 Go pro, stop recording. Go pro, stop recording. Go pro, stop recording. Good morning from downtown Silverton. And I am so thankful to be here. Yesterday's ride was a grind. There were moments where I was in pure misery. And you know what, I'm so grateful that those two other guys from Boulder who I didn't even know were on the trail, it just felt comforting knowing somebody else was out there with me because it got pretty hairy, that hail and thunder and lightning. Now it is two days from Silverton to Durango. I'm starting to see the light, the finish line. So what do you say, my friends? Let's continue the adventure. No crashies, no flaties, no whammies, no Haley's, no Rainies. What else, man? This ride has given it all to me. And check out my legs. Look at that. Oh, they're all chunked up and bloody. This ride's gonna leave a mark on me. Beautiful Silverton, onward on this steep road. Luckily it's paved, so that's cool. But man, my legs are feeling it after more than a week of grinding. Woo, here I go. Back on the Colorado trail, had a nice seven mile warm up. I've already gained a thousand feet of elevation. It's time for dirt. And I'm very happy to see, I don't want to jinx myself, there aren't a whole lot of clouds in the sky today. I'm hoping that I don't get wet. The weather lately has just been beating me down. Two days to Durango, and I'm very excited. Woo, one more night in the wilderness. Let's do this. Wow, those are some good views. And I like them with the blue sky. There are some clouds building up, we'll see what happens later. But right now, it is beautiful. So I just started going down a little hill, and my front brake started scraping like crazy. I was like, what is that noise? It came out of nowhere. I looked closer and I have worn down my front brake pads to almost nothing. And they can't really be fixed, and I don't have extras. So I pretty much don't have a front brake for the rest of the ride, which is not great, because there's some pretty big downhill to be had, but at least I have my rear brake. So hey, 50% brake isn't bad, although I would have rather it be the front brake, I'd rather have that brake. That's the one I need for downhill. But just another little challenge here to overcome on this Colorado Trail adventure. God. I have to say that today has been much more enjoyable so far than yesterday. Much more rideable terrain. I actually get to ride my mountain bike. What it was meant for. Oh, little squirrely. Now these are some wildflowers. They're taller than me. And when I ride through them, it smells so good. It's like walking into a greenhouse. Love it. Now this is a beautiful field of flowers. I'm loving the orange and the magenta together. Mother nature is quite the florist. She really knows how to put the color combinations together. Left, don't fall to the left. So this is the exact trail that I rode on the San Juan Hut trip from Durango to Moab a couple years ago. And I was wondering if I would run into anybody and I did. How's it going? Hey, how are you? You having fun out here? Yes, we are. A little struggle fast, but we're doing pretty well. What do you think about the wildflowers? Oh my God. It's amazing. Amazing day. Absolutely beautiful. Yeah. The paintbrush keep changing color as you go up. So cool. And what inspired you to do this? It's always been on my bucket list, but your YouTube little film really helps. We saw my videos. It really helped. It really helped. I'm like, oh, it's so gorgeous. I think I could make this. Yeah, absolutely. Right on. Well, I wish you the best of luck. You're going to have an amazing seven days ending up in Moab. It's going to get better and better every day. Awesome. And high five. Bam. Back to the old hike a bike. I'm pretty used to this by now. I am so motivated right now to get this done. I want to be done with the Colorado Trail. But at the same time, still enjoy the last bits of it. This is a pretty unique experience that I get to be out here. And even though it's been super hard, I'm really grateful for this experience. And I will be for the rest of my life. All right, it's time to go down something steep. I have to be careful because I don't really have good brakes right now. Let's do it. No crashes, no whammies. No flaties. That's steep. You got this, brakes. You got this, bike. Mm-hmm. I'm muddy down here. OK, that was pretty fun. And it gave me confidence that my brakes work somewhat well. It's definitely metal scratching on metal. But I was able to do that. Look at my legs. Look at that mud. I know a lot of you are saying, why don't you have mud guards? Yeah, I should have mud guards. I get it, OK? I should have mud guards, and I should have brought extra brake pads. And I should have brought an extra belt in New Mexico. OK? Sometimes I don't think of everything, but I have plenty of drone shots. So there you go. OK, a little bit of hiking, bike. Cruising, cruising, pedaling. It's good. Above these flower tunnels. So beautiful. What I don't love is dark clouds in front of me. Go away. Get out of here. So the sky is rumbling again. And I really hope it doesn't rain. I am not in the mood for cold, freezing, cold rain, hail, wet, slippery trails, muddy, nah, nah, nah, nah. I'm over it. Please, Mother Nature, give me a break today. But it is close. At least the flowers right here are pretty, huh? Look at all these flowers. So I'm getting to the point in the day where I just don't have much energy to ride up these hills. At the beginning of the day, I could maybe pull these off, but not anymore. That's where I'm headed, right where the rain is falling right there. Yippee. Whew, OK, that's right. Or at least try to ride. Don't fall to the right. Don't fall to the right. The rain is pitter-pattering a little bit on me. I'm not going to be taunting the rain anymore like at the beginning of the trip. It seemed to respond every time I did that. So this time, yeah, whatever is going to happen is going to happen, but no more taunting it. Oh, man. This is tough. Have I said that before? Today, actually, though, has been very rideable, which is nice. My arms have gotten so tired from pushing my bike that it's nice to ride. But that presents other challenges. My legs are so tired. But I'm making progress little by little forward. That way to Durango is an uphill. It's a big, old, fat uphill, and I'm just going to not do that. I wasn't in the right gear. When I see big, long uphills like this, my body just kind of puckers up and cringes. I think I can. I think I can. I think I can. This is a good effort, man. And look at this mushroom over here. This thing is crazy. It's huge. Look at that thing. What kind of mushroom is that? It is now time for a blueberry crisp cliff bar. Looks kind of gross, but it's not. But most importantly, I want to show you this view. Look at that. Look at that. Not bad, huh? This is quite an awesome field of wildflowers, Columbines, and other things. So this is what I'm working on right here, this trail. Up, I think, over the ridge. Beautiful evening. All right, we're going to try to ride this. We are going to try to ride this ridge. Let's see. It's a steep one. OK, come on. Oh, come on. I did it. I pedaled all the way. Oh my god. Now it's time to go down. Down, down, down, down, down, down. And then probably back up. And then down, and then back up, and then down. You know, the routine. Little rocky here. So as per usual, I'm just like going downhill, loving it, you know, not paying attention to a whole lot. And then I see this young woman here filtering water in this beautiful little brook. How you doing? I'm good, I'm feeling good. I'm guessing you're hiking the Colorado Trail. That's right, yeah. I'm on day three, so it's still early days. I'm doing it south to north, which is not how they recommend it. So we'll see how it goes. Oh, really? But it's super fun so far. Yeah, what inspires you to do stuff like this outside? You know, I switch. I've always loved being outside. It's something I've always enjoyed. And I've done a couple backpacking trips on myself, but nothing ever, nothing like very lengthy. And I had the summer off. I work at Boulder High this coming fall. And I figured with the time off, why not give this a go? Yeah. What's it like being out here alone? You know, I feel like I was reflecting on it earlier. I feel like it's a high and a low, and a high and a low. Like, you know, I had a stretch today where I had no water, and it was very stressed. And then you hit a peak, and you forget that you were stressed the last hour. And then, you know, a thunderstorm's down on you, and you're terrified. And then you hit another peak, or you, you know, see a beautiful escape, and you forget again. So I think that's what has been my journey so far, is just like kind of feeling gritty, and then soaring up again. So hopefully it continues that way, and hopefully the lows dissipate a little as well. I can totally relate to that. Yeah. So how long will it take you to do this? I guess you have to get done before school starts. Yeah, I have to get exactly. I have to get done before school starts. So that's what we're hoping is school starts mid, like early August, mid to August, I need to be back. So that's what we're hoping. But we'll see. Well, I wish you all the best, and have fun at my alma mater. Boulder High Panthers! Oh, really? Yeah. Oh my god. Yep, yep. I'm a Boulder High Panther, and you're going to work at Boulder High. That's so cool. What a small world. OK, I've been riding, and riding, and riding. Looking for the perfect camp spot. It's not perfectly flat, but it does have a perfect view. Look at that. Yeah, this will do just. Look how beautiful it is out there, although that rain is coming this way. So good thing I got the tent up. These are the things I'm thankful for. This camping spot, my tent. This smashed up burrito that I bought at the Silverton grocery store. A great day on the bike, a healthy body, and that I'm one day away from finishing the Colorado Trail. Oh, it feels so good. All day today, I was just getting more and more excited as I got closer to the finish line. And this feels like a race. It really does. When I hit that sign boom in Durango, it's going to feel like I just finished a race, because that's how it's felt this entire time. It's been it's been that hard. And I know that my feeling of accomplishment is going to be through the roof. And I'm excited to feel that. It's the same kind of accomplishment, I feel when I do something really hard in a race, a running race. This has been hard. And all hard things have huge rewards. And I'm so excited for tomorrow. But for now, I'm excited for this burrito bean and cheese. Here's my little charging operation here. Got to charge the head unit, my phone, drone batteries. It all comes from this thing. That's what charges me, corn nuts. And what else do I have? Cranberries, mango licorice, ooh, sneakers, yeah. And I'm just hanging out in my tent. The rain showed up just like I thought. I'm glad I stopped when I did. I'm very cozy in here, eating my junk food. Boy knows no chess. I'm going to sleep well. One more day at a Durango, yay!