Conquering Colorado

CARBONDALE, Colorado — Tossing and turning and unable to sleep one night, all obnoxious byproducts of a bad mood that ailed him, Andy Henrichs tried mightily to think up something positive.

“I was thinking of camping trips I could take, and then the thought occurred to me to bike to all the fourteeners and climb them,” the popular Roaring Fork High School athletic trainer said.

And so Henrichs put the wheels in motion to make such a trip happen.

Given the feat’s intense physical strain, biking across Colorado and summiting 54 of the state’s 14,000-foot peaks, is not something all would dub a positive thing. But Henrichs’ affinity for the outdoors — he’s already tackled 20 fourteeners — and the fact he’ll use the trip to raise money for a worthy cause should make for a dream summer journey.

“I was about to dismiss the thought and then thought I could raise money for an organization,” said 27-year-old Henrichs. “That idea stuck and grew rapidly.”

After a little research, Henrichs tabbed World Bicycle Relief, the beneficiary of his fourteener tour, which he plans to launch on May 31. The organization raises funds primarily to provide bikes to volunteer caregivers treating HIV and AIDS victims in Zambia. Some bikes also go to vulnerable households, in which one or both parents have died.

“I looked at the developing countries and what a huge step up it is for many people in these countries (to get bikes),” Henrichs said. “I settled on World Bicycle Relief because I liked the transparency of where all the money goes, where each bike goes.”

With about a month and a half to go before Henrichs sets out on what he hopes will be a 50-day-or-so journey, he’s already raised about $4,000, primarily from friends and family, though a number of strangers have wandered onto his Web site — worldbicyclerelief.kintera.org/andrewh — and contributed.

It costs $109 for World Bicycle Relief to purchase and deliver each bike and Henrichs wants to raise two bikes for every peak he conquers. To make that happen, he needs to raise in the ballpark of $12,000.

Some of the money will, of course, be needed to fuel his mission. Food is the heftiest expense, and some of the funds raised will go toward equipment.

“So many calories are burned each day,” he explained. “It’s hard to replace all those. I’ll buy some new equipment, but I already have most of the pieces. I might update some components on my bike.”

Henrichs’ lodging — his tent — won’t fetch much in the way of cash. He said he might stay in a hotel once in a while, “just for a break or if there’s no forest service in the area.”

Andy Henrichs’ fourteener excursion His goal: To bike across Colorado and summit 54 fourteeners. Who benefits: The World Bicycle Relief organization, which provides bikes to volunteer caregivers treating HIV and AIDS victims in Zambia. When does he leave? May 31. How long will it take? Henrichs hopes to complete the trip in about 50 days. How to donate: Visit worldbicyclerelief.kintera.org/andrewh or drop of checks made to World Bicycle Relief at the Roaring Fork High School main office. To find out more about World Bicycle Relief’s Project Zambia: Visit www.worldbicyclerelief.org/projects/zambia

The route

When Henrichs hops on his bike May 31, he’ll begin by heading west toward Minturn. From there, he’ll travel south down the Sawatch Range, then up through Breckenridge on to tackle peaks along the Front Range. He’ll then turn south and target the Sangre De Cristo Mountain Range before traveling through Alamosa and the San Juan Mountains and finishing up with the Elk Range.

All is subject to fine-tuning and change, of course.

Nailing down a route was no simple task, Henrichs relayed. Everything, from weather to difficulty, went into its formulation.

“First I had to decide whether to go clockwise or counter-clockwise,” he explained. “I spent a lot of time going over maps, figuring out which routes would be shortest, but not too grueling. I’ve been fine-tuning it all the time. I decided to finish up with San Juan coming through, because they get so much snow.”

Henrichs hopes to pick off at least a peak a day for 50 days. Whenever possible, he hopes to bag two peaks in one day.

Some days, he’ll have company.

“A lot of friends have offered to hike or bike with me for a day or so,” he noted, “ but most of the trip will be solo.”

The flexibility of his job as Roaring Fork High School’s athletic trainer is enabling Henrichs to do all this. His two-day-a-week physical therapy shift at Valley View Hospital will be picked up by a student while he’s gone.

The man behind the trip

Henrichs, a Wisconsin native and graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Lacrosse, moved to Colorado five years ago. He’s spent four of those years in the Roaring Fork Valley, which suits his love for recreation and the outdoors.

Carbondalers are accustomed to seeing Henrichs pedaling around town on his mountain bike, which is what he’ll put to use in his fourteener excursion.

“I try to bike whenever I can around town,” he said. “Living in town makes it pretty easy.”

Henrichs also hits the local trails whenever life permits.

Those who know him, like Valley View Hospital Director of Rehabilitation Services Ross Peterson, aren’t surprised at the soft-spoken Henrichs’ summer mission.

“Andy is a very outgoing person, as far as his physical activities, anyway,” said Peterson, whose department staffs athletic trainers for both Roaring Fork and Glenwood Springs high schools. “He’s been doing fourteeners as long as I’ve known him here. He’s always been one that’s been active physically. For him, he found a cause he really believed in and it fit well with what he wanted to do.”

Peterson’s the man who hired Henrichs four years ago, and he’s more than thrilled with what he got.

“I’m very pleased with everything he’s done,” Peterson lauded. “He’s been a great addition to the department. Each sports season I have the coaches do evaluations of Andy on a scale of one to five and I always give Andy a hard time that he’s paying the coaches to do this. It’s always a five. He’s so well respected for what he does.”

It’s clear Henrichs applies a strong sense of dedication to all he does, whether it’s keeping local athletes in prime physical shape or setting out to circle Colorado and scale its skyscraping mountain peaks.

“When he puts his mind to doing something, he does it, whether it’s a fourteener or whatever it may be,” Peterson said. ‘He’s a soft-spoken person but once he puts his mind to it, he’s going to do it.”