10: Cuba to a high dry camp
Strava: 90.3 km, 2027m, 7:25, 318 shifts, 54.4 kph max
11: High dry camp to dry camp above El Rito
Strava: 75.7 km, 878m, 4:47, 160 shifts, 54 kph max
We got up at 6 and made a giant breakfast in our motel kitchen in Cuba. Daniel cooked up a dozen eggs with cheese and tomato and made bacon. We even baked croissants in the oven. Along with a couple of grapefruits, toast and yogurt with granola and blackberries, this was massive and great.
One thing was missing though, coffee for the coffee guys (all but me). So we rode out of town to a great little coffee shop Wytze had found while the rest of us slept the day before. After drinks and pastries there, we rode back to town then started up the route.
Just like leaving Grants, it started paved, so the first almost 20 km and 600m climb was “for free” again. Then up a gravel road. Just five km up was the most beautiful spot I think we’d seen yet. Rio de las Vacas is a small mountain stream, flowing through a meadow. We parked on the bridge and had snacks while we filtered four or five liters of fresh cool water.
Full up again, we headed on. As before, once over 2600m, the scenery becomes beautiful with flowers and fresh, green plants. Soon we were under the shadow of a thunderstorm so it was a little cooler. We heard lots of thunder but felt no rain. After quite a while we got to the first of the three summits, just over 3100m. Here the ground was wet and there were puddles. Daniel said we were pushing the storm. We considered camping but continued up the second and third summits. As I arrived at the final one, Wytze was there under a tree staying dry because it finally was raining.
We headed down in cold rain with jackets. There was another “informal campground” six km down so we headed for that. The road had turned to a comical rock pile so progress was slow. We passed an pickup truck with it’s front wheel broken off. But sure enough, the map was right and there was a nice campsite at the indicated spot.
Tents went up in the rain, and we started a big campfire. There was one stump that was our table and four seat-sized ones. We cooked dinner, experimenting with eight servings of seasoned couscous and a ton of tuna for the first course, then the old reliable eight servings of garlic mashed potatoes with another ton of tuna. And a chocolate cookie for dessert. Not bad!
After dinner I walked a few hundred meters to a spot with Internet so posted to Strava but was ready for bed and didn’t write up the blog.
We woke up in the morning late since we had a downhill day. Breakfast was oatmeal with fruit and nuts, then we headed off. The road quality did not improve much for a long way. But we were mostly coasting down, all the while so thankful that we didn’t have to climb this, supposedly the hardest single climb on the whole SOBO (Southbound) Great Divide.
It didn’t take long to get below the sweet zone into the dry zone, and then we kept descending. There were a few little climbs too, not easy on the rough road. Finally we came out to a valley and turned onto a smoother gravel road. This went down all the way to Abiquiu, quite low at 1800m. We passed a nice stream and rested a little but didn’t need water.
Down in town we checked out Bodes, the general store, but decided a nicer lunch was in order. One km down the paved road the route followed was the fancy Abiquiu Inn. We ate in their café, tasty sandwiches and tons of drinks. Mine: hazy IPA, lemonade and three or four glasses of water. Wytze volunteered to go back and buy groceries, he always is the Superman.
We laughed pretty hard when we saw what he bought. Besides the mountain of breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack foods he had a full sized pecan pie! He strapped it to his handlebars! And off we went. It was about 25 km on paved roads to the next town, tiny El Rito. While climbing up to it, the temperature dropped from above 36 to below 18 in seemingly five minutes as we passed under another thunderstorm. This one did unleash on us but not for too long. It was a wet climb into strong wind but “soon” we rolled up to El Rito.
It was about 3:30 and the one restaurant in town, El Farolito, wasn’t quite open yet. But soon we were welcomed into the tiny 43 year old place. We had a long relaxed big dinner and left after 5. They filled up our water bottles too.
We had picked out another “informal campground” on the map, nine km and 300m above town. The dusty road we took up had a nice surface and gradient and we soon found the spot. It was pretty, although a couple hundred meters below my favorite elevation. We set up tents and had a few snacks while looking at the map. I took a little walk to see if there was reception nearby, but no.
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