In dusty Colonet, we found a nice hotel in middle of nowhere about a mile out of town. Lucas and Franco were the cook and waiter. Very nice folks, great Margaritas, and Chris and I shared Molcajete dinner meal with cactus too! Sooo tasty!

Next day made 10 of 36 by 930am. Felt happy about that! It got a lot harder… Crossed a stream 20 times, shoes all wet repeatedly. Sometimes knee deep, but refreshing!

Stopped for lunch near a stone stacker guy’s place. Nice dogs he had there. 

Boy, it a lot hotter after lunch! Over 85′. 

Well this difficult day was only going to get more difficult. At a point where I was behind Chris, I crossed the steep little gully which puts a lot of torque on the bike frame and bounces everything.

Somehow I dropped one whole pannier in that gully crossing and didn’t notice it. 

We were climbing, some cycling and some pushing for 90 minutes all uphill before I realized the bag was missing. It was when we stopped partway up a huge hill where there was a little bit of shade available. I laid the bike down and it wasn’t until after I was sitting in the shade and looked over with astonishment and realized I only has one pannier! Choice words were blurted. I had no choice but to drop everything else off the bike, and go back and try and find it. 90 minutes and six extra hardass miles added to my day. Chris waited patiently. 

Those extra miles really took it out of me, I was already working at my maximum every day anyway, this was just the icing on the cake or some other bad metaphor. Super steep shit pushing the bike a lot toward end of day. 

Saint Chris gave me gel-packs and an apple. It helped a lot!!

Got to El Coyote, a remote ranch kind of place that apparently hosts yoga folks, about 630pm. Total exhaustion. No cabins available. Yoga people occupying all of them. (Same thing happened on GDMBR after a very long day hoping for a cabin!) We got there in time for a simple burrito din and a cold beer, so all was not lost. Set up camp after dark, chilly but not super cold. It is a crystal clear night, stars in abundance, full moon lighting the ground brightly! So very beautiful! I will sleep very well!

Leaving El Coyote I was very hopeful it would be mostly downhill for the 36 miles back to sea level. Not to be… And while there were some great stretches of good track through great scenery, the spirit of the day was dominated with more stupidly steep arroyos that we had to push up, ride down the next one, push up again, over and over. Rocky steep arroyos. We started both pushing one bike up at a time. We were traveling at approximately 1mph through all that crap. At one point we missed a turn onto a track that we had to push uphill 1/4 mile again to get back to the trail. (That was heartbreaking.) Then it was super steep down and so rocky, walking the bike down was sometimes necessary. 

All day I was reflecting on the endless difficulty, that Chris was so kind to help me along, but I was slowing him down, and Tom Dave were at least a full day ahead. At some point during the day I reached the realization, after ten days of super difficult riding, knowing the route was NOT going to get any easier according to the descriptions, that it was time for me to pull the plug on this endeavor. 

Ultimately, I don’t want to be struggling every single day, and I came to believe it would continue to be that for me. Not wanting to be absent for the birth of Rory’s daughter weighed in too. Most certainly I have reached my lifetime limit of riding/pushing up steep as hell f’n arroyos!

So now the main task at hand is to get Chris reunited with Dave Tom so he can continue the route. That is the mission now… We have a plan, but Dave needs to look at his phone in the am!

On arrival in Vicente Guerrero at sunset, we found a hotel, and near it was the best taco stand ever! A great finish to a tough as hell day. Back at the hotel I informed Chris of my decision to bail, and he gets it after seeing me struggle for days. He has been saintly, helping me along at every turn. He is a very good man I’m thankful to be friends with. He was not overly surprised at my decision…

The following morning, we worked it out so with Salvador at the bike shop here that Chris would get a ride down to where Tom and Dave were, about 45 miles south.

I will catch a 5:30 AM bus to Tijuana, cross the border on my bike, head to a bike shop and try to get it packed up and get on a flight Wednesday evening. Feel like the dog with his tail between his legs, but such is life and acknowledging one’s limitations…

In retrospect of course as is my nature, I second-guess the termination decision, I know the next two days were probably decent riding, but there was 120 mile stretch coming up after that, back into the mountains, probably four days worth of cycling without a water source, meaning we would have to carry at least 12 L. The advantage of stopping here is bus service and that simplified the decision I guess. I sure appreciated riding with Chris as I was with him alone most of the ten days, he is a good soul and every bit a saint in my book.

In contrast, the continental divide trip two years ago, with some exceptions, was dominated by roads or trails that were built to be driven on, though rarely seeing any traffic, but the grades were usually reasonable. Not the case here, and that’s what wore me out here every day. Shoulda woulda coulda trained harder better faster next time…

I took very few photos the last couple of days as riding and resting seemed to be everything.

All photos should be here… Copy and paste if the link doesn’t work. 

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gyzd4257opyqq94/AAABiB4sWZQcfSyjf5ccEOwia?dl=0
Buenas noches Baja, for now…