The Mt. Evans challenge was incredible. The goal was to go from Denver, to the top of Mt. Evans, and back down to Boulder. In the early hours of the morning, Mike, Ivan, Trish, Abby, Trent, Dane, Peter, Geoff, Scott, and myself all prepared for the long day ahead. There was a unanimous silence among everyone and you could tell we were all intensely focusing on the task ahead of us. The ride dedications were ones I will never forget. The most sincere and heartfelt dedications came out from everyone that morning and I was so moved by what everyone had to say. I dedicated my ride to Willie Tichenor and Mr. Shepherd, both whom had an impact on my life before passing away from cancer. Willie was an old friend from Sunday school in Dallas who always had a smile on his face. He was a great friend to everyone, and definitely one of the most popular guys in our Sunday school group. During this summer I have thought about him a lot and how he kept fighting cancer to the end with a positive attitude. Mr. Shepherd was a great family friend and the Scoutmaster in our Boy Scout Troop 890. He was an incredibly patient man with the kindest heart in the world. I know that my scouting friends and I will never forget him.

I am at a standstill on what to write about these two people. Words simply cannot describe how great they were. They touched so many with the time they had here on Earth.

The ride started out strong and the respected silence for those we were riding for and the focus on our goal lasted quite a while. After climbing and descending multiple mountains just to get to Mt. Evans, and after Peter recovered from a pretty awesome (because he didn’t get hurt) wipeout when taking a turn to fast, we stopped in a town about 40 miles into the trip to refuel on food and water. From then on, it was a constant climb for 15 miles to Echo Lake Lodge, and we then climbed to the summit for another 14 miles. The ride was definitely physically challenging, but the hardest part was to mentally keep going. When you are on your bike going 6 miles an hour in the easiest gear for that long, you get pretty mentally exhausted. On top of the mental fight, your legs are constantly burning, your hands, feet, and face are numb from the cold, and your rear end feels like falling off. With about 4 miles left to climb, it starts to snow on us. The ground it too warm for it to stick, but it kept snowing for about 2 more miles. The best part about the ride was 10 riders started, and 10 riders made the summit. The view was absolutely incredible, but there was a storm approaching so we didn’t stay for too long. On the way back down it started snowing really hard, and I couldn’t even feel my hands squeezing the brakes. The only way I knew that I was braking was from the squealing pads against the rims. The snow stung during the fast decent, and at one point I realized that I didn’t even care. I had just biked to the top of the highest paved road in the world, and during all these crazy conditions I remember having the biggest smile on my face. I felt so alive, and absolutely loved every minute of it. I knew that somewhere up in heaven, Willie and Mr. Shepherd were smiling right back.

Four miles down the mountain, we all pulled over into some storage shed to escape from the snow. We talked to a park ranger who helped us out and we loaded up our bikes into her truck. There were other really nice people that were driving up the mountain that day who offered us rides back down to the Echo Lake Lodge. We couldn’t thank them enough for their help, and we hung out in the lodge for a while and decided to call it a day. The feeling of accomplishment was amazing, and I was so happy that everyone who attempted it, made it.

Needless to say, I slept like a baby that night.