Rolling Into Guffey Colorado

2016 Bike Tour

By Michael Riscica / July 7, 2016

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Day 45
Canon City, CO To Guffey, CO
July 7, 2016
35.3 Miles for the day
2,316.6 Total miles for trip
4:12 Ride Time

July_07__2016_at_0613PM

Last night I slept ok in Dean’s backyard. The way I was sleeping, I was directly aligned with the street light which was annoying, but not annoying enough for my lazy ass to get up and change position.

Austin left super early to find breakfast and James was gone when I was done taking a shower.

The plan today was to ride from Canon City up to Guffey and stay in Bills Cabins. The ride was only about 35 miles, but about 3000’ of elevation gain. Its basically straight up hill.

I met up with Austin for breakfast and he told me James was going to try to get to Breckinridge today. That’s over 100 miles and 6,000’ of elevation gain. That dude is freaking nuts.

Austin and I hit the gas station before we climbed up to Guffey. I got distracted with talking to a guy I met in the parking lot who rode the transam a few years earlier, that I completely forgot to go inside and stock up on food and water.

Started the climb out of canon city in a horrible headwind. Today was going to be a rough day. We stopped at at a campground so I could pickup some extra water.

Austin and I took a break on the side of the road at every 1000 feet of climbing. The higher we got on the mountain the wind started to let up on us as we got closer to Guffey.

When we arrive we stopped at the restaurant and had lunch with Colin and Selene whom I keep running into for the past few days. They are pretty rad. During lunch I met an eastbound rider who was from Germany. She was very nice. I gave her my business card.

A few minutes after the German ride left, An American guy dressed in all green came back with the business card and I gave her and was like “OMG, I had a feeling I would bump into you out here.” It turned out this guy read my entire 2005 journal about 6 months ago. His name is Troy Benjamin, he told me that my old journal inspired him to take the trip this summer. And THIS is exactly why I write these journals. It was fun chatting with Troy. He knew a lot about the 25 year old Mike Riscica, it was fun telling him I graduated architecture school and I don’t live in New York anymore. Such a cool guy.

Back at the Guffey Garage, we hung out with Bill and drank beers in his dirty dark garage. He was in the middle of pulling the body off a Jimmy SUV so he could use the engine and put the body of a classic car on top. Never a dull moment. Austin, Celine, and I watched the backhoe pull the top off the SUV.

Bill Guffey looks great! Nothing has changed here in 11 years. All the same shenanigans are still going on.

Bill let Austin and I sleep in the old house on the edge of his property. He had everyone else sleep in the little sheds, but we got the house! It was pretty rad.