I opened my eyes and there on the opposite couch was Jamie Thomson possibly working on something city related.
Jamie is a former Tour Divide finisher, owner of the bike house and city council man and bicycle advocate.
I felt feverish. I looked at my droid, I had slept four hours. I had hoped to sleep alot more but that's what I got and I needed to get going. The plan for the evening was to camp somewhere up on signal peak as I made my way across the new CDT addition to the Great Divide Mountain Bike route.
Before I left town though I had a list of things I wanted to do. Grab an espresso, grab something hot for dinner, grab about 2 days worth of food. The little things.
Everything went perfectly smooth, but I found it so hard to buy 2 days worth of junk food and then carry it all. Eventually I sorted out all my kit and got going out of town, up and up into Palos Altos.
By the time I made the town of Palos Altos darkness had firmly planted itself for the night. I could not located the rumoured spicket. I was feeling incredibly tired still. Just out of gas. Had my Coyote run the night before been too much of a sacrifice after sitting around for two weeks and doing nothing? Would I be able to recover from this? These are the games my mind was playing with me.
I was conflicted I had just spent what seemed like a lifeless trip up the mountain into the Palos Altos and now I didn't much feel like going forward. My clock was all messed up too, technically at 6pm at night I had started day two, LOL. Hilarious.
SO, instead of going forward I followed my own sage advice, listened to my body and pulled into the Buckhorn allegedly the oldest Saloon in the universe. I sat outside for a minute, reflecting. Trying to figure out why I felt so crappy? Was it sleep deprivation?
Just as I am sitting contemplating my lack of well being, three intoxicated gentlemen stumbled out of the saloon, one drunker than the next.
Noticing a guy in cycling clothes with a fully loaded bike always inspires a million and one questions.
So there we are, I'm pulling out maps, I'm letting them lift the bike, I practically laid out my kit for them to look at. One of the guys was worried about my safety and spent a good 30 minutes warning me about fires which I assured him if they were in my path that I would be re routed.
Two more people came out, one of them a cook, and feeling hungry I asked if they were still serving dinner, I figured I was out of energy, at a pit stop, I might as well, eat and have some drinks and enjoy this tour as much as possible.
BUT, much to my disappointment they had stopped serving. I had picked up a Giant Burrito before leaving Silver and I asked if I could eat go inside drink some beer and eat my food. They said of course and I pulled out my jacket and went in and sat and ate and drank and listened to them converse.
I like people watching, I'm an anthropologist so its something that I do often not only as a citizen of this planet, but as a social scientist. And the best way to people watch is for me to blend in the room and be seemingly invisible. As weird as that may sound considering everyone in the place was dressed to be hanging out in a bar and socializing and me all decked out in cycling attire.
It seemed like they were starting to close up and the guy asked if I wanted another drink. I declined and paid my fair, got layered up cause the night had become chilly and went off on my way.
Feeling a Lil buzz of beer, I quickly discovered that the town of Palos Altos was the peak of profile and I went downhill Immediately after leaving the saloon. Then a Lil rise and even more downhill. The moonlight was revealing a forest. TREES actual TREES I hadn't seen TREES in weeks.
I kept rolling on, and then started seeing people who were camping at the Roadside available sites. Kept my pace going and when the road started turning uphill the fatigue started to return. I zoomed out on the GPS and I saw where the turn off was for the CDT. As tired as I was feeling I had to think about the long haul. This was not a 300 mile race this was a nearly 3000 mile epic and I needed to conserve, invest and think about the future.
SO, I decided to try and spot a bivy spot. Kept my eyes open and noticed a spot to set up camp. I hiked across a dry creek to a nice wide open spot next to a rocky out cropping. For the first time I was using the inflatable mattress that Jeff Tomassetti's nephew had been nice enough to lend me. Usually whilst bikepacking in Florida I either use a hammock or hobo camp on benches, I had never used the mattress. Even the first night I bivied at Soldiers Retreat I didn't use a pad, I just laid up on the sand. Thankfully it was very user friendly and after some adjustments and trying to figure out what to use for a pillow I fell fast asleep hoping that some healing rest would re energize me and give me strength for the next day.
To be continued,
Take Care,
The NaKeD InDiaN
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