Ridges and Roads

Hey, we are Caleb and Dan! A couple of buddies heading out on an adventure this summer. Throughout our journey, we will both be jotting down some of our thoughts and sharing them with you as we go. If anyone has route recommendations, send them our way (we already decided to add some cliff jumping on the first leg of the trip) ! Here are a few thoughts from each of us:

Picking Dan’s Brain

The state of Colorado sits astride the Continental Divide, a geographic distinction that has helped shape its identity as an epicenter of American peak bagging. Of the 96 peaks rising above 14,000 feet in the United States, 53 are found in Colorado, nearly twice as many as Alaska. For nearly two centuries, the towering summits of Colorado’s 14ers have been preciously sought after goals for enthusiasts. Colorado’s modern 14er culture emerged in the mid-twentieth century as mountaineers began expanding their ambitions beyond individual summits and toward more complex objectives that linked multiple peaks along exposed alpine ridge lines. In his seminal guidebook, Colorado’s Fourteeners, Gerry Roach described hundreds of routes. Amongst them, he described four traverses that have since become legendary among climbers: the Crestone Traverse, Little Bear to Blanca Traverse, the Maroon Bells Traverse, and the El Diente–Mount Wilson Traverse. Together, these routes became known as Colorado’s “Four Great Traverses”, a collection of technical, committing ridge lines that represent some of the finest alpine scrambling in the state.

For mountain runners and climbers, places like these exert a magnetic pull. There is something deeply satisfying about moving efficiently through complex terrain, adapting to changing conditions, and navigating the natural challenges presented by the mountains. Yet many times, the experience is not simply about reaching a summit, but about the journey between them. Traveling through new and engaging landscapes is deeply satisfying. Enter the bicycle…

Few tools have expanded human-powered exploration as profoundly as the bicycle. Simple and elegant in design, a bicycle transforms human effort into extraordinary range, allowing a rider to traverse vast landscapes under their own power. It was at the intersection of these two passions—alpine traverses and human-powered travel—that our Roads and Ridges Tour was founded.

The idea is simple: link all four of Colorado’s Great 14er Traverses in a single continuous journey, traveling entirely under our own power from our front door in Boulder. Over the course of roughly 1,100 miles, we will pedal between mountain ranges, carrying everything we need on our bicycles before leaving them behind to complete each traverse on foot. By combining bikepacking, mountain running, and alpine scrambling into one continuous effort, the Tour seeks to connect Colorado’s most iconic ridge lines into a single human-powered expedition.

Picking Caleb’s Brain

Summertime in the Colorado Rockies is absolutely my favorite time of year. It seems like every year during the winter I have an anxiety that I’m not doing enough, but in the summertime, my only anxiety is the exact opposite. There are always so many cool and inspiring objectives to take on, but there are so few days to get it all done. Summertime is fleeting. So far this summer I feel like I’ve done an excellent job of taking advantage of the days up high.

Looking back at the past summers of my life, there are many great adventures and stories but a couple standout just a little bit more than the rest. Unsurprisingly these are the summers that I decided to tour the land via my bicycle. Bicycle travel is such a wonderful experience. It’s a fully immersive journey and waste not a single minute of that precious summertime. My first bicycle tour was in the summer of 2017. I just graduated college and was in no hurry to jump in the rat race but had no other real plans. So I did the only logical thing I could do. I loaded up my 1990s rigid mountain bike with some camping gear and headed north. Over the next three months I explored a large swath of the American West and British Columbia. To this day, I look back at those three months as some of the happiest and most carefree times in my adult life. This is not to say that there weren’t struggles often, but the overall journey is one cherish for the rest of my life.

Seven years later and with much much more travel and endurance experience, I took on another bike tour in the summer of 2024. Once again, I loaded up my bike with some camping gear and headed north but this time the bike was a carbon fiber road bike with aerobars, and the gear was even more minimal and refined than in the first tour. I rode up through the central Rockies to Canada as far as Golden BC, just north of Banff, before turning around and riding another line on the east side of the Rockies back to Colorado. I traveled about 3000 miles in 19 days. Even with the much larger days, the overall experience remained very similar to that first journey I took after college — another unforgettable journey. 

When the only objective is to ride your bike all day long through nature, you’re able to switch off your brain and really soak in and enjoy all the delights of life. In my very humble opinion, there’s no greater way to spend your summer days than traversing a landscape on your bicycle. So, when my good buddy, Dan, proposed a linking of the four great alpine traverses in Colorado by bike I couldn’t say no. The plan is to leave from Boulder, Colorado on our gravel bikes loaded up with camping gear and snacks, ride to and then run the four great Colorado 14er traverses — simple and elegant in theory. Surprisingly enough I have not done a single one of these traverses, and I’m super excited to try them out! To be completely honest, four didn’t seem like quite enough so we’re going to add on Longs/Meeker before returning home to Boulder.

The addition of mountain running to the bike tour is something that I’m so excited to experiment with. For many years now I have been practicing “from the front door” activities or as I often refer to them “de la casa” —which is essentially a cool way of saying bike to run. Nothing feels better than knowing you didn’t have to fire up a combustion engine to go have an excellent day in the mountains. The addition of a partner is something else that I’m very excited about. It’ll be so nice to have someone to split the decision making with and the repair kit. But also, I think it’ll be a fun and meaningful experience to navigate not only the highs but the lows together. Dan is a very dear friend and I’m excited to see how our relationship evolves during this one. But, to be completely transparent I’m most excited to leave all the hectic craziness of society behind for a few weeks and just be in the mountains.

We both took off 18 days from work to complete this objective. Hopefully we’ll be riding more and will be posting all of our activities on Strava daily. Follow along to if you feel so inclined and go make the most of your own summer!