Sweet Bolivian Adventure :): Christmas Day Epic

Christmas morning, I awoke to a monstrous clap of thunder and let out a tired depressing sigh. This is the morning that Cody, Leith, John and I are supposed to ride our bikes to La Cumbre, 12,000 feet above us. We had a lot of tourists who wanted to ride the road for Christmas Eve and so all four of us had to work the day before. It dumped on us almost all day long and we only said to each other “if it rains like this tomorrow, the day is going to be so much more miserable.” That evening we sent our clients home with the Bolivian guides and settled in to spending the night in La Senda Verde. Imagine then our depression the morning of when we woke up to a torrential downpour. However, we mustered up our energy and met Gavin for breakfast. With Gavin's hearty breakfast in our stomach and after a few quick Merry Christmas wishes we set off for a day in the rain.

Leaving La Senda Verde

A quick bit about our bikes. None of us were on bikes that you would exactly pick for this assignment. John was probably on the bike most designed for this being a Specialized XC, but it was a bit small for him and he had the seat pulled way up past the minimal insertion line. Cody was riding a Kona Hoss. Not ideal, but seemed to work alright and fit him well. Poor Leith probably had the worst steed for the job being a Yeti ASR7. With 7 inches of travel, Leith later told me is was painful too look down and see the suspension bouncing with every pedal stroke. I was pretty surprised he chose to ride the Yeti as opposed to trying to borrow some friend's hardtail. My bike definitely wasn't ideal, but I was happy to have it. I was riding my new old Kona Roast (new to me). Being a dirt jumper and small for me, the geometry was way off and I also had my seat way up right at the minimal insert line, but I have a longer stem on the handlebars so I wasn't as scrunched up as I could have been. Also, Cody and I were lucky to have granny rings whereas Leith and John had to suffer with 1x10s. Lastly, none of us had tires under 2.3 inches wide.

We started out well, laughing and talking merrily as people should be doing on Christmas morning. We quickly made it up to the first river crossing and found it a flood of brown water way higher than normal. As I watched my companions all falter in the torrent of water, I let out a paraboule of primal rage and forged across (only a few honorable men and women are going to have any idea what that means). With the first river out the way, we all found the second much easier. However, after the second river crossing, we all started to slow a bit and concentrate on more riding with less talking. Being the only rider without an mp3 player, I found myself really wishing for some music.


Fixing the Drive-Train

We all expected the gravel road to be the easy part, but definitely not so. We all rolled into Cerro Rojo soaking wet, a bit tired and only an hour into our day. I was surprised at how steep and long the road was to get up to Cerro Rojo. Of course it never feels that steep going down. On the bright side there is a lot of flat and a little downhill after Cerro Rojo, so I was happy to get a break for a bit. Unfortunately, that break went by really shortly and then the climb up to Sacramento was long, steep and grueling. By this point my drive-train is already having problems. For this bike, this was the first time I have ever actually used used the granny gear and I found when pedaling under tension, I couldn't switch into granny. I had to get off and manually pull the chain over with my fingers. This was definitely an issue as it made me far less likely to switch out of granny for the short less steep bits. With a quick break at El Solario's (another bike company) hut and a try at fixing my drive-train problems we continued on.

Landslide

San Juan Waterfalls

I expected the next section up to the San Juan waterfalls to be horrendously long and grueling, but that didn't really help at all. It wasn't just long and grueling, but straight didn't let up. We also had a small landslide to carry our bikes over. There were no flat parts until the waterfalls. We were using our usual stopping points when coming down the road as our key landmarks for taking breaks and regrouping on the way up. So after a short break and snack at San Juan we decided to mesh the next three sections together and continue all the way up to the Martyr's of Democracy monument. I even mentioned to my friends, “Oh the next section shouldn't be so bad. Definitely nowhere near as hard as those last two sections.” Wrong! Once again, I was blown away at how steep and unrelenting the hill really is and how much you don't notice when flying down. This was also time for companies with clients to start meeting us on their way down. This is the only road in Bolivia, in which traffic pattern switches to the left side of the road. This is so that trucks or buses coming down the hill go left and can see where their tires are in relation to the cliff edge outside their driver side window. When we lead trips down the road, we tell our clients this and tell them to stay to the left side so that they don't run into a car or person when coming around a blind corner. However, not all the companies tell their clients this. We stayed to the left pedaling up this section and timidly came up to blind comers in the hope that nobody would be flying down at that moment. I had more then one close encounter though. People are most definitely not expecting to see someone riding their bike up the World's Most Dangerous Road and it showed on their faces as they came around the corner on the wrong side of the road.

El Solario also stopped and gave us some more snacks and water. This kind of blew our universes apart. Amongst ourselves, we tend to give the company a lot of grief, because they don't seem to tell their clients anything about how to ride down the road in a group and how to watch out for other people. They are one of those groups in which people are all over the road and all over the place. Having them be the only group to stop and offer us food and water really made us rethink them a little.

Martyr's of Democracy

After a short break at Martyr’s, we made the final push to the end of the gravel road. Once again, long and grueling with one little flat spot. Especially after I came to the almost ghost town of Chusipata. I knew that we were in the gravel home stretch, but the road from here to the top becomes steep (like most the road) and loose. The gravel in this section is much looser than anywhere else on the road. When riding a bike up this, I felt like we were riding up a scree slope. It was hard work keeping my front tire straight and my rear was often sliding out. Eventually though, we were there. What an awesome feeling seeing that black pavement. After four hours of riding time and maybe five hours total, we were dead and ready for some easier riding. We are also at about 10,820ft here.

When we are guiding groups down the road, we tell the clients that there is an 8km uphill section from Unduavi to the beginning of the gravel road. Its really more undulating than all uphill. I have come to realize that it is actually still mostly downhill with a couple little climbs. I was expecting this part to be a nice long break, but instead found it to have just a few little breaks. Unduavi was waiting for us at the end though and rolling into town we found Jubi with his blue jeep waiting for us. Our friends Jubi and Gabriele had driven out on Christmas day to meet us and give support. Not only was I all to happy to get rid of my pack, but Jubi also had my mp3 player from the day before. After a good long break, some more food and a good stretch of the legs we set off with a renewed sense of being.

Having music to listen to changed my world. After a quick scary ride through the tunnel, I was able to settle in and really crank for the first time all day. From Unduavi to Pongo was definitely long and tiring, with zero flat bits, but for once I was able to settle into a cadence and didn't have to shift out of 2 and 3 once. No more granny gear. Pongo came and went with a quick break to smash down some chocolate and a Gatorade. At this point, I was really starting to wonder when the altitude would kick in. As the military drug checkpoint of Rinconada finally came into view, my butt was so sore, but I knew we were headed into the home stretch. We expected this to be the hardest bit. From Rinconada to the top, the road gets much steeper and we were headed into the severe altitude range. The road here goes from about 13,000 to 15,500 ft. Every time I would come around a big 180° turn and see the steep grade ahead, my heart would sink, but I just dug in and kept the top in mind. If we made it this far, there was no way we were going to quit now. As I came up to our last landmark before the top, El Sapo, I found Cody waiting for the rest of us, but I told him that there was no way I stopping this close to La Cumbre. With a smile, he hopped back on his bike and we finished the last bit.

Into the Mist

As we crested the top and La Cumbre was just coming into view, I looked back to see Leith sprinting to catch me right before the end. I was so not in the mood, but I joined along anyway for a final extremely painful sprint to the finish. It was such a glorious feeling to have reached the top and to see Jubi, Gabriele and the gravity jeep standing in front of the lake. I was pretty ready to lay down and die for awhile. Honestly, when I pulled into Martyr's of Democracy long ago, I was thinking about the shame of not being able to finish. 40 miles with 12,000ft of vertical gain ended up taking us about 10.5 hours total with 7.5 hours of actual riding time.

La Cumbre, 15,500 ft

On the way home, both Leith and I commented that we would never put ourselves through that pain again while Cody just smiled and said he could see doing it again. A week later, I think I would like to try it again sometime for sure. I would try to do a few things differently though. Most importantly would be taking a bike that fits better and is more the right tool for the job. I would also make sure I have music from the very beginning. Oh, and maybe train a little bit before hand.

Lets not forget that we did this as a fundraiser and I am proud to say that we raised just over $1000 for the school children of Yolosa and other communities along the World's Most Dangerous Road. Thank you once again to everyone who donated to our cause. Also a shout out of thanks to Gravity Assisted Mounting Biking and Gatorade. I'll make sure to get some pictures up as we get the playground built.

Here's a few more pics from the day to check out: