Today was the hardest day since I've been back on the divide, and I would argue one of the hardest days I've done on the ride. Well, difficult maybe is a better word. Things were much harder last year before I was able to learn the lessons that the Divide taught me. Extreme difficulty doesn't hit me like it did in my earlier days last year, when I was considering quitting due to extreme difficulty and misplaced expectations.
It's thundering again. It's day six and it's thundered every day. The Divide is giving me a hell of a show this year.
Today was only 50 miles but almost 6 hours on bike, and I travelled from 7:30 to 4:30. I took few breaks, and walked on most of them. When things are hard just moving forward make them easier, even if it's super slow.
The main killer was the first 24 mile climb, 1k feet of climb on pavement in 12 miles, and the second 12 miles was 3k feet of climb on rough roads. Today I reached the highest point on the entire Divide at nearly 12,000 feet, and did one of the hardest (if not the hardest) climb. The last 12 miles took me almost 3 hours. 12 miles tick of slowly when you are going 4 mph with maximum effort. The steepness did waver some though, and eventually I started treating the miles as individuals. Mile 19 was nice and had some flat sections. Mile 21 had great views. Mile 16 was an asshole and I walked much of it. They live up there, and will play with the next rider who comes by.
After that I had about 15-20 miles of rolling hills on rough roads (like, ROUGH, Montana rough) and amazing amazing views. This may have been one of the prettiest days ever. Super difficult. Super worth it. There's another Divide lesson, the harder days are often prettiest (but not always, the Divide is also a jerk sometimes like that ugly day in Montana with terrible roads, mediocore views, and a headwind that kept me going only 5mph at maximum effort for almost 50 miles.)
This ride was extra hard because I was carrying 4 days of food and 6 liters of water, since I couldn't filter any today. (It was cool weather though, so I had more then enough)
Why is the water bad? Natural reasons, actually, but also the Summitville mine Superfund site. The rivers in the area were already effed because of the natural heavy metal mineral composition of the area. It got SUPER effed though when they switched from normal mining to open pit mining and started trying to leach out the gold with cynanide, and that all leaked and now there is cynanide in the rivers as well as way more heavy metals than before since the mountain is now an open pit. Good job, douchebags.
The entire 15-20 miles of rolling hills I was waiting for a map promised long downhill before I had to climb another 3 mile end of day pass. When if finally arrived they were doing road contruction on it, so the already super rough road turned into a super loose rough road that was very sketchy to ride down. I burned a lot of brake today. That'll teach me to look forward to things that aren't sure things. You'd think a downhill would be a sure thing - but nothing out here is.
Speaking of, Platoro is a pretty cool town. I headed in to eat at a diner and inquire if the water is safe (it is!) and then was going to backtrack a mile to a forest service campsite, but that was closed so I'm in town at a $15 camp site. That's alright though, I got my first shower and they have a divide registry that's neat to look though. This town is mostly a summer town for people from one particular part of Texas, it's trailers and cabins and what not, and the town shuts down in the winter as everything is buried to the roofs in snow and they just leave.
Tomorrow I think I'll hit New Mexico! I spent much of the afternoon with a Warren Map (the best of the generic paper maps) that I bought this morning to figure out paved alternatives since most of New Mexico roads aren't rideable when wet (and it's wet so far...) The Adventure Cycling maps mentions the alternatives, but doesn't map them out at all. So, either I get the ride as planned (I hope) or I do some sketchy bypass routing on my own with no knowledge of water sources, town sizes, real distances, places to stay, or mountain passes, since no cell service.
It's not technically the Divide, but everyone has to do it when it rains, so it still kind of is. Either way, a pretty great adventure!
Side note, the thunder storm now has sunset clouds in it, it's a THUNDER SUNSET!
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