08/30/2023 Bikepacking Spain Day 22 : Cirque Sans Soleil

Proof that Wunderground has a sense of humor. See, Janet is even laughing! 😂 (Those aren’t tears of laughter, they are rain drops) 🌧️

The morning started well - with only light rain. The weather forecast had us thinking today would be the same as yesterday with only 0.25” of rain. ☔️

So Far so good!! 👍

400 vertical feet (and less than a horizontal mile), we took a break. The first 30 minutes of riding are often nasty for me. I use insulin for breakfast… which I need… but it becomes 100x stronger during certain types of exercise; this was one of those types. Once you put insulin in your body, you can’t take it out, so you’re stuck with that plan. It’s kind of like trying to apply the Old Testament to modern day life. Luckily, there was a magnificent place to stop and get out of the rain. A very friendly woman - the first Francophone we met who wanted to practice English with us. At this point, we were both happy to oblige! She told us that although all the signs said the pass we were about to cross was closed, it was only “Administratively closed,” but physically open. ☕️

I used a photo editing program to give you an idea of how my vision is when my glucose drops low - below 50. It’s hard to see or read anything in the middle. Plus, you’re famished-starving and the only thing you can focus on is eating - but you need to be careful. You feel like eating a 5 course meal… but all you need is a bit of sugar the size of your pinky nail to get out of it. If you eat a whole slice of bread, that’s actually too much sugar (unless you continue to exercise).. and then you get too high a little later. I got high twice today - Getting high isn’t as bad, but it feels like pins and needles in your hands and feet and nausea and fever. There is some variation in how the lows and the highs feel; oddly, no two are exactly the same. 🍎

We knew that our route turned into a dirt trail. Luckily, it was the kind of soil that doesn’t form too much mud. We considered trying to find a way around - and saw a gravel road on the map. But the difficult hike-a-bike only threatened to be one mile and we decided to do that instead. —

I have this way of thinking of distance: A quarter mile is only “one lap around the track.” I constantly make the mistake of using this methodology to convince myself that 0.25 miles of hike-a-bike isn’t that far to push. So far, it’s not possible for a human to live forever, but imagine what it would be like if you stacked a hundred of these “quarter miles” back to back. Your life would seem like it went on forever! This may be the closest you’ll ever come to immortality! Here we observe Janet bracing against the wind that is driving rain into every weak spot in her clothing. 😇

Fortunately, there was no question about whether or not we would ride the downhill. I would do laps to help Janet with her bike. She didn’t need help, but I wanted to do whatever I could to ameliorate her suffering. Eventually, we came to a paved road, and when we did, I got out my phone, sheltered the screen as best as possible, and found an all-paved, all-downhill route to a town that might have shelter. Luckily, when we arrived, there was a sign for a hotel. We went straight in, and after 25 minutes the woman managed to copy our passports, figure out our names, make a card key, inform us that the cost to park the bicycles was $5 each in addition to the room. I think that the influx of eBikes has led to this paid bicycle parking in Europe, as this is not the first time we have seen it. A cold, wet cyclist is like an broken ATM that just dumps out cash on demand. 🏍️

I’m sure there is a beautiful cirque down there somewhere! 🐎

Well, today had a little bit of everything, except for sun. In fact, the first part - the long climb - was the most fun. I wish we could have seen that ridge top view, and I’m thankful we just kept going and you rerouted us down to town. And pushed my bike up and down the hard parts! 💕

Ann L.