Guadalupe Mountains National Park - Friday, April 15th

Our destination - According to wikipedia - "Guadalupe Mountains National Park is located in the Guadalupe Mountains of West Texas and contains Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas at 8,749 feet (2,667 m) in elevation. It also contains El Capitan, long used as a landmark by people traveling along the old route later followed by the Butterfield Overland Mail stagecoach line."

Numbers for the day:

• 106 mile day
• 105 miles of head winds
• 2 big climbs
• 1 relatively gentle grade for about 6 miles at the beginning of the day
• 1 climb that started off gentle for about 7 miles and became painfully steep for the remaining 6 into the park
• 1 completely exhausted but very proud Maggie

We got out on the road early knowing we had an epic day ahead of us, a century ride (100 miles in a day) in and of itself is a huge physical and mental challenge. Before even getting a few miles out of town we were struck with head winds. I’m not sure there is anything more frustrating while cycling than strong headwinds.

When the climbing began the group started to break up a bit. I reached what seemed like the top, but it turned out the hills just kept on rolling all day long. For a large part of the morning I rode side by side with Roshan. We couldn’t really have much of a conversation because the wind was blowing so hard it was too difficult to hear each other talk. After what seemed like forever we reached the lunch stop. Katie had located a nice little store where it cost $1 or the purchase of a cookie to use the bathroom. I decided that price was too steep, ate fast and got back on the road.

The road seemed to go on forever, but finally after passing the final rest stop at mile 80 the climb was in sight. We were warned it was about 13 miles up and would get worse as we moved further up the mountain.

The climb seemed to last forever, but finally the park enterance appeared and I knew I would be able to get off my bike very soon. I mustered up as much energy as I could to ride toward the campground and was welcomed by cheers of the support team for the day and the other riders who had already reached the top.