You know, I've seen some crazy-ass shit this trip so far. The weather last year for the first half was largely uneventful, if I remember right. The crazy rough roads, amazing views, solitude, nature, and hard riding is what is memorable - with the exception of the day going across the Great Divide Basin in Wyoming where I surfed a storm for a day and then it treated me to the most intense storm experience of my life that night - other than that, the weather has been pretty uneventful.
Not this year though. Not at all. Colorado and New Mexico are officially "not in drought" which is the first time in a long time. The most crazy memorable shit from this year will certainly be the variety, intensity, and large number of storms and lightning that I've seen every day, as well as the accompanying sunset and even Thunder Sunsets. A strange counterpart to the other main characteristic of New Mexico - almost no damn places to get water.
In Colorado this weather meant beautiful wild flowers, cool overcast afternoons, and afternoon and evening thunderstorms. I never got caught in one while riding - although it's rained on me every night but two while sleeping, I believe, those exceptions being Lower Lagunitas and Luder Creek campgrounds.
Now, in New Mexico, this means something different than wildflowers. Here, as well, I have hot, sunny mornings where the sun fries me, and strong afternoon thunderstorms, but instead of wildflowers we get Murder Mud and pavement detours. Today, day 12, was also somehow the first time I got caught while riding in one of the storms, which says a lot since I've been surrounded by them much of the trip.
Pavement riding is easy when you are used to offroad, even on a loaded touring bike. This part of New Mexico is also flat, so even though I crossed the Divide several times today, I did less than 3k of climbing in 70 miles. I pushed the first 40 miles in about 3 hours on bike without anything more than pee breaks, and then took a stretch and snack break at the top of a hill - realizing it was probably my last chance for a rest as I watched three different storms converging on me. The scariest one doubled in size during my short break and started throwing lightning everwhere, but it was moving away from my route. I just had to deal with a low-lightning, heavy rain storm.
So I did, and pushed the last 30 miles straight through the storm - 15 miles of being poured on and 15 miles of it chasing me. What I saw during the storm made me glad I was on pavement. Arroyos with gushing water, murder mud flooding on both sides of the road, water flowing over the road - pavement was my island. Everywhere else was quicksand. The last several days I've been watching these storms relentlessly march back and forth over the dirt Divide route, and now that I've ridden in one I can't imagine the hell it would be to be on dirt when one hit, or the hell it would be to try to ride on it for hours (or days) afterwards.
All in all, despite the storm, I road from 9am to 3pm, with 5 hours on bike and 71 miles, with only one noteworthy break. (Flat, not head-windy) pavement is easy.
I did however, get a motel at Grants. This is noteworthy, because in 20+ thousand miles of touring and nearly 4 times across the US, the last time I got a hotel was 2003 in Duboise, Wyoming for a rest day (that I remember). So why?
Because Grants is weird. Firstly, I would never choose to stop here if I had another choice. Grants is 5k people, which is too big to easily find a free place to stay in. The other two big towns on the Divide, Rawlings and Steamboat, I slept in dugouts, but those won't keep me dry in these windy storms. Grants has city parks, but they are way too central and nice for me to get away with putting a tent in them, and sleeping under the shelters would - again - not keep the windy rain off me.
There were a few places to steath camp, but Grants appears to already have a homeless population using lots of these places, and the clearer ones were full of Murder Mud. Grants is right on Route 66, which made it a boom town until I40 came through and destroyed it. Grants was also a twice-over mining boomtown, most recently being Uranium, but that's over now too. The result? Tons of abandoned buildings, and a very very long Route 66 shuttered mainstreat, several old abanonded motels, and just not a very safe spot to stealth camp.
Combine that with me being cold and wet and knowing it will rain all night, I realized that I'm 38 damn years old and have a good job and I suppose I can get a motel every now and then.
And can I be honest? It's awesome. Hot, private showers (I may shower twice!) a soft bed, and less than half the packout in the morning. I can't make a habit out of this, but it's certainly not a bad as I expected.
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