Day 132, November 15, 46km and 1080m climb, Oakzanita Springs to freedom camp Anzo-Borrego desert
Today was hard! It was also fun a lot of the time but some of that was definitely type 2 fun. We started with a 20km climb predominantly on single track. 95% of today's climb was in that first 20km. Most of it was rideable but there was also hike a bike in places. We are definitely going to come back here for a few days on our way back from Joshua Tree as the park has endless kilometers of beautiful hiking and mountain biking trails to explore and it would be a lot more fun with no gear on our bikes!
We did deviate slightly from the official route through this section when a young local lad stopped for a chat with us and gave us directions for a better up route that saved us at least an hour of hike a bike!
After exiting the park we had 20km of sealed downhill before starting our final descent to camp. The first few kilometers were lovely, winding single track and then we dropped straight into a 500m vertical descent into a canyon. Think Omarama Saddle descent times ten! Steep, rocky, rutted, challenging and with several sections where it was safer to walk! About half way down, Gordon realised he'd lost a water bladder off his rack so we then walked all the way back up trying to find it but with no luck. We hope the British couple we met on the way down found it as they were low on water. Fortunately we have sufficient for tomorrow.
Tonight we are camped in the bottom of the canyon, sheltered from the wind. We will not be able to take tomorrow off here due to the loss of water so will have to brave the strong winds forecast.
It's a stunning place though, deep in the Anzo-Borrego desert. Our campsite is tucked into the gorge which is quite green although there is no accessible water here. The rain of last week has resulted in plenty of green in this desert it seems.
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