Alan Goldsmith

Morning this is Alan. Its about 7:30 on Sunday. I'm in Salida with Dominik. Just had breakfast at the cafe next to Absolute Bikes. Bike shop not open for another hour and half so they are going to miss out on our custom not that we really need anything. Yesterday we got a bit of late start because Dominik had to visit the dentist for a bit of emergency work, I guess I shouldn't have hit him so hard. Anyway we came across via Hartsel. That is a funny sort of town. 30 miles either side of Hartsel, what is all that about? Washboard and headwinds, that was hell. First 20 miles of the day over Boreas and the last 20 miles of the day down from the hills for a 1000 meters into Salida were superb. Luckily it was cool and a bit of rain. Anyone who comes into Harstel in the heat, good luck. Anyway we are off over some more hills to Sargents now. The waitress is telling us that it is the world capital of UFO sightings. So if don’t make it, you know where we are. Talk to you later. Bye. (recorder time; 2008-06-29 08:28:59 EST)

Hi this is Alan. I'm in a hotel in Breckenridge. We are good. Tomorrow, we are starting fresh. No more adventures hopefully. Just riding south. We are good and good night. Bye. (recorder time: 2008-06-27 21:21:24 EST)

Hi this is Alan Goldsmith. I wanted you know that I am absolutely fine and Dominik is absolutely fine. We had to press the 911 on the Spots this afternoon because we were the first on the scene at car accident. We helped out with the rescue and the SPOT thing eventually got through to the emergency services so that was good. So that was good. It works. We are both fine. We are in Silverthorne. We are going to stop here and we'll call you later. Just get the message out to everyone on the internet that we are both absolutely 100% fine. We were not involved in any accident at all and we were just helping out with rescue. The SPOT did work but a bit slow. I think they actually got the signal from some woman I flagged down in the road who drove down the mountain to get cell phone coverage. So SPOT is quite good but not quick enough. In a real emergency, need to be faster. Talk to you later. Bye. (recorder time: 2008-06-27 16:47:21 EST)

Hi this is Alan Goldsmith. I wanted you know that I am absolutely fine and Dominik is absolutely fine. We had to press the 911 on the Spots this afternoon because we were the first on the scene at car accident. We helped out with the rescue and the SPOT thing eventually got through to the emergency services so that was good. So that was good. It works. We are both fine. We are in Silverthorne. We are going to stop here and we'll call you later. Just get the message out to everyone on the internet that we are both absolutely 100% fine. We were not involved in any accident at all and we were just helping out with rescue. The SPOT did work but a bit slow. I think they actually got the signal from some woman I flagged down in the road who drove down the mountain to get cell phone coverage. So SPOT is quite good but not quick enough. In a real emergency, need to be faster. Talk to you later. Bye. (recorder time: 2008-06-27 16:47:21 EST)

Hi this is Alan. We are still out here. It is Friday the 27th and I'm in Kremmling. Just had breakfast here after riding over from a campsite near Radium. In the last couple of days, we have had lots of things happening and its all been good. We left Rawlins and had to take a ride in a pilot car, unforunately. It was probably about 8 miles and a lot of that was uphill. So I was pretty gutted by that but I'm getting over it. Had a good day leaving the desert of the Basin into Medicine Bow Forest. That was nice. Aspen Alley. Then down to Slater. Not much going on there. Post Office with no fresh water. Then we headed up the Slater Creek Valley and it was getting hotter and hotter and we were getting more thirsty and more thirsty. At about 4, we came across the Brush Mountain Lodge and it was too good to pass. We got a bit of an early finish. Hung out with Kirsten, She really looked after us. I had my second hot tub of the trip. Then the next morning we got up really early and did the stretch out to watershed divide which was one of the most beautiful parts of the trip. Tons of Elk and Antelope up there. Proper mountain bike descent into Clark. Where they have a supurb store. If I had a store like my town, I'd buy everything in the store. Store, Post Office, everything. Then we went to Steamboat and we were intercepted at Orange Peel Bikes by the local reporter who interviewed us. There will be an article in the Steamboat Pilot on Sunday. So if you check their website www.steamboatpilot.com on Sunday you should be able to read all about it. Orange Peel sorted us out with new drive chain and didn't charge us for labor. The film crew met up with us again and filmed Dominik getting new shoes. He got a new pair of Sidis. Then we came over Lynn Pass. Met a guy called Marco who is following the race. He took a few pictures. He said he put them up on mtbr. Big thanks to him. His support helped me up the hill.

Hi its Alan. I’m in Rawlins, WY. I’m still with Dominik. The last two days went pretty much as planned. Yesterday, we headed down to the Basin. We had dinner at Atlantic City before heading out and camping as the Diagnus Well. Earlier in the day, we bumped into the film crew on the way down. We hung out with them for about an hour. They filmed Dominik’s feet. I’m sure they are going to be the star of the movie. But it will have to be x-rated, I’m afraid. Today, we got up about 4 and headed off I guess around 5 and made it to Rawlins by 3. It was pretty tough. Gets pretty warm in that Basin. We just made it in chased by a storm. We got a little bit damp but we didn’t get struck by lighting which is the main thing. Tomorrow, we are going to Colorado. To celebrate our half-way point, we did our laundry and ate a lot. Time to go. Bye. (Recorder time: 2008-06-24 23:02:24 EST)

Hi it is Alan Goldsmith. Its a quarter to 8 on Monday morning. I'm in a motel in Pinedale. I'm still with Dominik. We had another huge day yesterday. We were up on the road just before 6 and we rolled into Pinedale just as it was getting dark about 10 to 10, grabbed a subway and went to bed. Yesterday, was a bit big because the snowy stretch Brooks Lake. Its bad on the snow but it is even worse where the snow has melted. As more snow melts its going to get muddier and muddier. On the map, it says impassable when wet and I would agree with that. My bike must have weighed about 50 lbs at one point. I could barely push it. The back wheel wouldn't go around and it was skidding along. I fell over with it a couple of times. Dominik just laughed at me. That sort of broke the mood. That was good. We saw some animals in there that I don't even know what they were. The were a cross between marmots and beavers. They were climbing trees. I'm sure I wasn't imagining it. After that Union Pass was dottle, just a few drifts of 100 meters. Then a long, long stretch of wilderness down to Pinedale. Amazing, I expected to see a bear at any moment. I just saw a wolf and some moose. Not much else apart from spectacular scenery. Anyway the plan is to cruise down to Atlantic City for some dinner then Head out into the Basin and camp at Dingaus Well. that strategy seemed to work will for my compatriots last year. Anyway, bye. (recorder time: 2008-06-23 08:52:21 EST.)

HI this is Alan Goldsmith. Its Sunday, its 12:30. We have just come over Togwotee Pass and done the little detour around to Brooks Lake. Now that is not fun. Its 4 1/2 miles taking ups 2 1/2 hours. Its 1-2' deep in soft snow and where there is no snow its about 6" deep in mud. My wheels wouldn't go around. It was hideous. Luckily from Brooks Lake, the other side is plowed. So you only have the 4 1/2 miles to the Lodge to wade around in the snow and the mud. We are a little bit further on now. Trying to refuel before Union Pass. Pinedale today is a long distance memory. Bye.

(Recorder time: 2008-06-22 13:28:43 EST)

Hi its Sunday the 22nd. This is Alan Goldsmith. I'm at Togwotee Mountain Lodge. Just had breakfast. We rode out from Turpin Meadows Campground this morning. I saw two grizzly bears. They were my first grizzlies. I guess it was the last chance today. We are on our way over the Pass, then Union Pass headed for Pinedale hopefully. Unless we get snowed in up there. Yesterda was a bit of an epic. There was 8 miles of snow affect trail between ID and WY. I guess, about half of the time there was actually snow on the ground and the rest of the time it was pretty muddy. We just made it over in time for lunch at Flagg Ranch. So it wasn't too bad. Anyway we got a big day. Better get going. Bye.

(recorder time: 2008-06-22 09:18:21 EST)

Morning this is Alan Goldsmith. I'm the Squirrel Creek Elk Ranch. Just had some breakfast after a beautiful trip down the rail trail. I don't know what people have been saving about it in the past. But I thought it was absolutely awesome. Fast, fun and so beautiful. At 6 in the morning, its bug free and beautiful. Anyway, we are going to be heading into WY now. Looks like we are going to have some snow. The Tetons look awfully white. So I'll talk to you from WY. Bye.

(Recorder call in time: 2008-06-21 10:52:07 EST.)