Day 4 Pt. 2

Hellloooo from Ensenada. I'm far behind. The highways here are undergoing a heap of changes and its affected my route in a big way. HW 1D is a toll road that doesn't allow bicycles, runs south along the coast and is now considered the "scenic route," which makes the regular HW 1 a pain in the ass. Regular HW 1 is free, runs through the inland mountains and quadruples the distance between where I started today and where I needed to finish. Anyway, I wasn't discouraged, in fact, I was stoked to get away from the very populated coastal highway. That soon changed...

I took a short break about an hour into my ride today, with hopes to let the rain pass. It did, but not for long. As soon as I came to the peak of the mountains I had to pass, I was absolutely pissed on with rain and wind. No shelter was anywhere in sight. I put my poncho on... then immediately took it off. It turned me into a kite. I kept riding through the decent, which proved very intimidating and scary. Three mud slides were between me and Ensenada. They washed right over the highway, falling off of very high cliffs. At one point, the mudslides pushed the guardrails over the edge, leaving nothing to protect against a very long fall and possible death. I had to hike my bike, basically leaning on the mountain, letting the mud pour on me, like walking underneath a waterfall, but of mud. The road was covered in maybe 1-2 inches of mudflow and crossing it was terrifying. It was slippery and felt like walking through a river. If I had slipped, I wouldn't be here.

One man and another group of three stopped and offered to help and even a ride. I wanted to push through. These are the experiences I want. Life or death, it's better to be challenged. I kicked today's ass after it tried so hard to kick mine.

I didn't take any pics of the mudslide. I was too white-knuckled and the last thing to cross my mind was to stop and snap a few. So, sorry. However, I did take some good ones. Enjoy :) bye for now.