09/03/2023 Bikepacking Spain Day 26 : High on the hill was a lonesome goat

A late start thanks to a great breakfast and at a welcoming auberge. Definitely the best stay we have had on this trip. --

The hotel had an included breakfast that was prepared as if they cared about you. Plus, they had a fancy Nespresso machine (but actually, the espresso shots you get in Spain beat out Nespresso in taste and crema almost every day). --

We got rained on most of the climb - but a little sun peeked out too. Jackets were on and off a bunch. Janet did this climb entirely without a tow because I was a little hypo. --

Once we gained the plateau, smiles abounded. The trail along the edge was fantastic. Almost no one was up here and in one section, there were heavy boulders in the middle (preventing cars from coming through). Not many people up here, but along the road there was a chair with cheese on it (in front of a small hovel). I asked the woman in the doorway if she was selling cheese. She said yes... and a good thing because all the stores were closed on Sunday and I was getting pretty tight on food. --

Along the ridge there was an old church. I think a certain set of people would go to mass more if their church was located in a place like this. I know the Old Testament God doesn't want you to have false idols, but this is a good place to worship the world around you if you suspect that 2000 years later, God lightened up on that topic. --

This is a place where we got water. It was of questionable clarity. Murky, actually. But it was from a "spring" so we filtered, zapped, crossed our fingers, and bottoms up! --

A compilation of some drone videos taken throughout the day. As you can see, we were on a number of sheer cliffs on either side of the ridge. --

Tech talk! I spent some time wedging a screwdriver into my pedal and wiggling. Holding it axle side up, I dropped in T9 lube and finally managed to free the axle!! I can ride it now. I did break off the pliers in my Leatherman Squirt tool in the process. These pedals are a bit of hell! In other good tech news, you know I'm carrying a mini router. Yesterday I installed a (free) VPN from protonvpn.com on the router. Now we can see the Vuelta! And proton VPN can see everything we do online! Hopefully that isn't much, though, because we will only use the VPN for the Vuelta. Also good tech news, router related. Ever since an update to v26.00, the Bluetooth sync on my Fénix 6x had been taking hours at camp (and this killing my phone battery and watch battery). Now I tether my iPhone to the router and use Wi-Fi instead of Bluetooth. Only takes a minute to get the router ready and a few seconds to sync. Much better than 2 hours! Janet has the same GPS, but she never updates anything. Since her GPS is on the old software, she doesn't have this problem. Basically, I'm the update Guinea Pig of the household, and half the time I'm complaining about some software... and Janet is like "na-na! Hey, don't you update MY software!" It can be months before things get fixed. I always write the developers and they say, "gee, I haven't heard of that problem." I then mention that their help forum has hundreds of people are complaining about the same thing! --

Awesome drone footage! Wonderful perspective!

Janet W.