It was a cold short night. I didn’t sleep very well, and wished for a longer night. Steve got up earliest of all and headed out in the dark. The rest of us started off at first light. It didn’t take very long before we got down to the campground and store at the base of the mountain. Unfortunately for us it wasn’t open. We poked around looking for water and maybe a place to get some food, but decided against waiting the extra couple of hours for the store to open.
After that, most of the rest of this day is a bit of a blur. I know there were a couple of passes, and I don’t remember them being all that fun or interesting. I pretty much just put my headphones in and listened to music and podcasts all day. I do remember that after the passes there was a brutal section where the wind was super strong and we were going at a snail’s pace. Thankfully we turned back toward the hills which gave some wind protection.
The most interesting part of the day was the section just before the Del Norte airport full of little pump track sections and sand washes. It was a lot of fun to ride and totally the highlight of the day. We got there right before sunset so the light was good and the wind and heat had died down a bit. Then there’s the section where you have to ride around almost the whole perimeter of the airport before you get to town, which is kind of a bummer.
We were stopping at a hostel in Del Norte which I hadn’t heard of before that day, but it was a place to sleep with a roof and plumbing so I was all for it. I spent way too much time in town getting supplies and eating at the, quite slow and busy, pizza place. By the time I got back to the hostel it was nearly 10pm. The place was packed so I set an alarm for 5am and put in my ear plugs. I didn’t remember that the other guys had a plan to be on the road just after 4am for the big push up Indiana pass.
