Now you get to face back to back sectors during which you may ask yourself if you are getting punked…
Once again incorporated into this unique event with permission of the SDRPT Park Ranger, Dave Hekel, Kakaboulet and Hodgendam have to be the most interesting combo sectors of them all; for both Waffle and Wafer. They barely have any incline to them but bring all sorts of rocks and challenges that everybody will have to get off and run their bike at some point, even the leaders.
The varied terrain runs parallel to Lake Hodges and follows along its western border until it becomes Twistenlemonberg, not to be confused with Lemontwistenberg, which you may recall completing on the way out.
Kakaboulet (Flemish fora nonsense word used "to express dismay") is short in length at 2-km and starts just beyond a pleasant but brief asphalt section enjoyed after the rocky mayhem of Hodgesmeergate. Once on this sector, it’s easy to express dismay at this most unique sector of the event. There are big cacti, little bridges, banked turns, whoops and jumps... and really big rocks. There are a series of tricky tense ravines that many will choose to walk through, while some will ride, and possibly, not so successfully. Eventually, all must get off and navigate the rocks as though it were a cyclocross race. You may have to dismount several times along this sector. It’s ok… you’ll be really tired anyway.
Once through all of the rocky obstacles, you will pass Hernandez Hideaway (yes, you can get tequila here)and start onto what really is the only true gravel road of the event, a roughly, and we really mean ROUGH, 3-kilometer sector of big, rocky gravel; the kind made for really big trucks. You’ll need to find the line through here and stay in it because the brick-sized gravel along here is brutal. The beauty of this sector is lost on most, but if you were to take it all in, there is the pristine serenity of the lake to the left and a wonderful woodland-like hill on the right that shrouds the existence of Del Dios Hwy. It’s beautiful, but the sound of your wheels grinding through the huge gravel will dominate your senses, unless thirst is considered a sense, because it’ll be hot with a headwind here.
Once again, our friends at Pure Gravel have graced us with a first-person view of these sectors: