My epic solo muni adventure starts tomorrow morning on my birthday, August 25th, 2015. Riding the #ColoradoTrail from Denver to Durango, 500 miles (805km) off-road thru the Rocky Mts with 90,000 feet (27,400m) of climbing, average elevation 10,000 ft (3,048m), self-supported all on a unicycle. No doubt it will be challenging but I’m ready to test myself. Will have a blog about it on my website, www.uniproshow.com, but will be disconnected from the world for the next 3 weeks so will upload it when I finish. You can keep updated as to where I am and if I make it by following my Spot transmitter here: http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0ezDegyaUYdEshglnJqLGE1xA8crBJd01 #WishMeLuck#CT
If anyone wants to join me for any segment just send me a message and will try and figure out the details.
All I can say: Wow!!! Happy birthday and best of luck on this epic adventure that will provide stories you can tell to your grandkids. I will be watching your spot tracker and I’m looking forward to the pictures and stories.
Best of luck! The CT is a very difficult trail but certainly also very ripe for a unicycle through-trek. I figure if bicycles can traverse the entire trail, some quite quickly, then a skilled unicyclist should be able to ride the entire trail as well. A lot of hike-a-uni though from my experience of riding the CT in the Hinsdale County area (Lake City). This was indeed a dream of mine several years ago to attempt but I’d like to do it in a more semi-supported fashion in order to travel a bit lighter and thus be able to ride more of it and quicker. Will be following this attempt to see how it goes. Awesome!
Looks like he’s traveling through the Lost Creek Wilderness now. That’s a big no no. There are six wilderness areas that the Colorado Trail passes through and each has to be detoured if your mode of travel is mechanical (i.e. bicycle, unicycle, etc…). It isn’t even good enough to just hike with a disassembled bike or unicycle. Folks have been cited in the past that I’m aware of. In fact the Colorado Trail Race which is an unofficial, self-supported, non-stop mountain bike race the length of the 500 mile Colorado trail uses several well documented mountain bike detours to avoid the wilderness areas. These areas are also detailed in the Colorado Trail guidebook and data books. Lost Creek Wilderness is the first section that must be detoured.
Wow. This is bizarre. My prior comments about avoiding riding through the various wilderness areas on the Colorado Trail have been removed. Including my comment that clearly showed that unicycle6869 was indeed passing through the Lost Creek Wilderness Area. Coincidentally, the SpotTracker has also been deactivated so we can’t see where unicycle6869 currently is on the trail. Hmmmm… Something about batteries running low…???
The Colorado Trail Race is an unofficial, self-supported mountain bike race that traverses the approved wheeled traffic Colorado Trail route (with Wilderness Detours) every year. In my mind, that’s the route that should followed for any unicycle traverse of the Colorado Trail. It isn’t enough to simply hike with unicycle through Wilderness as that’s also forbidden (i.e. hiking with disassembled mountain bike).
Hey friends, I have made it halfway! Much harder than I thought it would be but all is good. I’ve decided to try and raise money for ALS. My goal is only to raise $2 for every mile I ride.
Here is why I’ve decided to do this taken from an insert from my blog I will post when I finish: "This is when my thinking changed and I started to think about all my relatives who have passed. My grandma Shirley who was the one that got me into unicycling. Without her I would not be mountain unicycling the CT right now. My grandpa Ron who I barely new and remember. My great grandparents Vanover who I’m pretty sure I got my humor from as he was always telling jokes. My grandpa Herbert who I look identical to and even wear the same newsboy hat that he used to wear. My grandma Ruthie still tears up every time I visit her cause she says I remind her so much of him. And to my uncle Ryan who was also a kind soul. He was the latest to die and it was due to ALS just like my grandpa Herbert.
I suddenly couldn’t take it anymore and burst into tears. As I was climbing this beautiful mountain I had tears dripping down the face. My first time crying since the start of my trip. I thought this might happen but didn’t know it would be about death. I sat down to think about life and to recompose myself.
As I sat I realized for the first time that I have a fear of getting ALS or some other horrible disease that may end my life early. Or if I don’t get it maybe my brother, sister, a close friend or another relative might. This tears me apart to think about and I decided that I not only need to do the CT for myself but I must try and help others as well. I am going to set up a donation page for the ALS foundation so that they came come up with a cure. Please donate if you can."
I finished my epic adventure on Monday after 21 days riding a mountain unicycle 500 miles thru the Rocky Mts on the Colorado Trail!!! Woo Hoo!. It was much much harder than I originally thought but so happy to have done it as it was beautiful and life changing. I know that if you were in the bar when I finished, almost all of you would buy me a beer…instead of buying me a beer, I ask that you please donate that $5 to the ALS so they can try and come up with a cure. If you can donate more, awesome, if you can only donate $5, that’s perfectly fine and I thank you as it means you care and I appreciate it from the bottom of my heart. http://tinyurl.com/ob996bb
I have a blog going for each of the 21 days with photos and a few short videos. Check it out and make comments or ask questions if you want. I just finished uploading Day 1 and will continue adding days each day as I find time. Life is beautiful, get out there and travel, explore and do something crazy. Life is way too short to sit there and do nothing. http://www.uniproshow.com/apps/blog/
Well I didn’t have swim trunks and the camera didn’t zoom down below the waist so I’ll leave it up to you to decide.
That first fall caught me by surprise and it was a rather steep drop off but luckily the bushes were thick enough to catch me. First thing I did was take out my camera cause I thought it was funny.
to conquer!
