Enter day two of my pavement detour, likey the 2nd of four days. Today was not only paved, but flat, making for a pretty easy day. The next major town from Cuba is Grants, 110-120 miles away (depends who you ask and what map).
The Divide route puts you through a rough, waterless, easily flooded, muddy remote area. Can't do that, it's been raining in that area all day and for weeks. The paved route, also the Divide route and the official race route, puts you through an equally remote area with one reliable place to camp, the Chaco Trading Post about 49 miles in.
Today was interesting, after a long breakfast (today I learned that just because a town has a McDonalds doesn't mean you should eat there) and a later start - 9am, I pushed the first 40 miles of the ride without stopping longer than than I needed for quick pit stops, and then arrived at 49 miles by 1pm, 3:24 on bike. The ride was pretty as usual, New Mexico is pretty great. This riding really brings up memories of times I've biked across Eastern Oregon and Eastern Montana, and South Dakota. I have a place in my heart for riding through open desert areas. One other good thing about being forced on roads due to rain, is that I've been riding in overcast most of the time. That's been nice.
One thing I'll give pavement riding is that it's nice to really get some speed again. On dirt I have to be on my brakes on all the downhills because the roads are so rough and unpredictable, but on pavement I can really open it up and get some great downhill speeds and flat cruising speeds. It's a nice change of pace, but I definitely am craving getting back on the trail.
I was definitely temped to push a 110-120 mile day today. It's pretty flat and pavement is pretty easy. But, realizing I'd arrive at Grants (a bigger town) around 8pm if I did that, with nowhere to stay, and that I'd almost certainly get hit by afternoon thunder storms, I decided to hang out at the trading post. I'm a day ahead of schedule anyway.
This place is rad! It's right on the edge of a Navajo reservation and offers free camping to cyclist and often hosts Divide riders. It has a well stocked store and the ability to do things like cook frozen pizzas here. It's also a laundromat and has free wifi. I spent the afternoon hanging out with the owners as they did some wiring on a new wall and heard all sorts of cool stories. They are hoping to continue to add camping services for riders.
Tomorrow I push 70 more miles or so into Grant - fairly easy since it's all paved, then I load up on 4-5 days worth of food and push 70 more miles to Pie Town. After that it's 3 days of remote possible dry deserty camping before I reach my next resupply at Silver City, then Hachita, then I'm done! Crazy.
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