The Last Chance Randonnée may be the best chance for a true western prairie experience of a lifetime; an experience often only read about in westerns or viewed on reruns of "The Little House on the Prairie." It is a ride complete with huge western skies, skies so big and so blue, it is truly "Big Sky" country. The people we met were kind, chatty, and helpful, unflappable in wind, electric storms, sun or bone chilling cold.

Wheat field near Norton John Lee Ellis photo

At the pre ride meeting on Sunday September 12, ride organizer John Lee Ellis cautioned the 14 riders to pack thoughtfully, as services were few and far between. Then everyone went out for a pre race meal, joined by the director of the UMCA, John Hughes and his friend Carol Garnand, and devoted volunteer, Dave Buzzee. Buzzee had driven from Ohio to help John Ellis, so John could ride the randonnée.

The predawn was clear and cool as we cycled to the park-and-ride, where the randonnée officially began at 3 a.m. with an official John Hughes send off. The beginning was fast and social, with several of us riding together, enjoying the tail wind and sharing stories as we pedaled towards the first stop in Byers. Leaving Byers, the wind shifted to a head wind, and gradually picked up throughout the day. The skies were so blue, it looked like a movie set, but the sun was a constant reminder of the reality of the harsh western plains.

Todd Kalchbrenner, Nancy Guth, Chris Grealish, John Guth in Idalia, CO John Lee Ellis photo

By the time we reached Kansas, I felt like a prairie girl in a wagon train, because I was parched and getting tired from battling the wind. However, after a cool shower at Atwood, and some drop-bag food, John and I were ready to continue in the cool of the evening with Mark and Todd, the Texas guys trying to qualify for RAAM. We enjoyed our ride to Oberlin, pulling into a motel under a pitch-black sky dotted with countless stars. The relentless RAAM duo continued on their quest. After a few hours of sound sleep, we pushed on to the turn around point in Phillipsburg, Kansas.

A Grocery Store and Frozen Spinach
Phillipsburg was the only "real" town since leaving Boulder (real by my definition is having a grocery store). We took advantage of the store to purchase food, and I bought a package of frozen spinach. I tucked the package inside the rear of my shorts and the frozen spinach cooled my back and soothed my back pain for several hours as I continued riding - and it was biodegradable when it thawed out.

Just as John and I started out on the next leg, from Atwood to Byers, Charlie Henderson, the rancher, randonneur and extraordinary support official, came out of his motel room and said "Better not leave - there is a strong electrical storm over yonder, about 60-100 miles in the direction you're going." Full of food, coffee and Vivarin, we returned to the bag drop room and tried to rest as we heard the wind howl accompanied by vivid lightning, and occasional hail. We were happy to see Nancy and Mike Myers come blowing into the room, exclaiming about the challenge of keeping the tandem on the road in the wind.

Shade near Norton John Lee Ellis photo

Three hours later, about 10:30 p.m., Charlie told us the severe weather restrictions had been lifted and we were free to go. We took off for Byers with a tail wind, which lasted about 30 minutes, then switched to a side wind, growing in intensity to gusts of over 50 miles an hour. Lightening again illuminated the sky and when it got really close, we decided not to ride any further, laid our bikes down, with red lights flashing and huddled together on the shoulder. Fortunately, a van came along, and the gentleman offered us a lift, but refused to go west because of the winds and hail, so he brought us back to Atwood. Charlie did not even look surprised when we dragged back to the motel several hours later.

Third Time's the Charm
After drying out, we lay down again. John slept and I watched the weather. By 3 a.m. the stars came out twinkling. We took off again enjoying the bright stars and then a glorious sunrise. We made it into town called Joe's expecting that with a name like Joe's we could find a coffee shop, but the only public building was a post office. Joe's postmistress had a strong pot of coffee she was willing to share, and thus fortified, we cycled on. The next town had a small country store and the friendly ladies offered advice and pads for John's saddle sore. The sun shown relentlessly all afternoon and with no clouds and constant wind, I was getting dangerously dry. We came across a Methodist church with a sign on the door "Downstairs door open" so we went on inside. A group of ladies were busy quilting beautiful handmade quilts, welcomed us inside, offered cold water and ice, and blessed us as we continued on our way.

From Quilts to Garbage Bags
We refreshed at the bag drop motel room in Byers and continued with the sun setting below the mountainous horizon of the Front Range. As the sun set, the temperatures dropped...and dropped - I wished for my tights, which were still in my bag drop at Byers. Our last notable stop was somewhere outside of Greeley, where we thankfully saw a 24-hour truck stop. Almost frozen, we shivered in to savor steaming coffee and purchase a few garbage bags. The attendant enjoyed the diversion by helping us cut up the bags for leg and arm warmers.

Charlie Henderson in Atwood, KS John Lee Ellis photo

We dropped off our brevet cards at the last control, John Ellis' house, and pedaled to the motel, thankfully entering the lobby still wearing garbage bags. The attendant congratulated us and quickly offered a room! We were greeted by Mark and Todd, the Texans RAAM guys, already hitting the free breakfast at 5 a.m. John immediately joined them for breakfast, I opted to discard the garbage bags and enjoy a long, hot shower!

The Last Chance was an extreme adventure in all senses, warm friendly people, varied scenery and temperatures and extremely challenging, as the wind more than made up for the lack of steep hills. We enjoyed meeting and cycling with new friends, John Ellis, Chris Grealish, Mike and Nancy Myers, Ken Bonner, and "old" friends like Todd and Mark from Texas. John and I marveled at the dedication of volunteers like Charlie Henderson, Dave Buzzee, and John Hughes. Challenge yourself next year to try this true western brevet, and see how satisfying the experience can be! It makes for a great story back at the office: "What I did on my summer vacation!"

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