this is somehow different. The switchbacks that can be so harrowing for a car passenger (watch out for that RV hugging the center!) are tamer on a bike. It's a control thing, says bike guide Kelly Rogers. There are no back-seat drivers here, only riders. I lean over the handlebars and go fast (I think ... it feels fast) and fantasize about racing. Mile 12: We stop at Crystal Reservoir. We've just hit pavement and are ready for the smooth conclusion to our ride. This part is great for the ego. Tourists till the parking area at the reservoir, watching as we wheel in. We look at them with pity. They have to view this great mountain from behind a windshield. We get that wind-in-our-teeth experience. Nothing like it. Piece of cake. Mile 13: Oh Another uphill stretch. This one is three-tenths of a mile, the guides say. I won't walk, I won't walk, I won't walk. I don't walk, even though at one point I'm riding slower than another guy is walking. This becomes the badge of honor for those riding "downhill" - the part they can throw into casual conversation later. You know - "there was one section that was realty steep, but we toughed it out" - that kind of thing. Mile 13 3/10 - mile 18: That was . . . invigorating. Now we coast, faster and faster, through pine forest and aspen. Make a note: This section would be a great place to cruise in the fall when the aspens are golden. Mile 19: Almost done. As we near the tollgate where the air is heavy with exhaust from lines of cars waiting to enter, we sit a little taller, get a little cockier. We don't need cars. We have two wheels and our own power (and you don't need to mention that great van that took us to the top). We don't drive down Pikes Peak. We ride it. Yeah. |
It's
All Downhill From Here
Why are we here?
In this group, Richard and Sharon Thompson from St. Petersburg, Fla are awed by the view. They've been on mountains back East, they say, but none like this.
It's a tough job, but Out There editor Deb Acord feels she should experience all she can (in the interest of fair, complete reporting). So she hopped on a bike and rode down the Pikes Peak Highway with Challenge Unlimited. Here's her
account: