I've been bored lately. Surprise surprise that accounting and statistics are not keeping me at the edge of my seat. So last week I finally got off my bum and went for a bike ride. Boredom was gone instantly and replaced with a nice large smile. Even though I've been about as active as a sack of potatoes, I decided my next trip would be a big one. I set my sights (my great idea) on looping up the west coast, crossing the island and returning through St. George's or better yet riding to the peak in Grand Etang. Bob and I got close to there once by accident, I can surely make the "little" extra bit to the top, right???
Emailing my cycling buddies we set today as the day to go for our adventure. Bob and I were to meet at the white tire, which is a round-about of sorts at the entrance to Lance Aux Epines, about a 5-10 minute ride from our places. I headed out very happy to finally get this great idea, (and in turn my mental happiness), up and going. I took the Monte Tout road (at least that's what I call it, since it doesn't have a name) because it's by far the most direct route. It's also the single most avoided road I know of on this island due to the insane things you have to deal with (goats, kids, chickens, church goers, balls, dogs and on and on litter the streets and pop out from behind everything). I navigated the road fine getting past the many odd looks and pesky parked cars in the middle of the road. Then the fun began... This road has a short but steep decent into a very large round-about. At the junction of the road with the round about is a metal grate which covers the entire width of the road... well ALMOST the entire width. About three feet from the left edge the grate stops, 1.5 inches later it starts again with a small two foot piece of grate. It's quite important to note that the grate has one 1.5 inch gap between each slat. So as I was approaching this intersection (on the left side because we're just weird like that down here), a car just parked itself at the entrance on the right side. Without a second's hesitation a bus (aka minivan) buzzed around it and right at me. This didn't really faze me much as I partially expected it (driving in Grenada is WAY crazier than in the US). I plotted my new route skirting the left side of the road to avoid getting hit and to try not to hit the many limers.
(Limers = people hanging out doing nothing)
I perfectly executed my route fitting my 1.5 inch wide tire directly into the 1.5 inch wide gap between the grates. The whole world came to a VERY sudden stop at this point. I went up and over to the left (thankfully not into the bus) bringing my bike with me. After finding myself in a tangled mess of bike and my own limbs I eventually got my self free and back on two feet. My first priority was getting out of the road. I tried to pull my bike up unsuccessfully and found I had to dislodge it from the grate. At this point I noted that the bottom of my front rim was perfectly vertical (in the gutter) while the rest of my bike and the top two thirds of the rim were at about a 45 degree angle from the ground.... hmm yes we've got a problem. Getting the bike free I discovered the front rim was so tweaked that it wouldn't even roll as it was jammed up against the brakes. There were probably 8 or so locals that were all very friendly asking if I was OK, it was much appreciated, albeit with a little bit of cynicism seeing as these are the same guys who shouted "hey baby!" at Megan (with me at her side in the car) just the day before.
I stiffly walked the rest of the way to the white tire so I could meet Bob. After telling and showing him the bad news I suggested he continue on and ride without me, which he did. I disengaged the brakes which made it barely possible to roll my bike, so I slowly walked my way back towards home. I got an offer to sell my bike which I found humorous considering it's state, but told the guy no. At the very same spot in which I had so rudely been introduced to the cement a bus driver shouted out something at me which I promptly ignored and continued walking. (Similar to the comment to Megan, things are shouted constantly which are best just ignored). A guy on the side of the street also shouted something at me, all I could pick up on was something to do with "fix-it". The bus zipped past me then parked and the driver got out. ... My first instinct was to try to quickly figure out how this guy was planning on screwing with me. So I had my hesitations to say the least. The driver came up to me and said he could fix my wheel. I looked at him feeling dumbfounded and thinking to myself "uh yeah and you can turn water into wine, sure uh huh". He kept insisting that he had the tools to fix this and that he used to own a bike shop. The first guy backed this guy up agreeing that he could in fact fix my wheel. At this point I figured "ah what the hell, this'll make for an interesting day...". I agreed and loaded my bent up bike into his van. I mentioned to him that I had some spare spokes at home (a random but very lucky purchase to bring down here). He dropped me off at my apartment complex and said he had to go change vans. He zoomed off with my bike.
I whipped out my iPhone in a last ditch effort to know what the van he was driving looked like as you can see above as his silver van zooms off. I was left wondering how good of an idea this was at this point. I didn't have any contact info for this guy, not even his name. Hoping he'd come back as he said he would, I walked to our apartment, let Megan know I was off on an adventure, grabbed the spokes and walked back down to the road. About a minute later he drove up (thank god) in a different van.We drove up to his place which was about five minutes outside the capitol of St. George's. Here he pulled the wheel completely apart, removing every spoke. I had spokes that looked more like corkscrews than their intended form. At this point I remembered that I had my iPhone on me which takes decent photos, but not wanting to be rude or intrusive I simply turned off the sounds to the phone and took one quick shot of Danny (the van driver) and his son taking my wheel apart.
Note the dirty, torn-up, bottom half of an ice chest in the background? That's what arrived when he asked his son to grab his "tool box". How I define things is constantly changing here... So getting back on point, I was very curious to find out what type of large press this guy had that he was going to use to bend my wheel back into shape. It turns out it was a 200 lb brute force press, aka he stood on the rim on his tile porch and pulled up on it bending it back into shape. I was shocked to see he had it almost back to normal already. He messed with it a little bit more and said the wheel would need to be in clamps for a few days to fix the the rest of it. Then he disappeared inside. To my surprise he came back with a complete mountain bike wheel and promptly put my tire and tube onto it. Danny told me I could borrow this wheel while mine was being fixed, then gave me directions on how to get to the peak in Etang Forest.I was bruised up a bit and a few minor scrapes from the fall but nothing major. My biggest worry was my right knee which had a nasty egg forming on it from the crash. I decided that I really REALLY wanted to complete my ride, so I ventured off for Etang. It was a little odd to see what carnage my wheel had been through and to be up and riding again so soon, but it felt good to be in the saddle. I rode up and up, and up reaching the spot Bob and I had turned around thinking I was about 2/3 the way up to the peak. I continued on up and up and up and up after repeating that a dozen more times I realized Bob and I were still quite a ways from the peak.
Taking a break for a power bar and some water I took a shot of the scenery below...
Considering I started near where the water is in the background I had climbed quite a ways at this point ... but little did I know I still had a long ways to go.
A little self portrait showing I did actually bike up here (or drove with a helmet on!)
This is looking further up the road. This is pretty much what the entire road looks like. You never have any idea how many more corners there are ahead. Just past this point as I was peddling my way VERY slowly up this hill I heard rustling in the bamboo to my left and to my delight I saw three monkeys running around. Just as I was considering slowing to a stop to watch the play I realized the play was actually a dominance battle. After watching the obviously "alpha" monkey chase the other two off it started tearing through the trees in my direction. For what I hope is an obvious reason I chose to just keep on peddling and not stay to play with the monkey.I pushed ahead and continued up and up getting many odd looks from passengers driving by in cars struggling to make it up the hills. The cars barely making it up the hills was a nice little pat on the back but the huge clouds of black exhaust they left behind filling my lungs were a little less than desirable. About 20 feet prior to the actual peak there is a look out point. The below photo is showing the view from this point.
The shrubbery make it not actually as nice of a shot as my previous scenic shot but the altitude is much higher which makes for quite a vantage point in person.
Well I think the above is pretty self explanatory. I made it to the peak, and although there are many peaks in CA that are much higher this was still a hell of a climb. I was very happy to have reached this point and needed the photo to prove it! If your curious why I've lost my sunglasses in this photo (which you probably weren't but I'll tell you anyways), they had gotten to such a lovely state of sweat saturation that I could no longer see through them! mmm yummy!I remember when having gone to the monkeys previously that they were very close after the peak. I asked a tour guide who had brought some people to that outlook and he said oh yeah just around the corner and you'll see it right there. Well he was right, but he failed to mention there was a nice valley between that corner and the monkeys. Oh well what the hell, I pressed on knowing they had cold drinks there.
Reaching the area I keep referring to as the monkeys I got myself an ice cold Ting (like squirt), and a bottle of water. I proceeded to watch some tourists do their best to befriend the monkeys. If you look to the right of the guy with the white shirt on you'll see a monkey walking along the railing... in the opposite direction of the tourists. (This is a zoomed in portion of a photo from my iPhone so the quality is only so-so). Monkeys have one priority, bananas, when you run out they leave. Very simple, yet tourists still don't seem to get it.After a few minute break I noticed storm clouds heading my way so I figured it was a good time to head home. Venturing back down this very steep windy hill became an adventure on it's own. I passed two cars and one large truck going down the hill. Yes I was going fast, but there are some fundamental differences in the physics of a two-wheeled vehicle going down a hill that a four-wheeled vehicle simply can't compete with. (Not to mention the adrenaline was quite a kick!) I found my self getting hit with a few rain drops in the beginning then they stopped, I'd hit a flat (slow) patch and the storm would catch up sprinkling on me a bit more. It was an interesting way of keeping track of my average speed.
Eventually I made it off the mountain and into St. George's, luckily for me it's dead on a Sunday. The storm unfortunately did not continue to follow me though and I started to bake. By the time I reached home I literally almost passed out.
Megan quickly helped me regain my strength while also providing the frozen peas for my knee and the frozen corn for my arm. Nothing like some good ol' veggies to help the swelling! I am exhausted, bruised, swollen, sore, and worn out to the fullest... but it was quite a fun adventure.
