David's Ride Diary - August and September, 2000
Note: This page is written in reverse chronological order.
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Tuesday, September 26, 2000 - Today I discovered that I have a third time of the day to ride--the lunch hour. With an hour and fifteen minutes for lunch, I was able to ride up to the Control Militar and back. That's about a twelve mile ride and takes forty-five minutes. I ate my lunch on the bike for the first few miles, then rode harder after that. After cleaning up I walked over to school and arrived just before the late bell.
Saturday, September 23, 2000 - Sleeping in seemed more important today than getting up early for a ride. We spent a couple hours at the river in the afternoon. Around 4:30 PM I finally got on my bike and headed northwest up the road toward Banos, staying on the main road. I rode as far as the Control Militar, just past Mera, before turning back for home. The last time I rode this far by myself, I turned around before getting very close to the checkpoint. This time I rode close enough to say 'Buenas Tardes' to the PM's. Thankfully they didn't stop me to ask me any questions. This is a nice ride; it's a very gradual climb there, and then slight downhill on the way back. There's one short descent and climb each way when you cross the Alpayacu river bridge.
Thursday, September 21, 2000 - Gary and I rode the Dog Loop backwards this morning before school. It was nice to have Gary along this time. I figure with two of us riding together, I have a fifty percent less chance of being chased by a dog. It was nice to ride the loop backward; it will make a nice change of pace to do that once in a while. The ride took a little longer this way, but only about five minutes.
Tuesday, September 19, 2000 - I rode this afternoon after school. After my short three minute commute home, I was changed and on my bike in no time. I really appreciate that I don't have to put my bike on the car rack and drive somewhere for a ride. That fact made going for rides in Oakhurst just a little bit more difficult. On the other hand, there are not as many places to ride here in the Shell area as there were in the Oakhurst area.
I rode the 'Dog Loop' today, which is what I've started calling the ride through Madre Tierra and Puyo. There was quite a bit of difference riding at 5 PM from the previous two rides when I rode at 6 AM. I had to use a different strategy with the dogs. In quite a few places I wasn't able to ride at a fast speed because there were more people on the road. It seemed that where there were people, there were dogs. I find that if I'm riding about 17 MPH or more I can easily outride the dogs. Slower than than, and they are right there, barking at my heels. So today, if I had to slow down for people and a dog was there, I rode slowly by. If the dog started to bark and run at me, I found a firm "No!" would stop it. Once I was far enough away, I could speed up again. However, there was a time or two when the "No!" directed at one dog only served to alert the dog in the next yard that I was on my way!
As I neared Puyo I saw a little dog chasing a bike up ahead of me. As I went by the dog, I was going almost 20 MPH, so I egged it on a little so it would chase me. Of course, since the dog had legs about six inches long, it couldn't run very fast. I had a good chuckle at my bravery! Shortly after that, I came to a hill heading down into Puyo. A dump truck was slowly driving down the hill, so I sped around on the left to pass it. Just after I passed it, a big dog came running at me from the left. I tried to pedal harder, but my foot bounced out of my clipless pedal. It's a good thing I was already flying down the hill, or he would have had me!
I am amazed at how little mud there is here. It rained all of Sunday night, much of the day Monday, Monday night, and half of Tuesday. When I came back from my ride, I had about five drops of mud on me. There was very little mud on the bike. The water either evaporates quickly or soaks into the ground very quickly. This fact is one of the things that makes the rain more bearable. All in all, it was a great ride.
Sunday, September 17, 2000 - My weekend seemed too busy to squeeze a ride in, but when it came down to it, I couldn't figure out what was making it so busy. Other than spending some time planning for the classroom, there wasn't much else happening. Saturday afternoon about 4:30 Dustin wanted to go swimming. We headed up the road on our bikes, headed toward the bridge at the Alpayacu River. That didn't last too long, and after about two miles we turned around and came back. We almost had a pile up on the way there when Dustin spotted a millipede at least six inches long and about as thick as my thumb, with hundreds of bright orange legs moving like waves. Dustin pulled on his brakes to stop for a closer look. I was right behind him; I locked up the rear wheel and skidded and narrowly missed riding right into him. I must admit, it was a pretty neat looking creature, but nothing worth crashing over. We have a couple dog incidents. A big dog jumped at us before we were even out of town, barking right next to Dustin. It scared Dustin a lot, but he was able to laugh about it. He said, "That dog almost had my leg or my stomach." It's true, since sitting on his BMX bike he's much closer to the ground than I am.
Sunday afternoon the boys finally did make it to the bridge to swim. Uncle Ken drove the hospital van, and a bunch of kids and some parents piled in for the five mile drive to the bridge. I followed on my bike, stopping at the bridge to check on my boys. I then rode on, past Mera to the Military Police checkpoint before turning around and heading back to Shell. I pulled into the driveway a few minutes before the van came back with the kids. It was a great way to end the afternoon.
Wednesday, September 13, 2000 - My ride this morning was a big deal. I had decided to ride on my own. At 6 AM I tiptoed past Gary's window so he wouldn't know I was going. He had to go on rounds at 7:30 AM, and I didn't want to be the cause of any temptation to squeeze a ride in. The reason it was a big deal was that I rode the Madre Tierra loop and I faced the dogs alone.
I passed more dogs on this ride than in ten years of riding in Oakhurst. The dogs came in all sizes and shapes, and with varying attitudes. I was only chased by one dog. He was with a man walking along the road. As I passed, the dog began to chase, barking off my left side. Under the best circumstances, I would have stood, shifted to a higher gear, and pedaled away. However, this was a bumpy road with wide puddles in front of me. When I realized he wasn't going to quit, I pulled my left foot from the peddle and stabbed my foot at him a couple times. About this time I almost rode into the bush on the right side of the road and was about to ride through a big puddle. I guess the dog finally listened to his master's calls at this point, since he stopped chasing.
I rode on, passing all sorts of people--a dignified man with a fedora riding a horse; a girl scrubbed and clean, wearing spotless white clothes waiting for the bus; a little girl about four years old walking home carrying a bag of pancitos (rolls); and a guy relieving himself beside the road. I passed many interesting dogs. One was sleeping on the edge of the road, and didn't even seem to wake up as I bounced by. Another looked at me like he'd like to give chase, but it was just too much effort so early in the morning. Three dogs were off the road in the sugar cane field, looking like a gang up to no good. More than a few dogs I passed weren't interested in me at all, but were busy sizing each other up, trying to be the big dog on the block. At one point I finally felt comfortable with all the dogs. At that moment a dog charged up out of nowhere and barked two or three times. My heart rate jumped about twenty beats from the fright. I think that's all he wanted to do, since he was gone as soon as he came.
I continued on, past the sugar cane mill, onto the cobblestones, and into Puyo. A left turn and a short peddle up a steep hill and I was back in Shell, less than an hour after I left. I walked back into the house at 7:10 and hurriedly showered, ate, grabbed a cup of coffee, and headed off to school.
Saturday, September 9, 2000 - It is a beautiful day in the Pastaza province today. I was up at 5:30 AM. Gary's wife was having a yard sale this morning, so he and I set up a few tables for that before we started riding. We left at about 6:10 AM under clear skies. The volcanos were absolutely breathtaking. As I waited at the gate for Gary, I watched the snowcap of El Altar change from an orange color to yellow, then white.
We rode 9 miles on the paved main road before turning off for the little village of Cumanda. As soon as we turned off the main road we descended a steep and very rocky road. After bouncing to the bottom, we crossed the Pastaza river on a 150 yard long suspension bridge. The bridge, built in 1972, isn't wide enough for a car, but the wood planks work great for bikes, burros, and people. The Pastaza is about the size of the Merced river, and is brown and muddy. On the other side of the river we doubled back and rode about a mile to Cumanda. In one place the road was washed out. In another spot we had to walk our bikes up a 100 yard long hill covered with rocks from fist size to the size of Tay's head. It was impossible to ride up. After that hill we rode some relatively smooth dirt into the village of Cumanda, where we were greeted by about seven dogs. Gary talked with a couple guys there at a little store (I do mean little--you don't go inside; you buy what you want through a window.) about the monastery there. As we were leaving they asked us if we wanted to buy a drink or anything. I happened to have a $1 in my bag, so we bought a couple Cokes and talked a little more. Today was the first day to officially begin using the US dollar in Ecuador.
The ride back home was much the same as the trip there. The rocky road leading back up to the main road was steep, but rideable. Once we were back on the paved road I turned to look back up the canyon and was surprised to see a huge stack of ash rising from the volcano Tungarahua. From Shell and the surrounding area one can't see Tungarahua because it is hidden behind a closer mountain range, but the ash and smoke is sometimes visible. Just before the town of Mera we rode through the military checkpoint again. On the way to Cumanda the Military Policeman had asked us, "Are those your bikes?" We were polite, but we thought that was a stupid question...of course they're ours! Most everyone passing through the checkpoint is stopped. They are looking for stolen cars, and tourists must register as they come into the Pastaza province.
We made it home in plenty of time for the yard sale. While Ellyn helped with the yard sale, I made pancakes and fed all the kids on the compound. The ride was two hours long. The distance was twenty-one miles, only three of which were off road. I miss my road bike, but there just isn't enough paved road here to justify having one. At any rate, this was a great ride on a great day.
Thursday, September 7, 2000 - The ride started at 6 AM today and we could see the volcanos as we pedaled off. It was a beautiful morning and it didn't rain on us. Gary has a few days off, so we took advantage of that to ride together. I could never get a ride in before school when I lived in Oakhurst, so this was great. Gary showed me a loop that is 15 miles long and takes about an hour and five minutes. We turned off the main road past the end of the runway and went through the towns of Madre Tierra and San Francisco before riding through Puyo and then home. By Oakhurst standards it's a flat ride, and the last four miles of it are paved. The rest of the ride is on bumpy dirt roads, so I was very glad to have my own bike with its suspension fork. In fact, for a few hundred yards we even rode on a cobblestone street. Bumpy! We were chased by a few dogs, so this was really my first introduction to Ecuadorian dogs. The ones I saw today were pesky, but not really mean. They chased us, but were more interested in barking at the bike than taking a bite out of our legs. This is a loop I'll definitely ride again. I washed my bike, dried it, and lubed the chain before hanging it up. I've noticed a few spots where I've chipped the paint off are quickly turning rusty here. I'm going to clean those up right away and coat them with some clear coat (fingernail polish).
Tuesday, September 5, 2000 - I almost got wiped out by a truck backing out of a car port today as I started my ride in town. It rained on me a little, but I probably got just as wet from the sweat. The ride was 16 miles after school on the same road Gary showed me on my first ride. This was my first ride on my bike. The bikes finally arrived on August 30. They had been shipped from Redlands on July 13! Everything arrived in good shape though, so that's something to be thankful about.
Sunday, August 20, 2000 - I went for my first ride today. Our bikes are still not here. The people who live next to us just came back from furlough and he's a rider. I rode his wife's bike today, a Specialized with no suspension. Gary rides a Merlin titanium with XTR and is a good rider. He's a doctor at the HCJB hospital. We started out in the rain, and rode mostly on dirt road. Actually, it was like riding on a creek bottom most of the way. If a road around here in the jungle isn't covered with about 50 tons of river rock and gravel, then it would be about two feet deep with mud. So, most roads are very rocky. Of course the bike I rode was rigid and I had no SPD's so that made for a challenge. Oh, and it was a 26 mile ride, so I was beat, having not ridden for far too long.
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