I wasn't able to get pictures of the hostel the day before because I was too excited to find food, so here they are: pictures of the hostel.
The outdoor kitchen:
The morning sky:
Where we slept:
The Uni-Bomber (communal bathroom):
A single-bed suite:
I don't even know:
The hippy palace?:
Redneck hot tub:
Light a fire and cook dinner while you relax in the tub above!
Aeromotor:
Another dwelling:
Ingrid's building, I think:
An old Spartan:
The Prayer Room:
The Sauna:
The morning sun:
Getting ready for the day ahead!
Where I slept:
The view I had when I woke up:
A view of Hippyville:
A local bakery in downtown Marathon:
We stopped in here to check out their breakfast selection but were very out off by their prices. The lady was so sweet that we didn't want to leave her empty handed so we got some coffee from her. While we were eating a very rude gang of ugly British people walked in. That was our cue to leave.
We stopped next door at Johnny B's for a huge breakfast burrito and met a very nice guy from Canada who was travelling from El Paso to New Orleans. I gave him a bunch of tips for his trip.
Finally, Brian and I were on our way!
With the wind at our back, we were flying down the road. The first 60 miles were remarkably easy.
The Bob never lies when it comes to wind direction.
We took a pit stop to learn about the geology of the area.
We were very excited to ride to Big Bend.
Maybe even too excited.
But like I said, these miles were just flying by!
We were rolling steadily in the 20s without much effort.
The entire ride, we had beautiful mountains to look forward to.
We couldn't have asked for a better day.
The sun was fierce and the sky was clear. To top it off, we were approaching the park!
We made it! In record time too! We still had something like 35 miles to go until we reached our campground.
The ride at this point was still relatively easy, though we had a lot of downhills which made me nervous because I knew that would just mean that we had to climb up more to get to the camp.
The scenery sure did help to calm those nerves, however.
The mountains just kept on getting bigger and bigger and we were getting more and more excited to be in such a wonderful area.
There were so many different groups of mountains, I couldn't even tell you which ones we're looking at here.
Somewhere around here, the wind died down and we started climbing, something my legs were refusing to do.
I didn't care. I took my time. We were in such a magical place. I wanted to soak it all in while I had the chance.
I'm sure the amount of times I stopped to take pictures contributed to my slow speed.
But I wanted to make sure you all could see what I was seeing.
I think these are them, the Chisos Mountains: our destination.
It was a slow, grueling climb up to Panther Junction. We really could not have gone much slower at times.
At Panther Junction, we got a good look at the distance we had left in the day. We were at the little house with the flag. We were going to the basin of the mountain range. 9 miles of ugh.
The road up to the basin was slow. Horribly slow and wicked steep.
Thank goodness I had DMB and the mountains to distract me from my pain.
I slapped my bike into the granny gear pretty early into the 9 mile ride up to the basin. I felt spent and didn't want to push my limits. The tour is all about taking time and having fun, so that's what I did.
Taking pictures was also a key component of this tour, so I did a lot of that during the 9 miles of hell too.
We were in it now: Lion and Bear country!
The view from the road that cut through the mountain range was absolutely breathtaking.
Too bad the road made me want to die.
Between the switchbacks and steep ascents, I don't think I've ever biked so slow in my life. It seemed like hours passed before my computer told me I had logged another mile.
I met Brian at the top of the peak before a great descent into the basin. He had been waiting for me while chatting with some park employees about a woman who had fallen on the trail we wanted to do that night. Because of the accident, the trail was closed and we would be unable to take the hike that night.
A few yards down the hill, we met our first creepy friend.
The descent into the basin is was dreams are made of. After hours of climbing, I was happy to finally roll without pedaling.
We set up camp and made friends with the folks next to us who gave us an applause as we rolled in. They offered to take us up to the store to get what we needed for dinner. We talked with them all night until we finally had to make ourselves some dinner. After dinner, Brian took a hike to see the stars while I sat in bed dying of sickness. I was not a happy camper at the end of the day.
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