Everyday when I look out my window or go out Carbon bicycle wheels of my house, I see a large mountain across the canyon. I had hiked up one trail a couple of times and found some Inca ruins at about 11,500 feet and also realized that the trail continued around to a new road that went up to the top of the mountain from the other side, and then on to some other villages. Later I rode my bike up the road, it took about 2 ½ hours to the junction with the foot trail but I didn't have time to continue up any farther. The following week I hiked up a different trail and reached the top of the mountain, it is actually the rim of the canyon and beyond that there is a rolling high plain. I went to the nearest high point, which was 14,200 feet. This is 5,400 feet above my house.

From there I had a great view of http://www.xmapexsport.com/bicycle-c1769.html the Canyon, the village of Cotahuasi and the snowcapped peak of Mt. Solimana across the canyon on the other rim. I also saw the road coming up from the backside and knew that one of my next outings would have to be to ride up the road, my first "14er" on a bike! When I say road, don't think of anything like a nice paved mountain road in the U.S., we're talking narrow gravel road like the fire roads going up the mountains in Southern California. It was summer but also the rainy season and usually the rain clouds come from that direction in the afternoon. I decided to give it a try on a Wednesday, about a week later, but when I woke up at 6:30 it was very cloudy and looked like it would start raining early. However by 8:00 it started to clear up so I decided to go for it.

It was 9:05 before I finally left my house and it had turned into a beautiful but cool morning. I knew it would be cold on top so I put my tights on over my bike shorts. The first 20 minutes is a technical single track that goes down into Lightweight bicycle frame the canyon, crosses a bouncy suspension bridge and then climbs back up to the road. This is the walking shortcut. Following the road from my house takes about 40 minutes. From there it is about 10 minutes on the road down into another canyon and then the climb starts. However before I got to the second bridge, I had a flat tire. There are cacti of many different kinds everywhere here and they all have nasty thorns. Anyway, I only had two freshly patched tubes with me so was hoping I would be OK on the road. I found one thorn and removed that, fortunately I took extra time checking the tire and found two more thorns before putting in the new tube. I have had up to five holes in one tube when I went to patch it!

For the next 1 ½ hours I was roasting but didn't stop to take off my tights because I kept thinking it would be getting cooler any time now. About 2 ½ hours from the start, I went through the small village of Cocchapampa at about 10,500 feet, where I had attracted much attention from some kids the first time I http://www.xmapexsport.com/carbon-mountain-bike-rims-c1772.html rode up. I think I must have been the first biker they had ever seen riding through there. This time a group of little girls took one look at me and ran off screaming like they had seen a monster! Just past the village the new road forks off, and after about 10 minutes of flat riding around a hill it starts climbing again. Looking ahead there was nothing but long switchbacks heading up the side of the mountain.