Day 57
Frisco CO (And Surrounding Area), 0 miles
I’m still laying low. Whatever happened to me on Monday, I’m pretty sure I brought on myself. I let myself get dehydrated and I over exerted. (That was the day I spent looking for camp grounds that had no vacancies.) Some pretty serious congestion set in by Monday night. it’s just now beginning to break up. It will be a few more days before I can get back on the bike. In the mean time, I’ve been enjoying the town of Frisco as much as I can, and It is a charming town. I have a feeling I’ll be back in the winter to ski the major resorts all within a short drive of this town.
While I’ve been resting and trying to get healthy again, I’ve been planning out the remainder of my tour. I know the route of course, that is well established but I’ve been planning each day’s ride length and end-of-day stay. I should have that all sorted out by tomorrow. When I started the tour, there were so many miles in front of me I didn’t put much stock in where each day would end. I’ve been averaging a little over 50 miles per day up to this point. I want to push that up just a bit between here and the finish if I can.
It is really difficult not getting on the bike. When you’ve done it for so many days for such long periods of time, it’s difficult to stop. It feels like you are cheating yourself by not riding. There’s a good lesson to be learned there that I hope will carry-over once I complete the tour and resume my “normal” life. I will say that the last few days have afforded me some time to read a couple of good books. I read: Lincoln The War President, The Gettysburg Lectures by Gabor S Boritt, Professor of Civil War Studies at Gettysburg College and This House of Sky, by Ivan Doig. The first book will help me to plan a future “Civil War Tour” that I hope to undertake (not necessarily on a bicycle). I learned a lot about Lincoln and our country’s history. The book provided historical background that is enormously helpful when trying to put current events into context. The second book is just an amazingly enjoyable read. It is unique in its language, story telling, and its perspective on living in some of the most hardscrabble parts of America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The life led by early homesteaders in this country makes the effort required to ride a bicycle across the country pale by comparison.
I think a lot of people drive out from Denver to enjoy the 50 or so miles of bike path in Summit County.