Day 45: Fake Summit 30 Km Before Urique to Urique

After a blissful night of sleep with only one or two random dreams about being swallowed by a forest fire, we awoke to the exciting prospect of our glorious descent into Urique.  Gonzalo had thought we might be close to the summit, and I figured his GPS showed that we were close.  Although I remembered Gonzalo showing me the elevation profile once upon a time and I thought it was a bit too early for the descent, I really had no idea.  Much to our dismay, while we had had indeed reached a summit of sorts, we still had plenty of climbing left to do up to Mesa de Arturo.

Okay, Gonzalo said, the GPS shows there's no climbing after Mesa de Arturo.  And for a brief minutes, we started descending only to find ourselves battling hills until we reached the Mirador Cerro de Gallego.  We tried to keep our spirits high as we pushed our bikes up hill after hill and the views were our reward.

We saw the fire from the night off in the distance.  We would find out later it was actually "farmers" burning fields to prepare for the rains... when I saw "farmers" I mean the people who cultivate marijuana here.

We may have spent more time off our bikes than on them (photo credit: Gonzalo).

Some silliness on the road (photo credit: Gonzalo).

Most of the road has sheer drop offs and impressive canyon walls making all the work worth it.

Finally, we see Urique waaaaay down in the bottom of the canyon.

Taking one more look at the gorgeous scenery as we continue on the winding road to Urique (photo credit: Gonzalo).

At long last, we started the true descent into Urique.  I cannot imagine doing this descent in a car or on a bus because at least on a bike, you have a ton of wiggle room.  Some parts of this road are just wide enough for a 4x4 truck.  It was an breathtaking trip down into the sweltering but gorgeous Urique canyon.

We finally get a look at what our descent will be into Urique...

Bikes atop the Mirador Cerro Gallego... we stopped here for lunch and contemplated throwing our hammocks up and staying the night.  If I had to do it again, that's exactly what I would do, but instead, we decided to continue on.

I accidentally locked my rear wheel and it slid out with all the weight of my gear... still getting used to handling this terrain fully loaded!  Lucky for me I just hit the same place on my left knee that always takes a beating when I crash my mountain bike... just a little scar tissue ripped off (photo credit: Gonzalo... who did actually check to see if I was okay before whipping out his camera).

Just a flesh wound!

Glamour shotz.

Gonzalo waiting in the shade for his rim brakes to cool down.  Even though disc brakes don't require these types of stops, I was glad to be able to rest my hands.

Gaaaaah, I love these views!

And we finally made it!

A few travel notes for cyclists:

• After Cerocahui, there aren't many amenities, but there are two little stores at marker 26 with very basic supplies and cold drinks.  We didn't see any stores at Mesa de Arturo just 4 km down the road (though they do sell beer).

• The Mirador Cerro de Gallego is at marker 38 and if you have enough water to camp, I think it would make a lovely camping spot.

• Urique this time of year is an oven.  At the bottom, every day was well over 100 F (42 C) and the nights don't get much better.  Just be prepared to drool at the sight of anything cold to drink and to drink twice the water you normally do.