Epic Bike Ride Day 11 June 6

Thoughts from Kelly: Well, at about 1:30 am I was awoken by some strange noises that I couldn’t identify.  I woke up Mark and we listened for awhile.  I heard grass being pulled, some digging sounds and heavy breathing.  At first I thought javelinas but the breathing was so loud.  Then I figured it was cows since we did see some cow patties before we went to bed.  It was very dark but out my window I could see a cow outline, so assuming we were safe, we went back to sleep.  I woke up about 6am and looked out the window to see around 15 cows in the gorgeous meadow.  What an interesting experience to sleep in a cow pasture! Although we woke up early, we still didn’t hit the road till 10:45 since we had to drive back into Cuba.  It was already above 90 so we were looking forward to being back in the mountains for todays ride/drive.  Mark was not looking forward to the 2500 feet of climbing in 10 miles but he crushed it! I feel like he is getting a lot stronger, but that’s easy for me to say as I am leisurely driving behind him in the truck.  One of my favorite parts of the day was stopping at a creek and doing some dishes and laundry with the fresh water (all our soaps are biodegradable, in case you were worried).  After lots more ups and downs, mainly ups we found a nice spot of BLM to camp for the night.  As we were enjoying the area, more cows came passing by, maybe we will hear more eating at 1 am!

Thoughts from Mark:  The first ten miles were simply brutal!  The last 6 or 7 miles of these 10 were 8-10 percent grade, and I was “spinning to nowhere” again at 4-6mph.  With all of the switchbacks, it truly felt like the climb was never going to end.  Each time I came to the end of one curve, there was another section, still going up.  It gave me lots of time to think, and most of the thoughts were “Why am I doing this?”  At least once the climb was over, it felt like I had accomplished something, although there are certainly easier ways to spend 90 minutes.  The rest of the ride brought us back onto the dirt/unpaved roads, and some of them were in better condition (easier to ride) than others.  An interesting day overall, and I certainly felt more confident, since I didn’t have to hike-a-bike any of it.

Miles for the day: 33.75 Feet climbed today: 4,564

Total miles ridden: 518.44 Total feet climbed: 30,662