Baja day 13

I left my hotel plenty early after ravaging the free coffee and cookies in the lobby. Riding through Vicente Guerrero was a completely different ride than my usual. The highway is the main drag, but traffic doesn’t slow much through town. The side streets are all dirt and dried mud molded into bike obstacles. I rode south to Fass Bike, and it was closed. Oops, because it was New Year’s Eve. I made the vacation error of forgetting that normal people still have regular work schedules. Lots of businesses were closed as well.

Then I took off east to get back to the route. I had one false start on a farm road that looked like it went far enough. It ended in a field and I had to ride back. It was a relief to get back in my lonely dirt world after the stress of riding by the highway. Mostly the hills were mellow, not too much pushing. But still lots of pushing. I must be getting good back and shoulders workouts with all the uphill pushing over crazy bumps. I was out on some fallow agricultural land, mostly I couldn’t tell what was being grown besides the grapes.

Then I came to the locked gate. It had the standard looped wire closure but also a shiny chain and padlock. I tried to find a path around and ended up pushing up a giant dirt clod hill. Nope, that didn’t work. Finally I tipped the fence and shoved my bike underneath. Sounds simple, but it was not.

I rode to the other end of the field and there was another chain and padlock. This time I found a place to lift my bike over a low fence. Just that little bit of road probably took an hour to negotiate. On the road to San Quintin it started raining little squirts of chilly water and wind. Man was I glad I didn’t have to camp in that.

For New Year’s Eve dinner I had a burger and fries. I woke up briefly at midnight to the boom of fireworks and rain falling outside and then went back to comfortable sleep.