sherry's blog

Hey its Mary. I am near Platoro, CO. I stopped off at a little campground here to grab some food this morning. Yesterday was a super amazing day. Covered about 100 miles. Hit some really big milestones, I crossed the Rio Grande, rolled over 2000 miles and climbed the biggest peak of the route. So it was pretty amazing day. It was really awesome. I am really glad that I didn’t quit before that many times, many ups and downs. When you look at quitting you miss out on days like yesterday. It was extremely difficult but extremely rewarding. I made it into Platoro last night. In this morning, in my haste to get out of camp, I decided I’d catch groceries down the road. Unfortunately, its Sunday and nothing is opened until 11 and I’m headed out into the backcountry and unable to get food. I actually ran into a lady named Dorie about 15 miles past Platoro who invited me into her house, gave me breakfast, loaded me on fruit and good stuff for the day. So I’m heading out. I’ll probably stop at the convenience store in Horca to get a little more carbs if possible. Head off to the Pass and make another great day of it. Thank you everyone for being so amazing and wonderful and supporting me. Today I am going to get to New Mexico and its pretty awesome. Bye. (recorder time: 2008-07-06 10:25:35 EST)

Hi this is Alan its 23 minutes past 9 on Saturday, the 5th. I’m at the Beaverhead Work Center camping on their lawn with Dominik, Leighton and Adrian. We came over from 20 miles north of Pie Town. Our big plan for breakfast in Pie Town was shot to pieces when it was shut. The PieO’Neer didn’t open until 11 and we were there at 7:30 and the other one, The Daily Pie, was shut for the Holiday. The toaster house was locked and the woman was away. So pretty disappointing with Pie Town. It was about the only town in America that we’ve been through that we didn’t have Pie. SO BOO! We carried on thinking there was groceries and gas station at the intersection with Hwy 12 which is shown on the new ACA maps as gas station and groceries and that wasn’t there so 3 of us had to detour to a town called Aragon to the shop. Adrian carried on because he had enough bird seed to keep him going for the day. It was a good trip across that. Stayed cool luckily. Pretty canyon along the way. Tomorrow, we are going to try to get a really early start, get to Silver City as early as possible, have a proper meal, hopefully an American Breakfast, an all day Breakfast. We haven’t had a Breakfast since CO and I’m missing it. Then we are going to head out and try to get down the road as far as possible and finish this thing up Monday morning. That’s the plan. OK, Good night. Bye (recorder time: 2008-07-05 22:26:49 EST)

Hey, this is Ardie using Sherry's blog. Just wanted to say a BIG thank you to all my family, friends and apparently even strangers that were cheering me on during the race. It kept me going during long days and rough times. This was truly the toughest event that I've ever done. It was more of a competition against Mother Nature and myself than anything else. Congratulations to Matthew Lee for winning the race. He is an awesome person and amazing endurance mountain biker. Here are some things I remember about the race: 1. Great racer camaraderie 2. Missing Sherry, my wife 3. There always seems to be a headwind 4. Largest bear tracks I’ve ever seen outside of Island Park, ID 5. Postcard scenery and wildlife 6. Butt pain 7. More butt pain until the knee pain started then I forgot about butt pain 8. Warmth of my down sleeping bag after a hard day’s ride 9. Never enough food 10. Sleeping under a bridge outside of Fernie, BC during a storm during the first night 11. Friendly local people that couldn’t understand why I or anyone would do this race 12. Putting my pack in a bear proof garbage can while I slept in the Tetons beside a convenience store 13. Biking up to a DOT crew outside of Grants, NM who knew my name and said they were expecting me 14. Missing pie in Pie Town 15. Finishing and seeing Sherry at the Border My Giant Anthem did great. Had a little a problem with keeping air pressure in my forks for about 1,000 miles (so I had to ride with the forks locked) until I figured out that the valve was loose and got it fixed in Steamboat Springs. Just one flat outside of Lima, MT which the Stans fixed and I never had to repair. Only thing I had to replace was a set of tires in Breckenridge. I used one pack of zip ties to constantly repair my water bottle holders that were slowly disintegrating from the washboards. My Old Man Mountain rack worked well.

Hello this is Steve Gleasner calling from Del Norte running sweep on Tour Divide. Its about 4 o’clock and I’ve got the big climb ahead of me. I want to see what I can get in the bag of it today. 14,000 feet of vertical and 20 something miles. I’m not sure what is going to happen with that and my day. I’m going to give it a whirl. I wanted to send great thanks to the group of reprobates who put together my I-Pod selection for this trip, it has been everything from Barry Manilow, Barbara Streisand, some really off-beat, deep thoughtful stuff, that sent me into a tailspin laughter to tears. Here is a big V-Twin taking off from the stop light. There you go, that’s Del Norte. Off I go, down the road. (recorder time: 2008-07-05 17:15:32 EST)

Hi this Adrian Stingacui calling in from NM, about 43 miles S of Pie Town. There is a thunderstorm brewing. I’m off a dirt road out in the middle of nowhere. I nice family stopped to give me some food, Gatorade and let me borrow their cell phone. Lots of thanks to the ________ family. Really appreciate their help. Alan, Dominik and Leighton stopped in Aragon, they headed off route about 7 miles because they are out of food. The gas station/convenience store at the junction that was suppose to be on Hwy 12 was not there anymore. They had to detour to get some food. There is still another 100 miles to get into the next town. I’m carrying about 7 liters of water for the next stretch. I another ½ liter of Gatorade. I got a big box of Oreos cookies, 3 pop tarts and lb of grapes. Really thankful, really thankful out here and having a great time. Looking forward to finishing up and going home, being with my family, wife and daughter. Love to everyone and lots of hugs out there. (recorder time: 2008-07-05 14:43:41 EST)

Hi this is Felix Wong calling at 1:18 on Saturday, July 5th. I’m now in El Rito, NM. Things are going well. After I got the cyclometer in Chama, my spirits have been way up. My legs have been feeling very good. Very strong yesterday, maybe not quite so strong today. I got into NM yesterday finally and the trail was very rocky, very rolling, steep in some sections, very rutted. However, I thought it was actually quite fun to ride on. Any day when I’m make forward progress as opposed to trying to solve problems or dealing with hypothermia is a good day. Its great to be putting on some miles and making some forward progress again. I hope to be doing triple digit mileage for the duration of the race. We’ll see. The next section coming up is going to be very difficult. Probably most difficult part of the race. I think my legs I’m feeling up to it. I’m going to get some supplies right now, some food. I’ll be on my way. We’ll see how far I can get today. Bye. (recorder time: 2008-07-05 14:22:15 EST)

Hey it's Mary and I'm in Del Norte. Last night, I pulled Cochetopa Pass and Carnero Pass. Stayed on top of Carnero Pass last night. It was kind of a slow moving day. This morning I got up pretty early. Woke up in the Aspens so it was really beautiful . Topped out and descended down to Del Norte which takes a little while. Especially when you are under-caffeinated, severely under-caffeinated, no caffeine. Moving down the hill, trucking down the hill, kind of boring. Until I hit probably the best double track, single track that I’ve had in days coming into Del Norte. Super beautiful. Red rocks everywhere. Little rise before town. Good Stuff. It was great. Here at the convenience store. The Shell. I'm going to load up on some groceries. I’m cramming food down my throat right now. I have a huge pass to hit this afternoon. I'm going to go take a bite out that and see where it gets me. Have a good night. (recorder time: 2008-07-05 12:39:22 EST)

Yesterday, I left a box of T-Shirts at the front door of Border Patrol with a note to Tim to give them to each TD Finisher or leave them out for the finishers to get. The T-Shirt was Brendan Collier's idea and I pitched in some. The T-shirt has the route, names of all 2008 racers and Stamstad's now-famous quote "We are the normal ones". Attached is a photo. Matthew, I'm mailing a yellow one to you. Over the next couple of weeks, we will also mail one to the racers who won't make it to Antelope Wells and to our TD buddy, Joe Polk. It's just a little something from 2 Tour Divide Spouses. T-shirt Image

Hey, this is Ardie Olson calling in from the Finish Line, Antelope Wells, N.M. I finished up at 11:46 pm Saturday, July the 4th. Everything went pretty good that day. It was a long day. I'll probably call back in maybe tomorrow sometime its really late here. I think its like 2 in the morning. I'll probably call back in tomorrow and give some final comments on the race other than it was a really tough race. I'll be talking with ya'll later. Again, this is Ardie Olson. Bye. (recorder time: 2008-07-05 03:07:05 EST) Finish Line Image

Hey its Mary. I just wanted to call in and let everyone know that I’m doing OK. Because I’m sure all you junkies are watching blue dot and wondering what the hell is going on. I’m actually good. I had a little layover off route to take care of some gears in my head that were skipping. I’m getting back on track. Got those cleaned up and lubed. So I’m going to push on. Talk to you later. Bye. (recorder time: 2008-07-04 17:30:25 EST)