We woke up in our Big Agnes tent toasty warm, got out and were greeted by a 30 degree morning that felt like 24 degrees. 🥶 Grabbing our gear and phones, we dashed over to the heated men’s room for bandwidth and to warm up.
It was only five miles to the town of Camp Wood where we planned on getting coffee and breakfast. Oh man, that was a cold five miles on bikes.
When we went to pay for our breakfast we learned the couple sitting next to us already paid for ours. Wow! What a nice bit of trail magic to start our day. The couple was scouting motorcycle routes in the area. That’s his retired gig. How much fun is that? I don’t know if he felt sorry for us that we slept in a tent last night, or that we were peddling up and over some of the three twisted sisters or he was just amazingly kind, but we sure appreciated their thoughtfulness. We didn’t even get their names but will pay it forward.
Today we rode high, not long. It was probably one of the most scenic days with the climbs, overlooks and descents. I looked down at my Garmin and realized we were climbing two to three miles at 9-10% grades, a few times getting up to 11%! And we are each hauling over well over 50 pounds of food, water and gear rolling on mountain bike tires. Couldn’t do that a month ago! I think I’m getting stronger. Tom already was 💪🏻
BTW, Tom’s top speed was 36mph. I like to use my brakes. A lot. 😬
Without cell service or Internet it was a challenge to figure out where to stay and if we should tent or hotel it. Soooo we had to stop at Gypsy Sally’s for lunch in Leakey. Not only were their hamburgs 💯, their tomato basil soup was as 👌🏻. And they had wi-fi. Tom scored another cabin just outside of Vanderpool for the night.
The adventure continues with one last “sister” to climb tomorrow morning.
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Keep Calm and Pedal On 