From the campsite, the gradients begin right away; however,
they never make up their minds for very long about how steep they want to be –
this road is definitely graded much less consistently than the main highway. It’s a delightful little two lane road that
twists and turns and bucks up with little regularity. It’s also very sparsely trafficked, as I rode
up on a Friday afternoon preceding a holiday weekend and encountered no cars, 3
motorbikes, and a couple of fellow cyclists.
There is some cost to the lack of traffic and the fact that
this is a route that time has left behind means that the road is quite unmaintained,
with gravel across the road in places, as well as some fairly substantial pot
holes that could taco a road bike wheel in no time. Such road conditions were duly noted on the
way up, and I reminded myself that I would take the descent cautiously, as the speed
of descending combined with rock walls in close proximity, steep drop offs,
irregular pavement, and varied areas of shadow and light could be treacherous.
I huffed and puffed and made it to the pass just as I was
starting to feel good this hot summer day, where a couple of the motorcyclists
who had passed me on the way up had stopped to take in the views. I had climbed it from the east side, and wanted
to descend to the west, but I had an event that evening so just started my
descent. I made good on my promise to
take the descent slowly, recording a top speed of only 20 mph, enabling me to
win at rule #1 – Returning home safely.
