This Sunday dawned with mostly blue skies – the first morning in several weeks without heavy cloud cover. Our core group of regular riders was augmented by two newcomers to Oaxaca. Jake is bike-packing from the U.S. to South America with his girlfriend and stopped for a few weeks in Oaxaca to rest and enjoy the scenery. Brian arrived a few days ago with the intention of making Oaxaca his home for a year or so. Both were eager to explore the territory and were welcome to ride with us. Brian is a roadie and so was unaccustomed to riding a mountain bike. Jake’s rig was outfitted for touring. So today’s outing was laid out to give them a taste of different treads – pavement, country road and jeep trail – over terrain that would offer some challenges but not be overwhelming. After meeting at 9 am in central Oaxaca we road to Tule, using a jeep road that swings up and over a ridgetop before dropping into the flat terrain of the Tlacolula Valley. From Tule we rode on pavement to Santo Domingo Tomaltepec and then returned to Oaxaca via dirt roads that took us through Tlalixtac. Nearing the capital we veered off to Huayapam to stop for lunch at a restaurant with a patio on the shore of one of the two presas that store water for the residents of Tlalixtac. The outing was most enjoyable, marred only by the rear derailleur cable breaking on Brian’s borrowed mountain bike. He had to make his way back to town with the use of just the three different gear ratios provided by the front triple chainring. All told, the group covered 24.1 miles (38.8 kms) with an elevation gain and loss of 1611 feet (491 meters) on the loop ride. The high point of the trail was the top of the ridge, which registered 5515 feet (1681 meters) on the GPS unit. Counting the hour or so spent enjoying lunch, the group was on the trail for about six hours.
