“Beach” riding

Pictures from our adventures in San Carlos, Mexico. First up, an incredible evening ride exploring the local trails (rode from the hotel room).

Sunrise walks on the beach

More exploratory riding with Paula brought some interesting discoveries.

A seeping spring in the wash.

An undisturbed beach.

Little critters.

Big cactus with fuzzy fruit.

A waterfall and associated palm oasis.

Later that day I rode ten or so miles across town. Mexican urban riding can be pretty exciting. One minute there’s a perfect cobbled bike lane, the next I’m bunny hopping for all I’m worth to clear a gigantic ditch. I also got chased by angry dogs, dodged cars and got more than a few strange looks from locals.

All good fun and it led me to great singletrack on the other side of the estuary.

Classic Sonora (the state) race course: very unsustainable and very fun to ride. I hit it at near race pace since daylight was not on my side, and the urban return ride was not one to hit at night. Made for a few close calls on the fall-line descents, but it gave me the feel of racing it. Fun stuff.

The next day I went out on the boat with Paula to watch the scuba diving. They took us to San Pedro Island, which is pretty full of life. While they dove I grabbed an extra mask and snorkeled around. I’ve never snorkeled in the ocean before, so it was pretty incredible to watch all the marine life around me. I can’t name half of what I saw, but I never tired of it, and got a good sunburn on my back to prove it.

I did get a little nervous when I first saw the sea lion. She (I think it was a she) got a little too friendly, following very close to my feet. All I could think is “do sea lions bite?” as I swam faster, which I think only encouraged her. After a while I calmed down and was in awe at the silent beauty of the lions gliding under me without effort. Very cool.

On the way home we stopped at the race track for a run and ride. I had missed out on one of the loops since I ran out of time, and Paula hadn’t seen any of it.

The drive home was uneventful. Memorial Day traffic was a thing of the past and we had a zero second wait at the border coming back in. Despite the new “rules” claiming you need a passport or proof of citizenship to enter by land, the officials let us in with just our ID cards.

Now I am almost up and running on my “new” machine. Currently using a 10 year old Matrox Mystique video card, otherwise things are going well. It’s been a long story with the computer and with Paula’s passport stuff (she’s not going to China because of lack of documents), but perhaps an approach to normalcy is now possible.