09/17/2023 Bikepacking Spain Day 40 : Days Like These

Pushing, pushing. All for the views!

Janet and I met mountain biking. And this is where we are happiest too. I could feel the happiness rising all day long as the scenery got increasingly amazing. Also, Janet was riding particularly strong today. I was walking back down the hill so I could push her bike up for her (I had just pushed my bike up this steep 20% pitch)…. And then I find her riding up the same section I had just walked! Such a great day today. —

Days like these! Yesterday, we took a gamble. Originally we planned to ride the Teleferico at 8am and do the hike today. In spite of the all day sun prediction, it was raining pretty hard all morning. We were grateful that we went out on a limb and did the hike yesterday. Plus, this afternoon the sun came out and it was superb! I had to cull something like 70 photos. You know it’s a beautiful day when that happens! --

Today as an experiment, I turned on the “smart water notification” on my GPS. I tried to drink whenever it told me to do so. By the end of the day, It said I should have consumed 6.5 water bottles. Are you really supposed to drink that much?! I only managed to gulp down 3, but that is still way more than I usually drink. Im trying to see if better hydration will quell my regurgitation issues which were really bad again last night. --

Traditional houses for this region. Wonder if this is for flooding? —

A short video of us on a "via ferrata". We just did this little bit, but someday I want to do one of these. It's like rock climbing with "Tibetan bridges" (as they are called here). It is well protected with fixed cables that you hook into for protection (so you don't need a belayer). By the way, speaking of strange names, they call cattle guards here "Canadian Crossings". Funny. --

Took some side trails into town. We had a booking at the gateway to a trail we want to do tomorrow, but check in was not until 5pm. In the end, I’m glad that we had “time to kill” because we ended up seeing all sorts of cool stuff along the single tracks we might have skipped. When we arrived at the booking, though, they didn’t have the room we booked. Instead it was a windowless room with a skylight. They were polite enough, but actually trying to talk us out of staying there! We got the message, and went around looking at another place asking them to hold the reservation in case we came back. Of the remaining hotels, one had space, but when we asked to see the room (just to make sure it was going to be OK) the man insisted that we look at the photos online. Of course there isn’t any cellular down in this deep valley. I couldn’t believe he was serious - but he was unwilling to show us the room. He said, “the rooms are good.” After a lot of checking at other hotels, we went back to the original booking, but now they insisted that our bikes would be stolen and we were not allowed to bring them inside. No one wanted us, so we just went up the hill and found a beautiful campsite by the creek. Why did we want a hotel again?? Oh yeah.. it is supposed to rain all night and all day tomorrow. —

I am in the tent when I hear Janet do a two part scream. It’s accompanied by the sound of a large rock falling. Terrified, I run out of the tent yelling, “are you ok!!!??” There is no reply, and I can’t see her. I run to the bank of the creek and finally find her hunched over - on her feet and looking down. “Where is my phone?” She asks. I see blood all over her face and gasp. Then I remind myself to play it cool so she won’t be scared. I am trying to review her injuries, but she keeps asking about her phone! I find it in the creek - easy to find under water because it is still lit up - on camera mode. Apparently, Janet had been dissatisfied with her original photo of the campsite and backed up to the edge of the creek on a rock that gave way. She dropped 3 feet falling backwards into the water. Thank goodness we have that first aid kit because it has been getting a lot of use. Her entire face was covered with blood - even going into her eyes. It looked pretty gnarly but once we washed it all off, we realized that all of the wounds were actually superficial. Whew! In those moments of panic when I couldn’t find her, I was reminded of how important Janet is to me and was so relieved to see her OK. Oh, and her phone is fine too. Now she believes me that it is actually waterproof (I had been trying to get her to take more aqueous photos in Mexico)! --

Beautiful photos. Amazing swings and excitement in the vibe of the day. Not the best way to build confidence in the waterproofing of her phone.

Corrine L.