Jan 5--A Drizzle Day Into Ojos Negros

We woke to fog and mist this morning, and it stayed with us most of the day. We had a bit more climbing to do, then it was mostly downhill. The climbing was easy (no walking today), and the downhill was a blast. We caught up to Herb and Adam (Adam is Australian). Adam eventually rode ahead of us (he's a younger pup), but Herb stayed with Brent, Harry, and I the rest of the day.

We were all pretty wet from the mist. It was okay, warmth wise, while we were moving, but a little chilly when we would stop.

We came into Ejido Sierra Juarez, about 4.5 miles away from Ojos Negros. There was a small tienda. We went in and bought just a couple of snacks. I got a Coke and a pan dulce for 15 pesos (about $1.50). Then we rode the rest of the way in Ojos Negros.

This town is considered a major resupply. There are two abbarotes (grocery) as well as a few restaurants.

Because we were all pretty much wet and cold, we decided to stay in a hotel tonight. Herb rode over to check out the Hotel Del Real. It was 400 pesos for two double beds, and 350 for a single queen size. We had met Anna at the grocery. She is an almost 20 year old doing the ride, taking winter quarter off from Western Washington University. She's from Anchorage. Anyway, that made 6 of us (Brent, Harry, Herb, Adam, Anna, and myself), so we got three rooms. I offered to room with Anna since she didn't know any of the guys. We took the single bed room for 350 pesos (that's about $9 each). There are showers, but ours was cold (later we had hot water). There is wifi too, but all I seem to be able to do is check my email. Couldn't get the blog to post, or the photos to upload.

We went to an open air restaurant called Torreón.

I had two carne asada tacos, a carne quesadilla, and a horchata, all for the low price of 72 pesos! It was delicious!

After dinner we walked around the town. Harry and I got some pan dulce at one of the other grocery stores. Now we are back at the hotel enjoying electricity, and warmth. We ended up doing about 40 miles today. It was a good ride.

What We Came For!

This morning it was cold, but finally, blue sky! People started rolling out of tents earlier than the first day. Today we had just a mile and a half on the highway until we dropped onto the dirt. Pat, Harry, Brent, and I rolled out together. Herb was wanting to ride with us, but he was still eating, and we wanted to get going, as we had a lot of climbing. I could definitely feel the weight of the extra 4 to 5 liters of water I was carrying to get me through today and tomorrow. I got used to it though. We missed the turn off the highway, but as is the case with the Garmins, we caught it quickly.

We were riding on a perfectly packed sandy road. Sure, there were ruts and some mud, but overall the road was great. At one point, we came around a corner, and I could see a massive hill. Pat and Harry were ahead of Brent and I. I looked at my Garmin, really hoping that wasn't the way. Turns out, it wasn't! I yelled at Harry and Pat saying we were supposed to turn left. They came back, also relieved they didn't have to go up that wall.

We dropped into a canyon on a bumpy, rutted, and rocky descent. It was a blast! At the bottom, we rode on some fairly flat terrain for awhile. We came across a couple of camps of riders that had not stayed at Albergas Tenamo last night. They weren't leaving quite yet. We continued on. Eventually, we caught up to Marty. I was now getting nicely warm, and he was removing a layer. We all had a snack, and Marty and Pat took off a wee bit before us. That was the last we saw of them. We'd already had to walk up one steep rutted part. That was not easy, but it sure was easier pushing MC without all the weight and the panniers getting in the way!

We started climbing. Now we had to climb out of the canyon. It was okay. There were still some places we had to walk, but there were also parts that I was able to ride up, but Harry wasn't. I just have a lower gear, I think.

At just before noon, we stopped for lunch. A few riders came along. One was Patrick. He is doing a "Faces of the Baja Divide" photo project like the "Faces of the Great Divide" project. He took our photos, and took down our names, where we were from, and what bike we were riding.

We had done 20 miles before lunch, and we were pretty happy about that. We still had a lot of climbing to do, but we decided we would ride until 3:00, then find a campsite. I didn't think we would reach the top of the climb today, but we did.

We came down for awhile as we did not want to camp up at 4200 feet in the cold. We are still pretty high up, but we found an awesome campsite on soft leaf piled dirt. Several riders went by, but none opted to stop. Even Herb went by with someone else. I guess he won't be riding with us. Lael and
Nicholas also went by, and yelled, "Great campsite!" The younger people seem more comfortable riding later into the afternoon. We were happy to stop while the sun was still shining. Besides, we did almost 30 miles, so we should only have about 35 to Ojos Negros tomorrow, and most of it downhill.

I'm really enjoying the ride. Brent, Harry, and I are pretty evenly matched. Brent is working pretty hard on some of the hills, but he's still battling his cold, and I think he is carrying more weight than me. Even if I get ahead of him, he's never more than a couple minutes behind.

Tonight we are looking forward to a much quieter night without the whole group, and no traffic (okay, a truck just went by, but that's been the only one).

Today's ride was what we came to do--ride in sunshine, on dirt roads in Mexico!

Hola From Mexico!

Hola! We made it into Mexico!

We had a hot breakfast at Barrett Junction Cafe. All you can eat-- bacon, sausage, eggs, French toast, fruit... Nicholas gave us pointers for crossing the border, and various other announcements, including where tonight's camping was going to be for those who wanted.

We were all packed up before breakfast, so afterward, we were on the road quickly. We had 7 miles of pavement to the border. It was mostly climbing. We pulled up to the border, Brent, Harry, and I at about 10:00ish. We had to go inside to fill out a form, then take it to the cashier to pay for the tourist permit ($24.50), then return to the original guy to get our passports stamped.

Then we just walked through the gate to Mexico. Funny thing, there was a revolving gate. Harry took his bike through it, but it was very tight. I just waited until I heard buzzing, and pushed open a big gate. Brent and I wheeled our bikes through the gate, easy peasy. Welcome to Tecate, Mexico!

Our first order of business was to get pesos. I got $150 worth (3100 and some pesos). We asked for small bills--200 and under. Some of the shops in small towns can't break a large bill. After that, we went to an ATM to make sure our cards worked. They did. Then it was off to the mercado to get food for the next two days. That was interesting as we are not cooking. Totally different shopping. Since I already had quite a bit of food, I only got 2 oranges (naranja), 2 avocados, some tortillas, and a small can of refined beans. In US dollars, I paid $4.44. Cheap!

Then it was time to sample some of Tecate's tacos. We stopped at one of the many taquerias and had a taco de harina carne asada (beef on a corn tortilla). It also had a dollop of guacamole. It was delicious! Cost? The taco and a Coke--about $2.00.

We were to meet up with everyone in the Plaza for a welcome by the head of tourism in Baja California, Hector. They gave us each a bottle of water, and a reusuable shopping bag. Many didn't take the bag because they didn't have room. I had room. We took a group photo at the multicolored Tecate sign.

Then we came to the most important part of the day. Going to the Panaderia! There was an exceptionally good one just down the road. I got a pastry, a donut, and another pastry thing. It cost me all of less than a couple bucks (28.50 pesos--100 pesos is about $5.00). I ate one there, then strapped the rest on my bike.

By then, Brent, Harry, and I had picked up a fourth, Pat. He's about the same age as we are. We decided to head on to the camping place. On the way, we stopped at one of the few bike shops in Tecate, Dos Chinos. They asked to take a photo with the owner. I asked if they had any stickers of their shop. He didn't, but another guy says he's got one for me. He got it out of his car. Said the guy gave it to him last week. Awesome!

Back to riding, we headed out of Tecate. Tecate sits in a bowl. It was quite the climb to get out. Some of the streets were very steep. I mean...very steep! I made it up all of them, but it was a lung and thigh buster for sure! We even had a section of singletrack. Somehow, we missed a turn, and ended up I a guy's driveway. We were trying to tell him where we were going, but none of us could remember the full name of the campground. We knew it was on the highway, so he just opened his gate and let us out onto the highway.

We didn't have much more to go, but it was mostly up. Pat was ahead of us when we got to the
campground. I had remembered part of the name, so I knew we were here. The place is calledAlbergas Tenamos. It doesn't appear to actually be open for the season, but we are able to stay here. It's supposed to cost 100 pesos, but we don't know who to pay. It has several pools (but no water in them). Seems like a cool place if it was warm.

Speaking of the weather, it's been relatively cold. I think it was up to about 63 today. It cools off quite a bit in the evening. I'm still carrying the jacket that I took at the last minute.

It was a great day in Tecate. It is definitely a different world here. Lots of poverty, and lots of trash laying around. Also, lots of loose dogs. None chased us, but there were lots of dogs, even along the highway. Of course, they are all skinny, with their ribs showing.

Tomorrow we head out for two days before the next town. We'll have to carry two days of water. Supposedly, the water is drinkable. It's well water. We're gonna chance it. If not, well...I've got Imodium.

And, finally, since this is the last night the bulk of the group will be together, I feel a word is needed about the make up of the 90+ group of us. First of all, I am the oldest woman here. There was supposed to be a gal who is 62, but she cancelled at the last minute. I would say the bulk of the gals (if not all of them) are in their 20s. They say hi to me, but that's about it. The age range of guys varies more. There are, of course, the boys in their 20s, but there are those in their 30s too. There's a pretty good sized group of those in their 50s and early 60s. Those are the ones I'm hanging out with...Brent (of course I'm hanging out with Brent), Harry, Pat, Herb, and Jan. We are of similar age and ability (sort of). So, as much as I'm excited there are 20+ women riding, I'm going to hang with the guys...the older, more mature guys.

Adding photos is proving to be a major hassle. I will try to put up a post of photos when I have better wifi.

Following the Purple Line...Until We Didn't

Day 1 is done! We rolled into Barrett Junction at 1:30.

Although we got out of the KOA at 7:45, we didn't actually really get going on the route until a bit after 8:00 because we were trying to get our Garmins to do their thing. Finally, the purple line was visible, and we started following it. We stayed on a paved bike path for awhile, then we were on a dirt hiking path. As we were riding along, past a golf course, I noticed the little arrow was no longer following the purple line. We turned around and went back to the last street. That was the route. We were back on pavement until the end of the road where we picked up another dirt trail. Basically, the first half of the day was like that. Some road, then some path, then back to road, and so on. We missed a couple more turns, but the Garmin was quick to show we were going the wrong way.

Our second to last wrong turn was where we got onto a trail, but realized we needed to be on the road below. We rode back to where we could get onto the road. Then we came to the singletrack section. We could have just stayed on the road, but a guy there told us it was easy singletrack. The first part was not what I would call "easy". In fact, it was quite rocky. See the photo below.

Once again the arrow was not on the purple line. Oops...we turned around. We got back onto the paved road in the correct spot, and were on pavement the rest of the day.


So far, we hadn't seen any other riders. We knew we were ahead because they weren't leaving the start (8 miles back from where we started) until 8:00. We pulled into a cafe/store/Thousand Trails to have some lunch at noonish. Right behind us, Harry pulled in. He is riding from Prudhoe Bay to Argentina, and happened to be here in time to do the Baja Divide. He told us we weren't on the most current route. The route we were on would not take us over Otay Mtn. He said he was taking an easy day and staying on the pavement. We went in to the store and got some lunch. When we came out, and we're eating our lunch, riders started rolling in. More and more riders came in. We met Nicholas and Lael! Turns out, we were on the most current track after all. This was the turn to go over Otay Mtn. However, the climb over Otay was 3000 feet over 5 miles. With Brent still dealing with his cold, and me at the tail end of mine, and it being the first day and all, we decided to stick to the road. We still had 1800 feet to climb. It wasn't too bad. It was good we did the road though.

We came down a huge descent thinking we still had another 7 miles to go. Nope, the Barrett Junction Cafe was just at the bottom. I went in to the cafe to find that we weren't the first to arrive. Jon, from South Africa, was here, and also a couple other guys. We set up behind the restaurant. At about 3:00, the riders that went over Otay started rolling in.

Before dinner we got all the swag that Nicholas and Lael got from the various sponsors--everything from water bottles, tire plug kits, tons of energy gels, and even stroop waffles (my favorite). I didn't really take too much, only the things I thought I would really use. Also, earlier, they brought out some snacks, including small bottles of pickle juice. It's supposed to be great for muscle cramps. I took one to save for a muscle cramp emergency.

I'll end this for today, and post about the dinner tomorrow (or not, we'll see).

Too Few Winks, But We Made It!

Happy New Year! I'm sitting here at a picnic table in Chula Vista at the San Diego Metro KOA. The sun is shining, and there's not a cloud in the sky. I finally got more than just a few winks of sleep.

Brent and I left Olympia the morning of Dec. 30th. Brent's daughter, Emily, and son-in-law, Andrew, came with us to the Amtrak station in Centralia to drive Brent's truck back to Olympia. The Coast Starlight was late, but we were hoping for that (more on why in a moment). We got the tags for the bikes, and we were just carrying on the Chinese shopping bags, and panniers. I had put the things I wanted to have with me on the train into the panniers.

The nice station lady let us put our carry on stuff on the luggage trolley cart, while we scootered on the bikes all the way to the baggage car (the train had 14 cars). She was concerned that our tires would not fit on the bike hooks (apparently, Amtrak says no more than a 2.5" tire, ours are 3"). Fortunately, the guy managed to get them on the hooks. The gal gave us a ride back to our car, and we got on the train. Missions 1 and 2 (getting to the station, and getting on the train) were complete!
Now we just had a day and a half to sit on our butts, working our way south to LA where we would change trains to the Pacific Surfliner.

The train ride was uneventful except that, instead of getting progressively later, the train made up time, and we arrived in LA an hour early! In the last hours on the train, we ran several different scenarios as to what we would do once we got to LA. Because it was New Year's Eve, there was a big party going on at Union Station in LA. So, option one was to change our Surfliner tickets to the next morning, and just hang out at the station for the night. Problem was we didn't know if we would be able to hang out there the whole night. Plus, because we were getting in so early, it would have been a longer time. Another option we bantered about was getting the Surfliner at our scheduled time, then riding to a Denny's (or someplace else that was open 24 hours) and hanging out until we could go to the KOA. In the end, we decided to go ahead and get into Dan Diego at the ungodly hour of 1:00am, and just ride on to the KOA (8.1 miles from the train station). This was possible because I had been in contact with another Baja rider from Kansas who had decided to camp at the KOA too, and was interested in sharing a site. He had booked the site as he would be arriving the day before us. While on the train, I texted him to find out what site, and he also gave me the code for the gate. Had he not already been here, we wouldn't have been able to get in.

Once we arrived in LA, we were able to put everything on the bikes because we would just roll the loaded bikes onto the train ourselves, and put them in bike racks. By the time we got everything on the bikes, we only had 20 minutes before we were to return to the train platform to get on the Surfliner for our 10:10pm departure.

The Surfliner, being more of a commuter train, stopped several times between LA and San Diego. The announcer had something to say about each stop ("Ladies and gentlemen, we are now arriving at our next station stop of Van Nuys. Van Nuys, the suburban gem of San Diego! Our next stop, Van Nuys!"). It was quite humorous, but we were also trying to get just a little bit of sleep. Neither of us had slept much on the Starlight. We were both pretty exhausted. With station stops coming as often as every 10 minutes, sleep was somewhat elusive. We rang in the New Year while on the Surfliner just as we pulled into one of the stops...I think it was Oceanside, but my brain is a little fuzzy. Oh, we also met Herb from Ashland who is also doing the ride (that's how we found out they didn't allow tires bigger than 2.5" on the bike hooks. Herb had boxed his bike).

Just after 1:00am we pulled into San Diego. I had mapped our route to the KOA. Brent was using his headlamp, and I had thrown in my headlight at the last minute. Brent didn't have a tail light, so I rode behind him. After a few adjustments to stop Brent's Chinese shopping bag from rubbing on his tire, we made our way toward the KOA. Most of the time we were in bike lanes. For about a mile, we were even on a bike path along the Sweetwater River. It had been raining, so everything was wet, but it didn't rain while we were riding.

We arrived at the KOA at 2:00am. Luckily, there was a KOA employee who happened to be driving a golf cart as we came into the campground (I guess I should say Kampground). We asked him where site 1430 was. He said to follow him, and took us right to the site. If he hadn't done that, we would have been looking for a very long time. This KOA is quite large. Quiet as mice (very tired mice), we set up our tents, and finally crawled into bed around 2:45.

We met Marty this morning. We were up at 7:20. Today is a day for relaxing. I plan on taking a nap or two, and going to bed early! I also got a nice hot shower this morning! Tomorrow we begin!

T-Minus One Week Until the Baja Divide

T-minus one week until Brent and I head south to LA on the Amtrak Coast Starlight, then onto San Diego on the Pacific Surfliner. We'll be spending New Year's Eve on the train, arriving in San Diego on New Year's Day. We get to take advantage of Amtrak's new roll-on service for the long distance trains. As many of you know, who have read my blog before, I'm no stranger to rolling my bike on the train. The Amtrak Cascades trains have had roll on service for quite some time. The only limitation that still remains for the long distance trains is being unable to roll on at non-luggage stops. That means we can't get on in Olympia. We'll go to Centralia.

Brent and I are doing the Baja Divide. It is a 1700 mile route that crisscrosses the Baja Peninsula from Tecate to La Paz (including a loop around the end of the Peninsula and back to La Paz). The route has been developed by Nicholas Carmen and Lael Wilcox. It is 90% off-road. This is the inaugural group departure for the route. There are 97 people meeting in San Diego to depart January 2nd. We will spend our first night together in Barrett Junction before crossing into Mexico the next day. We will also likely spend a second night with many of the riders, camping just outside Tecate. From there, everyone is on their own. Although Nicholas and Lael are doing the ride, they are not functioning as leaders after Barrett Junction.

Both Brent and I are riding our Surly ECRs. Brent's is brand new. Mine, of course, is Mama Cass. MC got some new wheels for this adventure. It is required to run tubeless tires due to the multitude of thorns. The rabbit-hole rims that MC had could not be converted to tubeless (I guess it would be hard to seal all those big holes). Jason, at Joy Ride Bikes, managed to find me a reasonably priced set of Stan's Hugo wheels. Pair them with some Vittoria Bomboloni tires, and I've now got a great tubeless set up. For my non-bikey friends, tubeless means that instead of a tube in the tire, there is a sealant. The sealant is a liquid that will seal small punctures such as those from thorns and goat heads. The tire bead is securely seated on the rim, and the spoke holes are covered with a sealing rimstrip. The valve stem is also sealed on the wheel. Maintaining the tubeless set up will be the primary concern on this route. To that end, we are carrying a tubeless patch kit as well as a tire plug kit and extra sealant.

For this ride, I'm going with a hybrid bikepacking system. I'm using Revelate Designs bikepacking bags, and my Ortlieb Sportpacker panniers. The Sportpackers usually go on a front rack, but for this tour, they are going on the rear rack. I'm taking far less gear than I did on the Great Divide. My cooking gear is staying home, and I'm not taking as many clothes. Here's a rundown of what is where. Starting with the front of MC, the Salsa Anything cages on the front fork, with the 4-liter dry bags will carry food. Hanging from the Jones handlebar will be the Revelate Sweetroll containing my sleeping bag, sleeping pad, pillow, and pack towel. In the pocket attached to the Sweetroll, will be small things like my wallet, sunglasses, sunscreen, chamois cream, etc. Tucked between the pocket and Sweetroll will be a section of Z-rest pad for sitting on, and placing under my sleeping pad for protection from any thorns I miss when setting up my tent. I'll have two Mountain Feedbags for water bottles attached to the handlebar (a third bottle will be on the underside of the downtube). The Revelate framebag (in the main triangle of MC) will have my repair kit, chain lube, pump, 1st aid kit, and maps. The Gas Tank top tube bag will have my camera, Bluetooth speaker, pocket knife, and multi tool. The Jerry Can (on the top tube below the saddle) will hold my headlamp and charge cords. The Vascacha seat bag will hold all my clothes. The rear panniers have my tent and stakes (the poles will be on top of the rack), toiletries, iPad mini, my collapsible bowl and cup, my spork, my new, slimmer profile Crocs, and water containers (6-liter dromedary bag, 2 1-liter Platypus bags, and a 2-liter Platypus bag). I'll be able to carry the water in the panniers, as there is plenty of room. That's pretty much it. I haven't weighed it all, but I'm sure it's much less than what I carried on the Great Divide.

                                          All that is missing in this photo is the bike!

One major change for this tour is in navigation. I'll be using a Garmin eTrex 20 with the GPX tracks downloaded. I'm using this Garmin because it uses AA batteries. My Garmin Edge Touring might be better, but it has to be charged daily (I'm only taking my external battery for charging my iPad and camera--I'm not taking my solar charger). The paper maps I have will be mostly used as an overview, and backup.

I'm not thrilled with my level of fitness right now. With a seemingly colder (and more icy) than usual winter, and now a nasty cold virus, I've not been able to ride as much as I usually do. The first few days will probably be pretty rough. The first day will probably be one of the longest mileage days as we ride from San Diego to Barrett Junction, CA.

One final note regarding this blog. Blogger has yet to update the app for iOS. Therefore, whenever I try to write a post, it quits. I will have to use the website instead. Since I normally compose blog posts offline, I'll have to compose in the Notes app, then copy and paste. I think it will work (in fact, I'm doing it with this post to make sure it does work). I'm not sure how much access to wifi I will have, but I'll do my best to keep you all informed. Also, if you normally access my blog through Facebook, you might want to sign up to receive posts by email. It seems that publishing from the Blogger website does not automatically share to Facebook. If you sign up to follow by email (the widget is on the blog page at www.superbikerwoman.blogspot.com), you will only receive an email when there is a new post. Blogger does not send any other emails.

So, t-minus one week, which includes Christmas. I'm sure the time is going to fly by. I hope this cold I have flies by too!!!

Joyride Gravelpalooza ala Polar Vortex

Finally, I made it to a Joyride gravel ride! My touring and traveling has conspired against my being able to do these gravel rides. Not today!

Due to the weather being bone-chilling cold (for the Pacific Northwest anyway). Cam, wisely, altered the route to have less elevation, and a shorter distance. We started at the Kennedy Creek Trailhead. I rode over to Karen's, and we drove out to the trailhead. I was pretty sure I knew where it was, but when we arrived, no one was there. Just when I was about to suggest maybe going further down the road, Brian showed up. He's from the shop, so I knew we were in the correct place. Bit by bit more people started arriving, until we had a great group of 21 people! Today, there were a lot of mountain bikes. Also, something different this year is the amount of bikes with bikepacking bags on them. I know a few guys are getting ready to do some bikepacking, and are trying out their gear. But, some are using the bags to carry food, water, and extra clothes specifically for the day's ride.

We headed up the gravel, crunching through frozen puddles, and at times riding through an inch dusting of dry snow. I remembered to let some air out of my tires (I totally forgot on last Sunday's chick gravel ride), so the riding was pretty smooth without any slipping. I had been this way before, but at one point, I think we went straight, instead of turning, because we ended up coming out to an intersection from a different direction. While we were regrouping, eating, etc, Derik and Deb caught up to us. They had not started with us, but managed to find us. So, now we were 23 riders!

When we got to the turn to go either up, or around, we all decided to go up.

The problem is not the climb, it's the descent down the other side. It's much more steep than going around. It was questionable as to how much snow we might encounter. Turns out is was no more than what we'd already been through. Although the descent was steep, it was not bad. The scenery was pretty decent too.

At the bottom, we were back on the road we had been on at the beginning.

Total mileage was around 12, but it was a great 12 miles!