Salida, CO - The people you meet

Como. Population 24. This is the sort of town that you would completely miss in a 4-wheeled steel cage flying by at 100 kph. But when 5 dudes roll into a town like this on bikes, the experience is utterly different, in the best sort of way.

After quickly being let in on the town gossip, politics, and town history, we were received warmly and invited the next morning for pancakes and coffee. But at 10,000 ft the beer was calling (as a wager had been won), and the tired old tuna pasta could certainly wait. So after setting up camp in an old school yard, we headed down to the town watering hole to tuck into a round of pints, but quickly discovered that we didn’t have a reservation, and had to join the cue….to even be inside. What the fudge? OK, OK, so we settled to enjoy our first round on the lawn in the rain, semi shivering away. But the night was only to get better.

Inside, the live family band (literally a mom and pop and kids operation) was jamming to the dozen or so patrons. So once the establishment was ready for us, we headed in to be greeted warmly by the band. Sing-a longs ensued, hugs got passed around, and then the daughter of the lead singer belted out a good solo. The mom yelled out us five smelly boys at the bar: “this is my daughter, and I’ve gots a shotgun and know how ta use it!”. Ok mom, loud and clear.

But I want to talk about the legend that is Jason. Now, I met this character as he was enjoying a catch up on a bench with his sister. Right off the bat it became immediately apparent that this was one impressive guy: his 26 year old CV included 1800 nights camping for the boy scouts, his 4th generation status in Como, how he used to fly for the Air Force…and maybe even something about an Aeronautical Engineering degree. But what was most impressive, was that he had done a 300 km hike in three days! Now if you’ve done some serious hiking/tramping, you’ll know that a 30 km day is a big day, let alone 100. So, as we wandered away from the bar into the night towards the school, I was telling this to Bougie (our newest addition to the team). And being the most outdoorsy guy I know, he said, “that’s impossible!”. But, just as Bougie belted that out, Jason appears from the darkness and says, ‘it’s true, and it happened’. Startled we jumped back and started laughing. He told us he’d bring us a ‘night cap’ after our dinner which Grant had diligently left the bar early to prepare.

So, as promised, Jason rolled up to the schoolhouse at dark with a kettle of ‘family-secret’ hot chocolate for us. And as the hot chocolate flowed, we just started to learn more and more about this remarkable little town. Once the hot chocolate ran dry, most of the team opted for bed, but Bougie and I took his invite to see the old historic house and to have some more hot chocolate. And this house was something unbelievable, moreover, the arsenal of weapons that started to get passed around the table.

‘Have you ever seen a John Wayne movie?’…and after that question, the gun used in the movie came out followed by a flood of guns including mussel loaders, elephant guns, handguns…the works. Bougie and I were amazed at the presentation. After the hot chocolate was consumed, Jason showed us his shop containing a plethora of impressive projects that he was working on. Awestruck by his accomplishments to date, I asked him: “Jason, do you ever sleep?”….and he answered quite seriously: “I try not to”.

When Bougie and I came back to the school yard humming on belly’s full of hot chocolate, Ben was sick to his stomach and was doing his best to fertilize the lawn. At about 4 am, I was taken down by the same stomach bug and it became apparent by daybreak that with completely empty stomachs and with nauseous heads that the team wasn’t going to be moving that day. Grant decided to push on to Salida, and we agreed to meet the following night. But as fate would have it, he ended up getting the same bug the following day.