10/04/2023 Bikepacking Spain Day 57 : Back to the Good Stuff

Time to leave Jaén after one day rest. Actually, it’s not really a rest. I spent all day yesterday trying to prep the gear for the next leg. I went shopping all over. Fabric treatment for the tent, new chain, lubricant, cable repair, replace lost arm coolers, searching for a replacement Leatherman PS4, searching for backup insulin injectors. Get a new screen protector for the phone. I tend to be the type to worry about supply issues, so some of that was more than necessary…. Also, I tend to seek the highest quality and durability stuff I can get. At home, it’s easy: place an order. On the road, you have to take what you can get. With gear, details matter. It seems like there is always a replacement part somewhere, but a good product will last years, and some of this replacement stuff I end up buying ends up being trashed in a week. As a result, I carry more and more stuff from home on these very long tours. —

Back to the good stuff! Cliffs, mountains, steepness, springs flowing out of the mountains. It’s what I love! So glad that Janet and I decided to take the train to skip the low Oak Woodlands. (No offense Quercus!). —

About the shopping trip.. I brought my phone into a shop with a small crack in my screen protector. I showed him the phone and asked if he had any that fit my phone (it’s a pretty old one so seemed unlikely that he would). He grabs the phone out of my hand and immediately removed the protector! I’m a bit worried because a damaged protector is better than none. He starts putting on a new one, but because of the curved screen, the new lower quality protector doesn’t lie down on the edges like the old one. I start to mention that, but again he doesn’t wait… just pulls off the protector that he put on… tosses it, and puts on a different brand. Same problem. He announces that the first one was 5€ and the second was 8€, so he will only charge me 5€. A good enough deal for me.. I felt bad about wasting protectors…. But that is how it goes. This seems to be a theme in Spain; the workers are a little quick to act, maybe without all the information.. like the pushy guy who put on my bike stem extender (like that rise a lot by the way)… —

Respect the mountain! —

The mountains in Spain have a lot of recreation areas - this bridge takes you to access picnic areas and all the secret trails that traverse the majestic landscape. —

Happy to see water again! This fountain had lots of tadpoles living in the bottom. I like seeing fragile life forms living in the water. Makes it feel safe. —

I’m now using two scientific principles to keep my insulin safe. The first was using a vacuum bottle that worked well enough in hot (90F) humid environments. These places feel really hot to people, but to insulin, it is still 90F. When it goes over 100F, it might not feel as hot as 80F with humidity.. but to insulin, it’s still 100F. The vacuum bottle really slows down the temperature delta. I tested this by leaving a Wi-Fi thermal sensor inside and putting the thermos in the 100F sun at home. It takes hours to get warm inside - but it does eventually reach equilibrium with the ambient temp. The new addition is that I put two socks on the outside and keep them wet. The evaporative cooling means that the thermos exterior is actually a lot cooler than the surrounding air, this dramatically slowing the temperature rise inside. If all goes well, this insulin needs to last another 130 days outside of a refrigerator. If it works, I plan to post about this strategy in some type 1 groups. —

Janet feeling good and rested after a day off. We rode most of the route together, but we separated at one point so I could do a little extra climbing/dirt. We got to the meeting spot at the exact same time! —

Decisión: take the “known” road to town, or the shortcut along a river? Shortcut saves 400’ of climbing, but might not go through. I like how Janet is always up for an adventure, and agreed to the unknown shortcut with zero heat on the heat map. —

Ahh, that is why there is no heat… seems like the trail was disappeared by a landslide and the planting of olive orchards in the middle. Janet and I got separated in the olive orchards and I hear her calling out - sounding a little scared. We got back together and navigated the short distance without a road… and then back on track.. happy to have taken the shortcut! —

Spain is a great place to lose weight. You really have to get to town at the right time, or everything is closed. Your next food source may be far away, so you need to either wait until 5pm for stores to open, go hungry, or bust your butt to the next town. We chose “go hungry” today. Janet kindly offloaded a hunk of cheese into my bags. Thanks J! 🧀

I thought Janet had filled my water bottle at town… but it was empty when we got to camp. For a moment, I tried to puzzle out where the hole in the bottle was. Luckily, they had just watered a FEW of the olive trees.. just a few.. so I took a couple litres from this guy. It’s funny because enough water for the night doesn’t even make a dent in this puddle. Often time, people will say, “there is no water” in such-and-such place… but the reality is that you don’t need THAT much water to keep going; a puddle will often suffice. —

We live like kings! The king of yesteryear would have entertainment at his finger tips - he could summon a court jester fairly easily. A king would have clothing made from the finest materials such as wool or silk. Not as nice as the breathable nylon Lycra or polyester and down we have today, but certainly good fabrics. A king could eat fruit in the summer and enjoy spices from far away lands. The king of days past could travel anywhere he wanted within the kingdom - a place of 25 miles distance might only be a day away in a horse drawn carriage with wooden wheels. Ah, the life of a king.. Maybe not as good as 99% of people on the world have it today… but by golly, he lived like a king! 👑

We are either king and queen today, or paupers living outside the castle walls! I’ll say both - as long as I’m with you sweetie!

Ann L.