I had a pleasant evening sitting down by the river just outside of Abiquiu and using FaceTime to chat with the family after dinner. What a beautiful place to relax after a long day in the saddle.

I left the oasis under the cover of darkness to get a head start on the Polvadera Mesa climb, which involves close to 5000 feet of climbing in 28.5 miles over some of arguably the toughest route conditions on the entire GDMBR.

The first half of the climb up to the Polvadera Mesa is on nice gravel and offers great views of the surrounding area. The second half is when one enters the Santa Fe National Forest and finds not so pleasant trail conditions.

The climb is constant and steep in isolated areas. From this point on for the rest of the day until a few miles outside of Cuba, I would be riding in a forest with limited views. The route to the top of the climb would offer conditions similar to a dry river bed, riding on top of huge rocks, and riding through deep sand.

I took numerous breaks throughout and once decided to walk over and look out over the ledge. It is amazing where this route was taking me in such a beautiful area, just wish the route would have offered more views of what was beyond the trees.

It took me five hours of riding and hike-a-biking to crawl up to the Polvadera Mesa. I have nothing but respect for this area and will never forget the struggle of making it to the top. I think my face says it all.

The plan from here was to make it to a watering hole and perhaps camp for the night at an informal campsite and then continue into Cuba tomorrow. There would be no big descent from the top until just outside of Cuba as the route has numerous climbs and descents until that point. There is about 8000 feet in total elevation gain to get from Abiquiu to Cuba in about 78 miles.

There was still going to be some interesting trail conditions periodically until about the 42 mile mark. As I am coming down the last gnarly descent in what seems to be a dry river bed versus a road, a thunderstorm had caught me and I took shelter to let it pass.

There was a lady parked with her daughter during the storm that was waiting for her husband and son to show up on a motorcycle. After it settled down a little, I asked her how the road conditions would be down the road. She told me after a mile, or so, I would hit nice gravel that should be dry.

I was getting things ready to go and noticed the rain had gotten to my Garmin, which has had issues as of a few days ago anyway. Unfortunately, this means I have to use my iPhone for navigation via the ACA app. Did I mention the touch screen becomes nearly unusable with wet fingers?

Off I went and about half a mile down the road I hit a muddy spot and laid it down. I landed on both hands as the bike slid from under me and now I have mud up to my forearms. I would really struggle to use the phone now.

It gets better, I promise. I do find the better road conditions and unfortunately I turned off that road soon enough and this is where I found it. The infamous peanut butter mud.

At first the back wheel was unable to rotate because of the mud and rocks that was collected and getting jammed in between the wheel and frame. I could still lift the back wheel up and roll the bike on the front wheel, until that also had a similar situation preventing it from rolling. At this point, I would carry War Dog forward to get out of the immediate mud fest. I did this about a dozen times for the rest of the day’s journey.

The sun finally showed it’s face and in the areas of the trail that could get sunlight, life was good. For the parts of the trail still in shade, life was a struggle. At this point, I was able to get my hands clean enough to use Zoleo to text Erin.

I decided to go with Plan B. This plan was to just go ahead and make it to Cuba. I could get a motel room and clean War Dog properly and take a day off tomorrow to get refocused.

Erin was very supportive and encouraging during this epic battle of will power. I offered myself some serious coaching throughout the struggle as I would would sing made up songs like “The long road to Cuba cannot stay like this forever!” and my favorite “I am not going to give up, oh no I am not!”

As soon as I made it to a good water source, a creek, I gave War Dog and my lower extremities a quick bath and was off looking for that descent into Cuba.

As soon as I started the descent, a second round of thunderstorms began, causing me to bomb down the hill to get to the pavement. Good thing I decided to get to Cuba because who knows when this trail will sufficiently dry out enough to make it rideable after another rain shower late in the day.

Well, I made it to the pavement and the rain was light until a half mile from Cuba when it became moderate. I made it to the Frontier Motel and was thankful that things were not any worse off than they had been for the day.

My Garmin eventually ran out of battery power after being stuck in an infinite loop of trying to power off and on. I have since recharged it and it seems good to go for now as that must have rebooted the system. Erin was called and thanked for all the words of encouragement as soon as I got inside my room. I am a lucky human to have her in my life.

A day later now and War Dog has been cleaned and I am going to the laundromat to clean my nasty riding clothes. I am enjoying a day off before getting back at it again tomorrow. What an epic adventure!