Saturday morning was a slow moving morning.
We attempted to mess around with my fork a bit to try and get to the bottom of its problems. KB found us after lunch and let us know he was cabbing it to some place Sactay, some ruins, to kick it for the afternoon with a friend. Good riding up above there so he had the cab drive me and Sam up a couple thousand feet above the ruins to an old school at the top of a mountain. With my lack of a bike I took out a Kona Roast hard tail with a Dirt Jumper fork and some awful XT disc brakes that didn’t work for shit (my guess infected pads). Some tiny kids pointed us toward a trail on an opposite ridge which we could just make out. We crossed a river and began hiking. At the top we found another mind blowing trail. This one gradually dropped across and down the mountain side to the river/train tracks below. First 75% was just buffed out single track, right on the edge of cliffs the whole time. So flowy, an absolute joy to ride. The last 25% was ridiculously steep technical single track, hard switchbacks, some of the steeper riding I have done. I literally creeped this because of my terrible brakes – couldn’t even lock up the wheels. Hit the tracks at the bottom, rode for a mile or two and went to check out some cool ruins. We hiked up a terraced mountain side which was some sacred agricultural area to a natural cave beneath a huge rock erupting out of the mountain side. Real cool place. The ride back to Ollantay was a casual 7 miles of relatively flat trail/inca road. Came across some huge cows that blocked our way and would not move, had to tip toe around them very slowly, bike separating us of course. Got back pretty late, chilled downstairs and took it easy.
Sunday morning I was still faced with the fact that I may have to buy a new fork down here as none of the shops have specific tools or knowledgeable mechanics, anything mailed from the US gets hit with a 40% tax, and there are no rock shox dealers anywhere here (in the country) – only Marzochie. We delved deeper into the fork as the rebound was f’ed in addition to its inability to hold air pressure. Located a leak coming from the top valve of the solo air assembly, dismantled, cleaned, lubed seals etc. Ended up having to make our own tools to take apart the valve and tighten it, this solved the holding pressure problem! Popped the stanchions and rebound cartridge out to find that the tards at Landrys bike in boston rebuilt it without any oil to lube the rebound assembly. Fully cleaned and took it apart. Unfortunately we only have 25 and 5 weight oil here (no 15) so we mixed a concoction to what we thought was spec and filled with with 215 or so cc’s. Rebound adjuster that went into the stanchions was a little messed up, would only turn about 25% of what it should, essentially not allowing adjustment. Not really sure what we did but played with it a while and got it to open up/and break free. Also installed some new seals that Sam had extra and brought from the States. After many hours and lots of guessing/learning the fork is back to life and feeling great! Nice, lets celebrate and get a cab back to Sactay where we road yesterday, can’t get enough of that trail. This turned into a huge ride, we cabbed it to the top and paid the driver to wait 30 mins at the bottom and take us back up again. Once back up at to the school at the top we saw some cool looking trails on an opposite ridgeline and decided to hike up to it. We hiked a good 45 mins, pretty hot and sunny and then dropped the trail once 530 roled around as it was getting late. Pretty fun trail, really loose and rubely though. Got back to the school at the top and immediately began hiking to the previous trail on we had now ridden about 2 times. Ripped it back down to the river/tracks and began the long ride home. God damn did it feel good to be back on my downhill bike. However, the 7 mile flat grind back to the hostel on my DH bike was a little tiring although I am getting pretty used to it now. Pitch black and almost home I am cruising along in about 4th gear, thankfully ever so slightly downhill. Suddenly I was flanked by two ferocious German Sheppard’s who I thought were quite literally going to rip my limbs off. In a split second I was into a sprint and in 9th gear. Pure fight or flight I do not think I have ever sprinted so fast in my life. They stuck about 6 feet off me for at least 30 seconds. Just as I was about to throw in the towel and donate my body parts to their dinner I plowed into a huge 50 foot long puddle about5 inches deep taking up the entire road. I closed my eyes and continued to pedal, the dogs retreated at the edge of the water. My lungs burnt so bad, I swear I pedaled harder than I have at any finish line in all my years of racing. I figure if Dan lets a handful of rabid stray dogs loose at the last 20 seconds or so of each race (just for Drummer Racing) we would be shaving serious seconds off our time. Feeling pretty good with our ride and fitness level we cooked dinner and headed to Gansos for more 10 soles liters of Pilsen and some pisco sours. Drank a lot, sam passed out at the table, I had my ear talked off by hammered tripping Peruvians about spiritual inca stuff and my internal flame or something. Sam had an interesting walk back ha, crashed for the night.
Man was Monday morning rough. I was up at 6:45 to see if we had any tours. KB was still gone as he had to get to some mountain peak really far away for a gps reading and some information to put in his guide book. It was 75 and sunny – so beautiful I felt bad going back to bed so I got my music and some reading materials and hit the roof terrace for a while. Spent a few hours up there got some serious sun. Getting pretty tanned now, looking more local. I was feeling pretty free for long time as I hadn’t shaved since a few days before leaving the States so was pretty bearded. I also have not washed my hair since the States so I’m just going with it. (yes I shower a lot and use soap, just havnt really gotten around to washing my hair yet.) Anyway I think its pretty clean, I read somewhere that once you do not wash your hair for like a week and are doing lots of physical activity that it begins to clean itself; the human body amazes me. So I finally shaved as my trimmer wont charge, finding shaving cream was hard as Peruvians don’t have facial hair. I’m getting a break from the sun chillin downstairs, feeling pretty hung over still and Benoit walks in. This is one of the French rappers who promised us his return on Monday to take his skateboard to the top of Malga pass (15,000 ft) to ride the 32 miles of road down. Shit is it seriously Monday? And shit I didn’t think he would follow through. If we are going up to Malga pass, this means I am riding the mega avalanche course and we will meet up with him every 10 minutes or so when the trail intersects the switchback road – which it does about 10 times. Well I need a game changer; hit Hearts Café for Lattes and French fries. Benoit pays for the cab up which is sweet, it takes about an hour and a half to get up there – he is seriously going to do it. 32 miles, 91 hair pin 180 degree blind corners at a constant 15 degree pitch (sometimes a little steeper). This kid is nuts, we rode the trail and met up with him at intersects all the way down. Followed him a bit and took some awesome video footage of him carving this 2 lane road with huge mountain in the back ground, hair pin turns etc. ¾ of the way down he took a pretty nasty tumble and was kinda disheveled when meeting up with us. Earlier we had convinced him to wear a bike helmet, which he did. Good thing because he broke it. Cut up his nose a little and around his eye although his sunglasses took most of the blow which were broken and looked as though they were dragged across a belt sander. Tough kid, few spots of road rash too. We sat and chilled for 10 mins drank some water, checked him for a concussion and resumed our ride. We made it to the bottom and met up at a little store to celebrate with cookies and beers. This has to be some kind of a record, or at least one of the first people to do it. He rode the whole road stopping once for 10 mins. 32 miles, 91 hair pin corners, all constant down hill. Awesome. Chilled for a while, taught some local kids how to ride a skateboard and began the 3.5 mile ride back to the hostel. Drank some celebratory beers on the roof terrace, went out for a fancy dinner at one of the nicest restaurants in town, Puka Rumi. I have now been 3 times, every time I get the burritos, they are to die for. For a whopping $6 you get 2 freshly hand fried crapes, a bowl of seasoned chiken or beef and all kinds of little bowls of awesome toppings. After dinner headed up to Gansos for liters of Pilsen until he had to leave at about 9. The bar was bumpin thievery corporation, I played around with the bongo drums for a while. Around this time we were joined by some Aussies; Tom, Paul and Millie who we had invited out earlier. Really cool people, stayed at the bar till very late, had some awesome conversations putting things in perspective between our two countries – politicls, law, sports – they were Celtics fans. Another pretty late night.
