 Thu Aug 13 2009: Day 6 ~ I…can’t…breathe… All our bags are packed, and we’re ready to go… We loaded everything onto the truck and got ready for our travel day to Almont. After a brief group meeting and the Woody cheer, we split up in two groups again. There were two options, riding a six-mile dirt track through San Isabel National Forest or riding pavement to Buena Vista where all of us would meet for lunch. Following yesterday’s ride, many of the riders just felt hesitant to ride over another pass – we were promised two water crossings!
After talking to a few of the women, I learned that some riders were really upset about the difficulty level of yesterday’s ride for the novice group. They felt that it would have been more confidence building to have had two different trails – one over La Salle Pass for the more intermediate riders and a less challenging one for the novice group. Sue and Gin proved to be really empathetic ride leaders. They sought feedback from all of the riders with the goal of using it for future rides. Since this is a first ever ride of this kind they have done, Sue, Gin and the staff team are continuously improving and adjusting the length and difficulty of the daily rides, the breaks, and ways of communicating with the whole group. We are piloting a new model! It’s quite a challenge to keep 22 people riding together over such a long period of time. I joined the off-road group as I was feeling empowered by yesterday’s ride. Also, my thinking was that this is an off-road adventure; it’s what I signed up for. I wanted to challenge myself. The group consisted of Dan, our ride guide; Bonnie and Andrea, our coaches; Sue, Darryl, Alisa, Karen, Amy, Scott, Roy and me. The staff to rider ratio was high in case someone got hurt; especially considering we were going to be quite a few miles away from the nearest town. Carolyn was still nursing her ribs, so she opted for the paved route; with regret.
The road was pretty hard packed at first, but turned into sand and gravel. In comparison to yesterday’s ride, the difficulty level wasn’t as high. However, there were some really challenging, sandy switchbacks with no guardrail to stop you from tumbling down hill. The scenery had changed from rolling hills covered in evergreens to these bare rocky formations with short grasses and a few cacti.
We took a group photo at the highest point of our route, after an exciting water crossing, and then made our way down hill towards Buena Vista. We met the rest of the riders who were very curious at how difficult of a ride we had. Some of them were really disappointed to have chosen the paved route after hearing our excited recounts of the ride through San Isabel NF.
I have learned another off-road technique today from Bonnie. When traversing a hill, you counterbalance towards the hill while leaning the bike away from the hill. I need to practice it more to build the muscle memory. After lunch at Billy Bongo’s where I had a yummy bean salad, we had about 60 miles of pavement to Almont over the Cottonwood Pass. Or so was the plan… About 20 miles into our ride, I started feeling really dizzy and pulled my bike over. Instead of clearing my head, things got ever tougher as my breathing became very laboured. Now I was panicking! Bonnie, Scott, Carolyn and Amy stopped to assist, and after I calmed down I took Sue’s place in the truck while she rode my bike over the Pass. I was so disappointed that I wasn’t able to complete today’s ride; it was a beautifully winding road up the Collegiate Peaks. However, I just took it as my body’s way of saying “Take a break!” We had planned to do the Medallion Pass ceremony at the top of Cottonwood Pass, but as the truck reached the summit I got even worse. My breathing was so shallow, allowing only gulps of air into my lungs; my heart was racing. I didn’t know what was happening to me. This was such a surprise! I could tell that people were getting worried around me. Dan, our resident EMT, took one look at me and motioned to Tina to start driving down to lower elevation. I was having an acute reaction to such high altitude – we were at 12,126 feet.
As Tina distracted me with questions and stories, I was experiencing waves of dizziness and shortness of breath; the only way to breathe out was to cough. I tried slowing down my breathing, which helped for a while. By the time we reached the gas station at the bottom of the mountain, I was exhausted and my heart was racing in an attempt to supply the rest of the body with oxygen. Even taking a washroom break proved to be an exhausting task – everything spun. Sue and Dan decided to call an ambulance after consulting with the gift-shop owner, a retired fire fighter. I was worried because even here at 9,000 feet my heart rate was really high, my breathing laboured and I felt dizzy. What luck, and how embarrassing!
Once in the ambulance, they hooked me up to an IV and the oxygen mask. They also did an EKG to see what was going on with my heart. All I could think about was how badly I needed to pee. I couldn’t keep it in anymore, so I overcame my shyness and just asked to pee in a moving ambulance; yet another great adventure! At the hospital, they did some more blood tests, checked the EKG and diagnosed me with altitudism. It turns out that my body needed more time to adjust to altitude changes; even after several days at 9,000 feet. My body reacted with the increased heart rate and faster breathing, fooled into thinking that my airways were constricted. Remedy – plenty of liquids, snacks in between meals and more frequent stops to allow my body time to adjust to changes in elevation. I was back to Almont Resort by 9pm, having been given a clean bill of health! Though drained from the day’s challenges, I stayed up with my housemates Tina, Darryl, Shelby, Peg and Cindy. We laughed at our (mis)adventures so far.
|
