My own set of wheels…

Last Thursday, April Fool’s Day no less, I finally felt completely at home… at least in one way. Nate, Ross, Kevin and I decided to rent mountain bikes since we had a semi-free day. What better way to spend a day than cruising down and around the hills of Monteverde. The weather… perfect, the company even better… and so we set out at 9am.

Now just so you know, the community of Monteverde is composed of a few towns; Cerro Plano, Santa Elena and Monteverde, to name a few, and they are all strung together with one long road that for the most part runs level around the ridgelines of the mountain range. Our goal was to leave Monteverde, heading south, and reach the valley community of San Louis. This meant that we had to drop somewhere between 800-1000 meters in altitude. That is a long way down, but fortunately we picked the right road. Or maybe I should call it a “could a horse even use this” path? Seriously, we chose the road less traveled, just by luck. I would say that at least ¼ of the way down I had to be off my bike so that I didn’t lose control and crash, but it was one of the most exciting and challenging trails that I have ridden.

This is actually a good part of the road/trail...

The view from 3/4 of the way down out into the San Louis valley... very nice...

We finally got to the bottom and looked up, but could not figure how in the world we had come down such a steep hillside. Actually, we went too far down in altitude that we actually had to ride uphill now to get to San Louis. This is when we finally realized that we may be in for more than was expected. None of us had ridden a bike in over 2 months, and we definitely did not have the right muscles, nor the respiratory strength that was necessary. Yes, you are hearing this come from someone who is a biking enthusiast, who rides in snow and rain, up and down, and all around, no matter what. But I was not prepared for this ride.

After a struggle, some walking, a bit of water, energy food and a bunch of stops to rest, we made it the 2 miles to my Grandmother, tica’s farm in upper San Louis. Once there we were nearly ready to crash, but there was something more driving us… the really reason for this adventure. For, on my grandmother’s farm there is a large “catarata” hidden about a kilometer and a half back in a forested valley that comes out of the Cloud Forest Reserve. And by a “catarata” I mean a 300 meter tall water cascade of frigid, crisp and clear spring water. That is ¾ of the way around a running track for you imperialists.

One of the many "iffy" bridges...

After a 20 minute walk, we all had the hesitant pleasure of plunging into this freezing water and splashing around a bit before all our joints locked up from temperature shock. It was a gorgeous afternoon there at the waterfall, with patches of sun streaming through the canopy, just perfect for sunbathing on the large boulders present.

And yet we all knew now what was ahead of us on our return voyage to Monteverde. That same hill we came down, we had to tackle head on, and by some divine assistance, struggle to the top. We left early from my Grandmother’s farm at around 2 or 3 to be able to make the journey in time to get back for a dinner at the study center.

It became a game of every man for himself as we began the climb. As for me, I started out well, making it up the first 1/3 to a lookout point with only a couple stops on my bike. At the lookout point I looked up instead of out and realized that the rest was not actually that far of a distance… but as many of you probably guessed, it got steeper. It became so steep that I was forced to start weaving back and forth across the road to keep from going directly up the slope and popping a wheelie with my front tire. All along this last 2/3 stretch I had to put my feet down and take a break nearly every 50-100 meters. Truthfully, I did start to think about using Kevin’s tactics of just walking the bike up the hill, but (nothing against Kevin) I was not going to let this hill keep me from my goal of RIDING up it.

This is the view from maybe halfway up the hill... you can see the catarata in the back of the valley, and my Grandmother's ticas farm is in the bottom right corner.

Here is looking both up and down the road from one of the switchbacks... this has no way to show really how steep it is...

Bit by bit, with every last little revolution of the pedals I made it up that hill. I at the top, I took a nice long break, which mean that I coasted the rest of the 7 kilometers right down into Monteverde. Along the way I did decide to pick up a milkshake direct from the dairy factory, and it was both delicious and nutritious.

At the end of the day, I am thinking that I will not be tackling that hill again; at least not without more practice and strength training. I was pooped. But all praises be to God, it was a wonderful, exciting, challenging and rewarding Holy Thursday!