Salida

Meeting up with Chris (far right) was great!

Jake and I had an undisturbed night – when stealth camping there’s always a chance you’ll get woken up by some undesirable. We both slept with our knifes and Mace at the ready! As it was by 05:30 it was daylight and we set about decamping and boiling up water for coffee and porridge ….same every morning!! By 8 we were on the road towards Salida…but first we went to a small cafe serving breakfast so we had more food and coffee for the long road ahead. We knew we had one big pass to climb over so got the early miles in before a stop at a tiny hamlet at the foothills of the pass. Once girded with coke and enough sugar crap to sink a ship we hit the climb. It was 15 miles to the top so we declared we’d stop every 5 miles to break it down. As it was it was a steady climb not really pitching up more than 4%. It was just long. But mile by mile we wrestled it in to submission, cresting the summit after an hour and a half. What a relief that was! Now for the decent. A whopping 7 miles to a picnic area. We cleared that in 15 minutes. It was glorious, as it was dry….the last decent like that was in the sleet in to Horca. Jake located a sublime picnic area next to a stream, where we had lunch whilst putting our feet in the freezing river….such a relaxing feeling! We then headed in to Salida ….still downhill! We popped in to a 2nd hand outdoor shop as we needed new thermal liners for the sleeping bags, but alas there was none there. And when I came out….my back tyre was dead flat. I somewhat lost the plot. That’s 7 punctures in a few days. I had done my research and bought what were reputed to be the leaders in gravel tyres! Wrong! I had lost all faith in them. Jake headed off to his camp site while I sulked all the way to my hostel, riding a flat back tyre the final 2k. 

I booked in to my dorm based hostel, showered then went to the local bike shop to hit up two new tyres. That blew my budget! But there’s no worse feeling in not trusting your tyres. Once back at the hostel I threw the tyres on and ditched the crap Vittoria tyres…even tho they were practically new, only a 1000 miles.

The hostel is right in town so I had a quick walk about -quite a funky place. Tomorrow I’ll go explore! Had some pasta and tuna – same as every night, but having blown my weeks budget on tyres and accommodation it’s gonna be bread and jam for a week!!

Zero day (again!)

I had a pretty good sleep bar some snorer in the dorm and a bed that would make a Marshmellow feel like concrete. despite my best efforts I was awake around 5:30 and couldn’t get back to sleep! So I grabbed some coffee and arranged to meet up with Jake and wonderfully, Chris, the guy I had started out with 4 weeks ago. He was in Salida the past two days and was heading off today. We grabbed coffee and shared war stories of the mountains and weather. Chris headed off around 10, and so Jake and I pottered around the old town of Salida, which has a wonderfully chilled vibe with loads of adventure shops to burn a hole in any hiker or biker! The afternoon was spent exactly how zero days should be…..doing absolutely nothing! But at some point we had to think about tomorrow’s return to the gravel, rocks and mountains. The next stage will be to Hartsel, around 50 miles direct north. Only problem is….remember that glorious downhill yesterday…Salida is in a valley so….we have a monster of a climb outta here. It’s apparently the toughest climb of the Divide as it’s 14 miles, all gravel and rocks, ranging from 4% to a whopping 12%. That’ll be a three hour haul, and it starts immediately- no run in, straight on the climb from the hostel. After that it settles down for the trail to Hartsel with 20k of crappy washboarding as a finale. Not sure if we will do it in one day or two – what will be will be. We are preparing for 2 with water and food (there’s no water the entire 50 miles). Gonna be a blast 

And the BEST bit of the day……my Niamh called me and we were able to chat for a good hour. She’s home from school with Covid 😥. So good to see her laughing smiling face. Get well soon Niamh’s-noos’