Trans-Mexico Day #18 Raices to Toluca

Trans-Mexico Day #18

January 15, 2022

Raices, MX to Toluca, MX 54Km

Start 8:07am Finish 3:04pm

Ride Time: 4:41

Ascent: 651m

Descent: 1621m

Tour Total Km: 1838

Details at: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/81531216

I went to bed early and it was a long cold night. Last evening it got chilly while editing yesterday’s report. After I finished, there was nothing left to do but try to stay warm. I slept in my socks and long underwear and put my down sweater around the foot of my sleeping bag to keep my feet warm. I was able to stay comfortable, but being completely sealed inside my mummy bag I was having to breathe my exhaled carbon dioxide. I eventually worked out a small breathing hole in front of my mouth. I had to leave the tent several times during the night. I put on my down sweater to go outside. It was freezing cold in the morning. I woke with the first light and it was a slow pack up. I got upset because my water bottle had tipped over. There were rarely any level surfaces when camping, and this seemed to happen frequently. But this morning, even though the valve was closed, water leaked underneath my tent in between the footprint and the tent floor, and there was a big puddle. Water is such a precious resource that’s heavy to transport. It upset me to waste it, and I didn't like to travel with wet equipment. My hands were freezing during pack-up but I needed my fingers for so many things. Oddly none of my water bottles had froze last night.

It turned out that I hadn't camped that far from the road, and I could see traffic from my tent site. I doubt that I was noticed. There was a lot of tourist traffic on the road. Today I was wearing my long underwear bottoms, cycling shorts, leg warmers, socks, water proof socks, shoe covers, long underwear top, short-sleeve cycling jersey, short-sleeve sweater, down sweater, rain jacket as shell, balaclava, long-finger gloves, and long finger glove inserts. My body was comfortable, but my fingers were cold. I turned on my rearview light for the climb up to Volcan Toluca Nevado. It was a wide gravel road with two lanes and lots of motor traffic. The motor vehicles that passed me were not the type I’d seen throughout Mexico. They were new, shiny, and quiet.

The climbing grade was even and I was riding in my lowest gear. I got hot so I pulled over to remove my down sweater. I put on my sunglasses and turned on my iPod to bring pleasure to the climb. Today would be my last day on tour. It was Saturday and I had a flight home from Oaxaca on Wednesday. After the volcano I would be taking a series of buses. I had been thinking about that last night while freezing setting up my tent. I knew that I’d miss the road. I had enough time to ride one more day, but the bus options wouldn’t be as good.

There was a long line of cars to get through the park gate and I sped ahead. Cyclists didn’t have to pay admission. I was happily surprised to find a food court in the parking lot. I found a nice cocina where I got two tamales and an amazing hot chocolate.

From the parking lot there were only four ways to get to the crater; walk, run, ride a bicycle, or pay a collectivo. It was nice to see the locals getting in on the economic action, and it was back to the loud scrappy types of motor vehicles that I was accustomed to. There were plenty of hikers and I had noticed a plethora of mountain bikes strapped to the backs of motor vehicles driving up to the gate. I saw a group of riders and soon passed them. It was comforting to be amongst other bicycles on the road. And then a jogger passed me!

I noticed a sign that read, ‘Crater 7.6 km Ahead’. I had pedaled 5.5 km from camp. My hands were getting hot and I stopped to remove my glove liners and open the vents on my rain jacket. My feet were freezing. I listened to Nina Simone’s ‘My Sweet Lord/ Today is a Killer’ and Stevie Wonder’s ‘Black Man’ (underdog edit). By 10am I was at over 13,000’ in elevation, and above the tree line. There were small patches of snow around me. The best way to stay warm was to keep pedaling. I noticed many riders descending on mountain bikes

By 11am I had reached the visitor center and drop-off point for the vans and colectivos. I was at 13,660’, a new personal cycling record. There were swarms of people and the route forward was confusing. Hundreds of people were making the trek up to the crater.

There were really only two options, a hiking trail up to the crater or a gravel road that went around. I was told that I couldn’t bring my bicycle on the hiking trail so I opted for the gravel. I was stopped by an official who told me that I needed a ticket. The line at the ticket office was long and moving slowly. To continue would cost me 54 pesos and twenty minutes. Riding along the gravel track my GPS was alerting me that I was off route. The route had followed the hiking trail. I would be detouring around the crater.

I eventually came to a series of radio towers and could see that a track headed down the other side of the volcano would eventually connect back up with the route. I began descending on chunky dirt.

I ran into a few people on motorcycles and a couple others on mountain bikes. I missed the route section of single track that I had heard about. The track I was riding was mostly dry. It had snowed last week and there was still a little bit of mud. Soon I was back under the tree line.

Back down amongst the planting fields, there was a considerable amount of loose powder on the track. At one point I lost control and wiped out. I was now completely covered in fine brown dust. As I was entering a small pueblo I came to a fork, and once again lost control in the thick dust. I went flying over my handle bars and my right elbow and knee slammed into the dirt. I could feel that I was bleeding underneath my clothing layers. The fine dust was everywhere and I was in pain. My Wahoo GPS unit had sheered off it's mount.

I routed directions to the bus station in Toluca, and when the route directed me towards chunky rutted dirt, I switched to car directions. I had had enough of dirt. I stopped at an OXXO for a Coke and sat there outside on the curb to collect myself. I removed all my dusty clothing and literally left a thick pile of dust on the sidewalk. I removed my rain jacket, balaclava, long finger gloves, leg warmers, shoe covers, waterproof socks, socks, long underwear top and bottoms. While sitting there, raindrops began to fall. It was the first precipitation I’d seen since I got here.

I was routed onto a harrowing freeway (my choice!) and began to get cold from the rain. I stopped to put on my dusty rain jacket.

The sun finally reappeared and I stowed my jacket. I found the Toluca bus station and quickly got a bus to Mexico Observatory, the last stop on a CDMX metro line. From here I would need to cross Mexico City to get to a bus station serving southern destinations. I was told that I’d need to take the metro to the San Lazaro stop.

I purchased my 5 peso ticket and, rather than going to the turnstile, approached a police officer to let me through a gate, which is common on the New York City Subway system. He told me that bicycles weren’t allowed on the subway here. This would be a problem. I Googled riding directions and it would be a harrowing ride through the city by bike. I spoke with another official who encouraged me to take the subway. The police officer whom had confronted me earlier was on his phone, and I slid myself through the turnstile one pannier at a time. Right as I was reattaching my final pannier he busted me. I pleaded with him and he refused to back down. I was persistent, and he finally he let me get on a train.

My rig and panniers were covered in thick brown dust and I felt bad for the other passengers on the train. We were crammed in there like sardines. I met a friendly young guy whom had lived in New Jersey. Finally I reached the San Lazaro stop and found the bus terminal. Thirty minutes later I was on a bus to Oaxaca. The ride would take six hours, where I edited this report.