The Black Warrior

Oh how I love Latin American city name translations!!

We are currently taking a rest day in a town called Guerrero Negro (black warrior). This is very welcome after 3 consecutive days of 75+ miles per day and two nights of camping... Its been nice to make some really solid progress south though! At the end of yesterday we entered Baja California Sur, the southern state of the peninsula. With this came a change to mountain time from pacific time along with a map switch and a milestone for our trip.

Its pretty desolate out here in the land of cacti. I'm not sure if I've ever seen such biodiversity of angry plants. The scenery is very rugged and varies between rolling mountains and plateaus to wide open plains. We realised it was pretty sad when we were getting pumped about rolling into towns  that had a few abandoned gas stations, a couple of stray dogs, and a lone taco stand that closed about 10 years ago, but still has an open sign showing.

Tan lines! Holy cows. Even with a serious sunscreen regime, the sun is doing serious work. I am sporting an almost pencil perfect line across my brow from my helmet and cycling cap. Jeff has a white line on both cheek from helmet straps. I had forgotten that I have freckles on my face. I'm sure we look pretty interesting when we walk around in plainclothes.

Camping food has improved a little. We broadened our horizons from peanut butter and jelly quesadillas to a surprisingly tasty spam goulash and spam burritos. It's difficult to diversify the menu with dishes with lots of ingredients because we have so little room on our bikes for anything really. We are eating enough to keep our legs pumping, though.

Speaking of legs, besides distinct tanlines mid thigh, we've both described our legs as feeling similar to the first week of track practice. They are very tired. We both had minimal training leading up to the trip, so our legs are kindof in shock right now. We realised walking around town last night that our legs actually like turning pedals much better than walking (waddling really).

Looking to the next couple of days, we cross across the peninsula from the Pacific to the Sea of Cortez in two days, then ride down the eastern coast for 2+ days. Then a few more days away from the coast before arriving in La Paz. From there, we hope to head down to Los Cabos before bussing it back up North.

For all you bike nerds out there, my bike is performing extremely well. I purchased a Bike Friday (www.bikefriday.com) before the trip. It folds into a standard sized suitcase, as I plan to take it to New Zealand with me. This thing rocks! It has little wheels, which totally just rock at climbing hills. Also, it keeps all of my packs a little bit lower to the ground than a standard bike which makes taking larger loads much more stable. I'm very curious how much my bike weighs right now, but it is much harder to walk next to it holding it up than it is to ride it up mountains. I have oiled the chain once already and tightened up the headset and crankarms once. All in all, no major road repairs or anything at all needed on either of our bikes that we couldn't do ourselves, which is great! (knock on wood).

RAGBRAI route is out and its swinging through Waterloo (close to my hometown). I hope I'm home for it next summer! http://ragbrai.com/index.php/2010/01/30/overnight-towns-announced-2010-ragbrai-is-one-of-shortest-flatest-ever/
For those of you participating in the BRR ride this coming Saturday, I'm so jealous! If you're not, you should! http://www.bikeiowa.com/asp/calendar/RidePopUp.asp?e=1585

Heading out for some tacos! Hope all is well wherever you all are. Please feel free to comment on this blog or shoot me an email leejosephbeck@gmail.com. I'd love to hear what you're up to!