It has been a busy month for the Whetstone community. Some good things like Adventure Week, a graduation with a young man able to go home with his family and a staff members’s family grew in number with a birth of a baby girl. There has also been some bad things. We lost a ranch truck in a flash flood. It had gotten stuck coming through a sandy portion of the river bottom in 2″ of water that swelled to 2′ of water in a couple of minutes. Fortunately no one was hurt and it was insured. A couple of weeks ago the main air conditioner for the house finally died. One can only imagine 9 sweaty boys plus a couple of staff members coming back from a two mile run, the heat index approaching 100 degrees and the house is hot. It did not smell pretty. It took about nine days for the unit to be replaced but it is running well and everyone in the house is happy again.

There is a point to this and it is that we had to put the A/C unit on a payment plan for a few months. This got me to thinking about what I could do to help the ranch out even more. One of the joys of my life is to be able to ride my bicycle to work and to many other places. Over the years I have ridden in a variety of cycling events that were fundraisers and have raised thousands of dollars that way. So I thought how I could use my love for cycling to benefit the ranch.

 

So this August 10th, I am returning to La Veta, CO for the annual Stonewall Century ride. It’s a 104 mile out and back event that has an elevation gain of around 7500 feet. The ride starts In La Veta (7100 ft) (and climbs to Cuchara Pass at 9,995 feet and drops to Segundo (6500 ft) and then reverses. The last mile and a half up to the pass is over 10 grade and has a fun 17 mile run to finish in La Veta.

If you would like to be a part of helping out Whetstone Therapeutic School and Ranch, please go to the website: whetstoneboysranch.com and click the donate button.

In September, I plan on riding in another century ride in St. Charles MO. I’ll post more about that after this ride.

Missouri has about 16 century rides per year and I would love to partner with you in benefiting Whetstone. I will also ride in this particular century ride each year ‘just because’.

 

Thanks for perusing,

 

Gary