Sonya Hirsch

Paige was my riding partner for one of the most memorable days for me on P2SF'09 (and on Bike & Build in general):

I was having a particularly rough morning...we had camped the night before just outside Breckenridge in Frisco, CO. It was our first camping night of the trip, we were all still struggling with the altitude, it poured on and off all night and then, in the morning, after our 5am wake up, my saddle bag broke while I tried to get my bike out of the bike pile we had chained to a tree at our campsite.

I really thought this day would be my absolute least favorite day and that I would be miserable for the next 90 miles. Paige came to my rescue...she was also not feeling very well (and was coming to the realization that she didn't function very well at elevations above 8,000 ft) so she started to ride with me. The entire morning, we were climbing...even if it was a very slow 2-3% grade. I think Paige and I averaged a staggering pace of 8 mph...which, if you know what a badass climber Paiger was, is pretty ridiculously lame.

We passed a mailbox that had a sign on it saying "L'Alpe d'Huez" which we thought would make for a hilarious picture...besides, we were looking for any excuse to take a break from riding. The self-timer shot is actually a pretty terrible one...but at the time, we were certain we were struggling as much as the guys in the tour do on that mountain.

Then came the Hoosier Pass summit sign stating that, in 4 miles, our misery would finally end. It really shouldn't have been as hard as it was for the two of us. I think those 4 miles (and however many minutes we crawled up it) were the longest I had ever seen Paige go without cracking some sort of joke/being ridiculous/being Paige. When we got to the top (11,539 ft), we were ecstatic... and Paige was deliriously giddy. She discovered a very old white toaster in one of the many bins in our trailer, named it after one of the other riders on our trip and then proceeded to roll around in the dirt parking lot hugging it. I had never seen altitude get to someone like that...it was hilarious.

I decided it was probably time for her to head back down to a more reasonable elevation and we began our descent. Somewhere along the way, she lost Meow, her blue dolphin water gun. At the bottom of the descent, we stopped to take some layers off and, after sadly pointing out that I was straddling my bike without my helmet on (meaning I would have to wear my helmet for the rest of that day until I went to bed...and that I was the second leader she had caught in the act in the last 3 days) she actually considered heading back up the climb to find it. I convinced her that it wasn't worth it and we continued on with what would soon be the most epic afternoon of not pedaling and averaging 20+ mph for the next 60 miles.

Other than feeling like we had motors on our bikes helping us finish the day into Salida, CO, a few things stick out to me about that afternoon.

- First, Paige forgot her iPhone in a post office in Fairplay, CO...didn't realize it until we were 20 miles down the road...and then had to convince Jenny to drive the van back there to get it during second lunch.
- Second, the reason we were stopped at a post office was so that Paige could mail a ridiculous package...to one of our mail drops...for one of the other riders on our trip.
- Third, Paige pulled us for so long after second lunch that, when I took a turn, she was still pointing out road hazards...even though there were absolutely no other riders anywhere around us...there weren't even cars.
- Fourth, we saw a whale...in Colorado...in the clouds...

Even though the day started out terribly, it completely turned around and I would, without a doubt, say that it is in my top 10 Bike & Build days ever.
I thank Paiger for that.