Firstly I want to start by thanking my parents for giving me this birthday opportunity and allowing me to again hurtle myself down a mountain on two wheels with only a pair of disc brakes and my face to stop me.
Having enjoyed the Death Road so much, when we got back to La Paz I had to give mountain biking one more go. The only problem is that Gravity have so many options available its hard to make a decision. Luckily that part was taken care for me as some other people had already booked the Ghost Ride, making it cheaper for me if I went along. Even though I had never had any single track mountain biking experience I paid the money, signed the death waiver, kissed Lou goodbye and headed back to the mountains for some more two wheeled fun.
Starting a 5000m above sea level, our guide gave us another run down on how the bikes worked, the do's and don'ts of single track and just overall have fun! With all my safety gear on, this time knee pads (just in case), I jumped on the bike and we started off down the mountain. The first few hours of the ride consisted of mostly single track, literally, riding down the mountain face. There was jumps to launch off, shear drops to ride off and oh so loose gravel to slide around and just have fun. A first the tracks were fairly easy with only a slight gradient combind with small jumps and smooth landings, but as the hours past we took some more techniqual tracks with tighter hair pin turns and steeper gradients. Again having not much mountain bike experience I did eat the dirt quite a bit, even to the point where i supermaned over the handle bars for a good 3m, but that was all part of the fun. The best part of the single track, in my opinion, was the skeet. Skeet is the loose gravelly material typically in abundance on the mountain face, and when riding though it it makes for a skiing like experience, when you can do it properly. It's also not to bad to crash into as its fairly soft and not so compacted.
The second part of the day was spent on a proper track/gravel road, continuing on down the mountain. This was again similar to the death road, with open cliff edges and amazing sceanery. Although unlike the now more touristy death road, this track is predominately used for local traffic and is beginning to take the title of worlds most dangerest road off the former. Along the way we pass though numerous small villages, cascading waterfalls, ferocious wild dogs and an old Spanish gold refinery. Whilst the road itself was brutally grueling to ride, the sceanery we passed along the way most certainly made up for the bruised hands and aching forearms. The ride ended at the bottom of the valley in an old castle, apparently haunted, built by one of the previously presidents. Now a days the castle is rented out for functions and accomodation. Most of the decor look original and fit the part, however the rest of the building was in disserary due to the lack of tourism in the area.
Overall the ride was a great experience and has once again unveiled within me an unknown passion for mountain bike riding. Or perhaps at the very least videoing the fun of the ride...enjoy...
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