To Céret, France

June 7, 2025

This is the route we did ride. The difference between the two routes starts at mile 9. It's amazing how far 3 miles is when pushing my bicycle uphill on slippery rocks.

Heart

Comment

Link

We did look at this while standing at the intersection, but didn't know how many miles we would be adding to go around. In retrospect, I think we had good enough service that we could have tried routing on our phone? Sitting in the comfort of our room, now we can say that an extra six miles with more climbing still would have been less effort than the hike a bike. At the time, we didn't know the distance.

Heart

Comment

Link

Some lessons are harder learned that others. Today I learned two lessons. First - trust but verify. Or, perhaps I will skip the trust and go straight to verify. Shall I elaborate? Today was slated to be a little piece of adventure. Just enough to have fun. We knew there would be 3/4 of a mile of dirt on the downhill. Several Cycle Blazers have taken this route, originally suggested by Leo Woodland. Most notably, Scott Anderson JUST told me to double check our route, as the dirt routing can be tricky. I went back and looked at the 3/4 of a mile at the top. I took the google guy carefully to see what I could see. It looked fine. As I said, a little adventure. The rest of our route is paved - so says RWGPS. That's where the verify part comes in.

With only 25 miles today, a reasonable climb, and feeling perhaps a bit cocky from our good day yesterday. I slept well last night, and had no concerns a today. What I didn't know.

We were down for breakfast at the appointment hour of 8 AM. We ate what we were served. The only choice we had was what type of eggs. I asked for an omelet with vegetables. That request was met with a wrinkled forehead by our waitress. I suggested onions and mushrooms. We started with fruit and yogurt. Coffee for Jacinto. I was asked multiple times if I didn't want coffee. No, I'm not a coffee drinker. We had cheese and ham, with a croissant. Then the omelets arrived. How much onion can you fit in one omelet? The chef took it as a challenge. My stomach didn't feel well after that. I did give up and scrape out as many onions as possible.

We were out the door at 10 AM. I tried, and ultimately succeeded in loading a route to my new Coros Duro GPS. It will give me arrows on a live map, so I know where to turn. Syncing it with the RWGPS directions were not exactly straight forward. But I got it.

Off we went. There was a climb, and a downhill. Damn. I hate to give up any elevation on a climbing day. I want every foot of elevation gain to count towards the final goal. We saw any number of cyclists coming our way. Again I think they got out early to beat the heat, and were on the return. Only a couple of riders passed our direction. I saw gradients as high as 12%. Mostly between 6-8%. That was doable for me. I was working hard to achieve my goal. Mile 9 is where the excitement started. Jacinto said we were supposed to turn onto a dirt road. No, I was very sure we weren't. The route is all paved to the top. Much consternation followed on my behalf. We weren't sure how far the dirt lasted, but the top is mile 14. We had instructions to make a turn at mile 12. Could that be the end of the dirt?

Jacinto suggested it might be less effort to turn back, and take the easier route Komoot had given him. It was a very different route, paralleling the main highway. It would add a lot of miles. Perhaps total elevation would be about the same, because that route had less climbing. What to do? Ever the wise person, I said that I could walk six miles if I had to. Look at me, challenging the terrain gods.

We hadn't gone any distance at all before I noted that I hadn't expected payback for Jacinto's cash disappearing to come so soon. Walking a little further, I added that I think this was a $400. mistake, not a $200. one. We had brief sections that were ridable. Just enough to get us down the road and not turn around. Then things really went to sh**. I kept watching the elevation and the miles walked. We had to gain more than 1,000 feet on this section. It had to come from somewhere. I was panting heavily. Long recumbents aren't made for pushing. My wrists started to hurt, of all things. I saw percentages between 13-16% for extended periods of time. Even if the surface hadn't been sandy and rocky (at the same time - how does that happen?) - I don't think I could have gotten traction to ride.

Jacinto came back several times to push my bike for me. Walking was all I could manage. I've probably drawn out the suffering long enough. Let's skip to the part where we reach mile 12, and pavement. There were a few houses. Jacinto noted that the road must get better, because there was a pick up truck parked at one of the houses. He was so polite through the entire debacle. We were both happy to see pavement, and escape the horseflies who were enjoying their slow moving feast. I told Jacinto I didn't know if I could pedal. I'd left it all out there already. Happily, the rest of the climb was at a moderate 4-6%. I could manage that. My quads were quivering, but they did the job. I was still moving slowly. Jacinto got to the top, and bicycled back down to me. I was afraid he was going to say we were totally off route. But he just wanted more exercise to go with the day!

The road is no longer blocked at the top. Cars can go through. We ate orange slices (heaven!) and beef jerky. I dropped a Nunn tablet in a bottle of water. We could not get to town fast enough for me. But, first we have to navigate what was supposed to be our little diversion. 3/4 mile of dirt. This side would have been no fun at all to climb. I did manage to sit, and coast down. Jacinto preferred to walk. Just after we reached the pavement, a road bike rider on skinny tires passed us going the same direction. He must have carried his bike through the dirt section?

Hallelujah - this is the riding I came for. Pavement, and a no line road. Little traffic. It was just us and a sweet downhill. The busy of Barcelona is long gone. My memory of the suffering was fading already. By afternoon, the torture was reaching good story status.

We got lost (with TWO apps running) going through Illas. Now I was ready to be done. Jacinto had been bemoaning our 25 mile day. I felt it was too long. We didn't have trouble navigating into Céret. Except Jacinto's app took him to a totally different location than I had marked. Happily his was correct. I was totally done. Done, done. Shower, and food were on my mind. The B&B host assured us we could get food on the left, or food on the right, no problem.

We took the fastest showers ever. Guess what? No food anywhere. Jacinto is gone to the store right now. We are waiting for 6 PM, when we can get tapas at the bar. Restaurants open at 7. I can hear my stomach growling. I am SO, SO happy tomorrow is a day off. Today was really hard.

That brings me to my second lesson learned today. I DO NOT like hike a bike. I'm not sure how long we spent pushing that 3.1 miles, but it was about 3 miles further than I wanted.

I should sleep well tonight!

Giant croissants at breakfast. I’m still smiling here.

Jacinto was much more stoic about the hike a bike. Even though his bike was far heavier.

Yea, this part doesn’t look bad. On the rough parts, we were too busy surviving to take a photo.

I hope you are looking at this on a big screen. My face says it all.

This was fine looking dirt. Don’t be fooled.

The dirt road arrived at a cluster of houses. Pavement was just around the corner.

I didn’t fully appreciate the monument at the top. I was just happy to be there. Alive, and under my own locomotion.

Now THIS is a kiss your ass sort of turn. I’ve never seen a sharper switchback.

I like this sort of riding. Quiet mountain roads and no center line!

Look at the rail on the right. It appears someone missed judged the turn

We took a tour of Illas while we were lost.

I’m not sure these count as streets. They were narrow.

We saw this porky piglet while we were lost.

Today's ride: 25 miles (40 km)
Total: 134 miles (216 km)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	7
Comment on this entry	Comment	0