Let me start from Atlanta because it is where the story really begins. I was able to fly in first class from Atlanta to Chile and slept very well after gorging myself on ice cream sundays. After arriving I headed straight for the customs agent so that I could beat the mob and get out quickly. Little did I know that I was about to get slammed with another fee on top of the $300 bike charge. For those of you who have never been to Chile, apparently every American citizen has committed a crime against the Chilean government and therefore must pay $131 in a "reciprocity" fee before being allowed to enter the country. I was completely unaware that my birth was a crime against the people of Chile. At least they didn't charge me a late fee.
Back to the ride. I started the ride with tad and had the idea of just doing a kinda easy 2 hour ride. We started climbing up the road towards the ski resort that was at the end of the paved road. From there we road around a little bit and then headed out towards this place called Colorado. After climbing dirt road switchbacks for an hour, Tad said that it was time for him to turn around. I wanted to go to the top of the ridge and see what was on the other side. Well once I got to the ridge, it was so amazing that I had to go up to the next little peak. This continued on and on and I ended up climbing for 4 hours, went above sections of snow (it is the end of summer here) and got up to around 13000 ft before I ran out of water. To put this into perspective, imagine doing 4 snowbird widowmaker hillclimbs back to back and then have the top of the mountain be 7000 ft above you covered in glaciers. It was crazy and absolutely beautiful. I have never seen anything like it. I was above all plant life. No bushes, grass, or anything. I could see glacier covered peaks all around me and not one person. It was most definitely one of my top five rides of all time. Yes, I may have fried my legs for Sundays Continental Championships, but I have tomorrow to recover and it was worth it. I hope you all get in at least one epic ride this year. It will show those clowns at AIG what life is really about.
