Not quite sure where to start. The last week has been crazy. It all started off with leaving Dewey's place outside of San Quintin. Dewey is the man that took Bobby, Alix and myself in for a traditional Thanksgiving feast and gave us free lodging. I've never eaten so much food, as fast as did that day. The three of us took off and again headed south along Hwy 1. We had food and water and were set to put down some miles. We rode for maybe 40-50km and as it was starting to get dark, we began looking for a spot to pitch tents. We came across a small dirt road that led to the beach. I went down to check it out, while Bobby and Alix stayed by the road. We do this just in case a spot turns out to be a dud for camping. Only one of us would waste time going off route. When I got back, with news of a choice site, Bobby and Alix were talking to a man who stopped to say hi. Craig, from New York. He sold his home, bought a van and is now touring around in it "living down by the river." Super cool guy! After talking for awhile, he wished us well and took off. We walked our bikes back down the dirt road and as we got to our stealth campsite, we saw Craig pulling up with his van. He decided to spend the night with us. I should note that he lives with four dogs that he's rescued over time in Baja. Really cool. They're adorable and didn't attack me :) We set up camp and spent the night eating some amazing pasta with Alfredo sauce made by Alix, from scratch. It was delicious! She's a very talented camp cook. Turned out that Craig is a kick ass musician and along with Bobby and Alix, jammed the night away and covered a few of my favorite songs. Awesome night. Basically camped on cliffs that overlooked the ocean. Was incredible.
The next day we said farewell to Craig, however we plan to meet up with him in El Ventana, where he's going to teach us to kite surf. Can't wait for that!! We set off toward El Rosario, which would begin a huge stretch of desert that lasts for almost 400km. There was a massive climb just before El Rosario, but it made way for the most fun descent ever!! At one point I hit 62km/hr, which is the fastest I've been, fully loaded, on a bicycle. It was greaaaat. We restocked our food and water and took off into the middle of nowhere. 124km to the next town. This desert was not flat or even close to it. Crap tons of elevation change and grueling climbs. We rode for another 15 or so Km and found our first stealth camp in the desert, named Valle de Los Cirios, for the awesome candle-like cacti that lived there.
From there, we kept riding toward a small town, San Agustin, which ended up being just a single, family home that sold water, coca-cola and snacks. We re-supplied our water here and kept pushing miles that day until we found our next site. This desert is a stealth campers dream! No fences and beautiful spots everywhere!
I can't remember what we did the next day, but it again included riding through the desert. We just rode and rode and rode. It was a adventure cyclists heaven and the reason why we do this. The plant life was incredible and I saw things I'd never seen before. A small scorpion under Bobby and Alix's tent one morning, a very cool and wicked looking lizard and a fox, which ran across the road just in front of Alix and me. Unfortunately Bobby was too far back to see it.
Geez, I'm struggling to remember the middle of the week. Anyway, at one point we came to a small town... there was no gas station, so folks just sat on the side of the road selling gas out of big 5 gallon jugs. Pretty crazy.
Yada yada yada we ended up in Chapala, where the three of us spent our last night together. Bobby and Alix decided to take a rest day, when I wanted to continue. We ate breakfast together the next day and I took off putting the pedal to the pavement, hard. I wanted to make it into Guerrero Negro from where we were in two days, which is a four day ride. That day I ended up riding 162km through hilly terrain, including a 45km detour to Santa Rosalillita. I met a guy from Arizona who told me the town had cell phone service and wifi. Boy did he steer me in the wrong direction. I got there with a few hours of light remaining for the day and when I was let down, I said "screw it" and headed back another 22.5km to the main highway. Once there, I rode for another 15km to El Rosarito and camped out. I was exhausted and fell asleep at 6pm.
The next morning (this morning) was a struggle. My legs were dead. As hard as I pushed, my legs just didn't want to work and they felt like mush. I yelled out loud at myself. "Come on Calvin! What the f*** is wrong with your legs!!." I stopped, took a deep breath, made food, smoked a cigarrette and attempted to start all over. It was so painful to push forward, but after an hour my legs warmed up and were feeling good. I spent most of the day fighting crosswinds that seemed to hate me. Despite the wind I was still able to average around 22-23 km/hr (remember, I'm on a single-speed). The last 40km of the ride, fortunately were flat as a pancake and the wind turned in my favor, helping to push me to my goal of getting to Guerrero Negro in two days. I made it!!! I found a hotel, took a warm shower and settled in. I have never been so proud of myself. I set a very difficult goal and destroyed it! I made it with hours left of daylight :) I posted the some pictures of this past week in a post before this one. Enjoy :) love from Mexico.
TumultuousHippie, out!
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