Michael: The Rides

The trail is squishy,
Rocky, rooty, hypnotic,
Scary and serene.

Saturday, December 12, 2015

There are more cyclists here than trail runners, but that’s not saying much. Outside of Kimme, I haven’t seen any one else running the trails. But there does seem to be a group of worthwhile adversaries here on bicycles, though I haven’t ridden with any of them yet. So again, like running, I train alone on the bike here.

There are four main cycling routes here, each about a 25 mile branch on one of the two main roads of Volcan. Volcan sits at about 4,500 ft. in the highlands on a two lane road that connects the Pan American Highway to the south to the Costa Rican border to the north. The other main road connects Volcan to the town of Cerro Punta to the east.

From Volcan to the Pan American Highway is 25 predominantly downhill miles. The ride begins with some lazy curves downhill and ends on a straight downhill slope into the town of Bugaba. On the descent, the heat and humidity pick up, but as long as I get there before 10, it hasn’t been much above 80 degrees or too miserably humid. Without pushing it too hard I can do this section in about 50 minutes. That makes the turn around a long grind back uphill to Volcan, but at least the weather breaks about half way up and becomes cooler, in the 70s, and far less humid. The ride, from Volcan and back, takes me about 2:40. I end up averaging a little over 16 m.p.h.

If you head north from Volcan it’s about 25 miles roller coaster miles to the town of Rio Sereno and the border with Costa Rica.  Again, it’s a predominantly downhill run, so an out and back trek is harder coming back than going out, but otherwise, this stretch of the road has a completely different feel than the road to the Pan American Highway. This section is constantly curving up and down and pretty much keeps you on your toes for the entire ride. I usually turn around at the Produce inspection station about 20 miles from Volcan. That takes me about an hour. The total ride takes me about an 2:15.

The easiest ride is the 25 mile lollipop loop on the other main road of Volcan. That’s the road that heads north and connects Volcan to the farming community of Cerro Punta. Cerro Punta sits at about 5,500 ft so this ride is actually faster coming back than it is going out. It’s also pretty much a hands off the brakes ride starting with a long straight slightly uphill stretch to Cerro Punta, doing a pretty flat 4 mile loop around that community, then heading back downhill into Volcan. That ride takes me about 1:25.

The other main road worth checking out by road bike here is the new road that is a shortcut to Boquete. That road branches off to the east from the main road to Bugaba about 10 miles downhill from Volcan at the town of Cuesta de Piedra. Again, it’s downhill out and uphill on the return and pretty much is a condensed version of the main road from Costa Rica to Buguba, starting off with a few big rollers then straightening out into a gradual  downhill slope. In the dry season I’ll ride about 25 miles to the small hamlet of Portrerillos before turning around. It takes me about an hour and half to get there and about 3:30 for the total ride.

At some point during this dry season I plan to do an extended grinder and either ride all the way to Boquete or do a big loop from here, down the new road to Dolega, then south to the Pan American Highway to David, turn on the P.A.H. to Bugaba, then head back up north to Volcan. But for now, I’m pretty content with the four routes I can do from my porch in Volcan.