Climbing- Oh Lord!

[Aggie_Ama]

My husband and I planned a trip to the Davis Mountains of Texas as a training ride for doing the Enchanted Circle later this year. Come to find out the 75 mile Davis Mountain loop has 7,000+ feet climbing and I think the Enchanted Circle is less. This site says something like 3,000 but that seems too low.

Well after this weekend I will either feel crazy confident or nervous as all get out for the Enchanted Circle!

[li10up]

Good luck and have fun!

Looking forward to hearing how it went.

[DDH]

Wow, your better than me. I dont' think there is anyway I could climb mountains. I do good to climb these long drawn out hills around here.

We've camped in the Davis mountains, I know how steep it is!!!

[motochick]

I have been training for a 3 day ride with a lot of climbing (I leave today BTW) so I have been riding the mountain behind my house every week. It is 4000 ft up in 15 miles. My advice, warm up first nice and easy. Spin as easy and as much as you can. While on the climb, go easy and go at YOUR own pace. I like to stop every 3 miles for just a minute to shake out and stretch my legs. Set a short term goal and when you reach it, pat yourself on the back! You will do fine and just keep a big grin on your face, cuz it's fun!

Brenda

[BeeLady]

How did it go in the Davis Mountains? Is there an organized ride or trail there? We've been to and through the Davis Mountains while visiting Big Bend. Seems like there would be some tough slogging!

Is the Enchanted Circle in New Mexico or does it have something to do with Enchanted Rock over near Fredericksburg, Tx.?

[denda]

We missed the Enchanted Circle last year, but my husband and I did it the 2 previous years. We always have fun. BEWARE, Bobcat Pass is a killer!
Be careful going through Taos. The traffic doesn't seem to be too friendly to bikers.

[Aggie_Ama]

All I can say is WOW! Fort Davis is spectacular, although a little too isolated for this city girl. The camping was amazing, minus the skunks that visited each night. We chose to ride on Saturday and as luck would have it the Lubbock Bicycle Club was doing a weekend tour there. I met one of the women in the bathroom- naturally.

We started out from the park (5000 ft), this means we started climbing almost immediately. The morning was cool and the first eight warm up miles were hard. Around mile 8 we started the real climb up the mountain towards the McDonald Observatory. I knew from my trusty "Best Bike Rides in Texas" book we were in for a 3.5 mile climb. The first part was brutally steep and by the time we got to a slightly flat section where my DH was waiting I was panting. Knowing the climb was so long gave some incentive to push, can you imagine walking 3 miles in road shoes!!

The rest of the climb was not as steep but still kept me in the granny gear and mashing at a whopping 4 mph. I got passed along the way by some guy who wanted to talk (not from the LBC) and I could barely say hello. I hated him the rest of the climb. Then the motorcycles passed me and looked at me like I was nuts. They were right. Finally we made it to the peak at the McDonald Observatory, approximately 6100 ft above sea level.







Here was our only water option and we made a crucial mistake of not going to the observatory visitor's center for water. The dry mountain air was really making my throat dry but I thought my camel back had more water in it than it did.



The next 20 miles would be "lumpy" by all accounts. There were some long climbs and some that just felt long. Around mile 35 (half way) we saw the LBC again. They urged us to stop at their lunch stop but we felt very weird. We hadn't paid to come on their excursion and they were simply inviting us in their flock. We decided to stop anyway and made some new friends who would become our sherpas/guardian angels. After their well placed lunch stop we got to fly down an awesome downhill into rolling hills. I was appreciative of the downhill because the heat was really picking up. It was a dry heat but still hot!

Somewhere around mile 50 when I wanted to accept the sag our new friends were offering we got word that the last 13 miles to Fort Davis were a false flat downhill. I knew from my book we simply had to climb to Skillman's Grove and then it would be downhill. We stopped one more time to take some of the water the club was offering and off we went. The flase downhill was amazing, we were able to average about 18 mph and saw antelope!



The rest of the ride was uneventful. Other than I can say the steep, short climb to get to the park is completely evil at mile 75!

I learned altitude really puts a hurt on me. I drank tons of water, was climbing strong at the beginning yet felt like dirt. It really sucked the life out of me. I also had mild altitude sickness all weekend, I hardly wanted to eat anything. That is something I will need to watch for New Mexico.

I would never do this ride again unsupported, that was silly of us. If it hadn't been for the good fortune of meeting the LBC we would have barely had enough water to make it to Fort Davis (6 miles away from camp) and I know I would have been so dehydrated that I would have spent Saturday night ill. Instead we got to enjoy our 5th wedding anniversary and went for dinner in town.

[sbctwin]

Congrats on the anniversary and especially the ride. Dry heat can really take it out of you. Great ride report....

[OakLeaf]

Cool!

Oh, and nice bike (same as mine)

[Mr. Bloom]

Great Report and Pics!

[cosc]

Glad you had a successful challenging ride. I enjoyed the ride report and pics.