El Fin

I came out of my rest days in Ciudad Constitución with achy knees and a waning motivation to return to the trail. I admit I was tempted to call it a voyage complete and hop on a bus with my bike and take the easy route to La Paz. While the temptation strongly pulled me in that direction, I dismissed the urge and set out on the bike for the final stretch of the trail. The Baja Divide finishes in La Paz and I wanted the experience of coming out of the wilderness and riding, triumphantly (in my head, at least), into the city. Only in that way would I feel that I had truly accomplished the goals of this trip. And so, packed out with enough food and water for a few days on the trail and with some pain killers to manage the pain in my knees, I rode out of the city.

My goal for the first day was to make it past the steaming, burning dump outside the city as quickly as possible, and to put as many miles on the bike as I could on what I expected to be relatively good, flat roads heading east. The dump was as bad as the guides advertised. The smell was of extremely rotted seafood and there was every kind of trash imaginable being burned. I was grateful for the face covering I had purchased the day before and was even more grateful that I only had to endure the smell for about 2 or 3 miles. Eventually, the road through the dump gave way to the Baja countryside of which I was more accustomed to. Cactus and other desert shrubbery lined a dirt and gravel road that was in relatively good shape but still required constant weaving to find the portions that weren't washed out and more comfortable to ride on.

I lunched on ham and cheese sandwiches I had prepared in my hotel and rode relatively fast for approximately 7 hours, making 62 miles for the day and settling down to camp off the road near a goat path on the outskirts of yet another rancho. I was pleased with the distance I covered knowing full well that the following day would feature much more difficult roads and steep climbs to nearly 2000 ft. The night was cool but comfortable, and despite the rattle of bells around the necks of nearby goats and the cackling of a lone coyote, I slept decently well.

In the morning, the ranch land gave way to familiar climbs that portended a slow day in the low gears. After a brief stop at a local farmer's home where I was served lemonade and given refills of my water, I made the steep climb to 1850' ASL in about 45 min, hopeful for a clean descent to the bottom of the canyons en route toward the coast.

While the descent proved to be quite a fun trip of about 1000', I still faced some distance to reach the fishing village of San Evaristo and, apparently, more climbing. The road became quite degraded and for the first time during the trip, an aching butt was paired with uncomfortable chafing around my legs and pelvis that soured my mood as the day went on. I finally reached another zenith, with eyes on the Sea of Cortez, but the descent to the village was dangerously steep and rocky and I was forced to dismount several times and came down out of the canyon almost as slowly as I had climbed up it.

There isn't much to say about San Evaristo, but I was fortunate to find a small bungalow available for a night and was fed a great dinner of fried shrimp tacos, a pick-me-up from the drudgery of 6.5 hours of riding to make only 30 miles during the day. I felt confident about the following day, outlining a goal of making it far enough to leave me with a short ride into La Paz the following day.

I faced some doubt if I would achieve my goal when I left San Evaristo due to the insanely steep hills I was forced to climb as I weaved around the coast into an inland canyon pass. The picture below does not quite give justice to the steepness, but it was steep enough that I was forced to push my bike for 15 minutes up what must of been at least a 20% grade hill.

While the morning was slow, hot, and not fun at all, the road eventually found its way back to the coast and improved as rode East. I passed into low country that was actually at about 30' BELOW sea level, and this road continued into mining country which was somewhat desolate but had signs of life as a few trucks passed me in both directions. This dirt road was in some of the best condition I'd seen thus far and so I made great time as I found my way back to the coast and to the small mining village of San Juan de La Costa.

I picked a camping spot on the beach, bathed myself in the Sea of Cortez, and made friends with the local hermit, Juan, who apparently lived on the beach and had for years.

Juan spent the night setting up a fish trap to catch fish as the tide rolled in, and in the morning he had a catch and smoked it in a fire for his breakfast. Imagine that! I had a slow morning after a night of little sleep, but eventually packed the bike up for what would be my final, triumphant ride to La Paz. The road weaved along the coast and was quite beautiful, if a little steep in some places. However, 35 miles later, I entered La Paz and found my way to the air bnb I booked, and just like that, my cycling days (at least for this journey) had come to a close.

I have a lot of thoughts on this journey and how this experience has affected me, but I will save those for a final post later. For now, I am relaxing and reflecting on this journey that has been years in the making and has finally reached a close, for now. After Christmas, I will travel by bus to Cabo and meet Faith to celebrate this accomplishment and to celebrate the New Year!