Cuba to Chaco Trading Post

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.

Abiquiu to Cuba

For whatever reason these photos are in reverse again. These first few are of Cuba.

The ride into Cuba

Check out the colors on these rocks!

The rest of these, in reverse order, are representative of the variety of the scenery today. Just a day spent in beauty.

Yea, no shit sign.

The Abiquiu Reservoir is very low

The view from where I slept last night, at the Sister's place.

And, tonight, I sleep in this park. :)

Abiquiu to Cuba

Well, despite being well psyched up for a rough two days of riding and dry camping, the weather was not going to let that happen. Last night the sisters and I were treated to a spectacular panoramic lighting display as several storms circled around us. This also meant that is rained all night up in the hills I was supposed to ride into, which likely have turned all the trails into Murder Mud.

I didn't want to take the pavement option easily. I rode into the little shop in town and hung out there for awhile, drinking coffee and polling the opinions of locals as to wether or not they thought those roads would be passable. It was a pretty unanimous "no," and I even met a guy who routinely picks up cyclists hitch hiking their way back down after getting stuck.

So, pavement it was. A rather routine 66 miles with 4,000 feet of climb (still not an easy ride at all) into Cuba. 9am to 3:40ish, 5 hours on bike. It was still a spectatular ride with amazing views. I don't mind road touring; I've certainly done it an awful lot.

In the tiny town of Gallina, about 45 miles into my day, I stopped at a tiny shop and met a nice lady and her cat. Her cat's name was Gabriel and loved me, but I never caught her name though. She said that when it rains she routinely gets Divide riders in her shop and on this route, and even knew about the race. Such is the Divide, you can't defeat the weather.

She also mentioned the three riders I've been hearing about since Platoro, they went through there a few days ago. No mention of Steve though. With the drier day yesterday he may have gone up to the mountains yesterday and been trapped by the rain today. I hope not.  If so though, he'll be riding by this park any time if he got down. More likely he also took the pavement detour and is still well ahead of me.

As such, the next three days or so I'll likely be on pavement. From here there are official late summer detours, and the race actually has these detours be mandatory. It's been raining all day (and all day up in the hills I'd have been in) so even if I wanted to tomorrow I doubt I'd make it more than 10 miles on the regular trail. It'll be saturated with Murder Mud and flash flood risk Arroyos.

That's alright, this area is still beautiful. Tonight I got permission from the police to sleep in the park in town. Cuba is a cool town. I met someone at a welcome center and then again at a Mexican resteraunt in town who said "this isn't New England, this is New Spain."  It really is a cool mix of Spanish and Indigenous influences. I've never been to New Mexico before, and a lot of these smaller old towns are awesome. Tomorrow, or the day after, I'll ride right by the Chaco Culture National Historic Park, which is thought to be the "highest level of civilization reached by prehistoric Native Americans north of Mexico" - according to my guidebook, and occupied from 850-1200 AD. Pretty sweet.

I also just met a group of youth who hang in this park all the time and befriended them, which is good because otherwise it could be a long night! Other inhabitants of this park are red ants and beatles that eat them, prairie dogs, and regular dogs. Also, for tonight, me.

Hopewell Lake to Abiquiu photos

Last photo first? Ok, this is the view from where I am right now.

Ok, yes, these are going in reverse order. This is Abiquiu

The lonely road to Abiquiu

The Mars Polar Lander in El Rito

Descending into El Rito. This road was crossed by the dry river many times. Is it called a wash then?

The first burn of this half of the trip I've ridden through.

Vallencitos

The Vallencitos community center

Descending into Vallencitos

Hey look, doubles@!

climb climb climb

In case you thought I was done with rough roads... I'm not.

Enter Murder mud (we are going in reverse order tonight, remember?) At this point my back wheel wouldn't even turn and I was dragging it. This mud was heavy too.

Muuurder mud. 

The mud had lots of animal tracks in it, including elk or deer, and what I think was wolf of coyote. Different sized tracks too, so I figure some cubs.

Morning Views

Hah, and last is last for once, this was my view tonight!

Oh, I'm in New Mexico as of a few days ago. Add Colorado to the list of states I've biked across. That list is: Iowa (19.5x), Oregon (3.5x), Idaho (3x), Montana (3.5x), Wyoming (2x), Nebraska, Illinois (3x), Indiana (3x), Ohio (3x), Pennsylvania, New York (2x), Massachusetts (2x), South Dakota (2x), Washington, Michigan, Wisconsin, Tennessee (0.5), West Virginia, Virginia, Colorado #biketour #gdmbr #greatdividemountainbikeroute

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Hopewell Lake to Abiquiu

Well today turned out just peachy! I'm on the porch of a wondeful home near Abiquiu (spelled wrong all last post) watching lightning WAY off in the distance, with good company and a great landscape. Georgia O'Kefe moved to Abiquiu to paint this area (among other reasons I'm sure).

It didn't start off great. It rained during the night and I woke up with a hard decision: Try the Divide dirt route, which may be wet and full of Murder Mud, or take the pavement detour. This, as well as stress about tomorrow's waterless dry camp woke me with considerable anxiety, and I battled that anxiety much of the morning. Anxiety at 10,000 feet makes you even shorter of breath, and I had to use all my grounding tools to pull out of it (and some satellite support texting from Andrea). 

Honestly, let's be real here, a lot of what I'm trying to do, alone, is terrifying. It's very easy to make a bad decision without anyone to check you.

Eventually I got to riding, and I decided to take the divide route and risk it. Most of the ride was good - just rough roads and very steep, but I did have to push my bike through over a mile of murder mud. It got so bad my back wheel was just dragging.  I ran into it several other times too, but none as bad as that mile or two.  

I also followed a day old track through it, and I can only assume Steve is back on dirt (or never left it.) Also, I found a water bottle in the murder mud... Maybe he's leaving me a trail of bread crumbs.

Eventually I made it to Canon and Vallencitos, two sweet old hispanic style towns with adobe buildings and what not. In Vallencitos the guy running the community center opened it up for me and gave me water and company. Then it was another long dirt climb and descent into El Rito, also super cool, and then 20 miles or so of pavement to Abiquiu.

Abiquiu is a bunch of old adobe buildings turned chuches and art galleries, and really no-where to stay. After striking out at a bike hostel (no reply), and several other places, I met two wonderful sisters from New York who invited me back to their place to stay. A short truck ride later and I'm hanging with them on their beautiful land, am showered, fed, and have wifi!  They are true angels.

Tomorrow I start a two day waterless stretch over a very difficult climb to Cuba. I'm very nervous, I hate dry camping. I plan on carrying 12 liters of water for the 74 miles push and camp. I could try and do it in one push, but it's very, very tough riding so I'm not sure I should.  It doesn't seem to be wet though, so that's good. No murder mud I hope.

I feel that more experienced riders would carry half the water and just do it, but I hate being thirsty when riding. They say you pack your fears, and when it comes to water... guilty for sure.

Lower Lagunita CG to Hopewell Lake CG Photos

Morning lake view

Much of today's ride looked like this, rolling high altitude grasslands.

Also Aspen Groves

Roughts Roads and pretty views

Those distance mountains are in Southern Colorado

I got this idea to protect your front derailer from mud on the Divide FB group. I did my own version with zip ties instead of duct tape.

That's  hard to ride road... 

You can see the road I was on ont he right side of this photo, descending the hills.

5 miles of up up up, pavement is a ton easier.

Hopewell Lake, with gross tasting water.  All lake water tastes gross though, honestly. Filters can make water safe, but lake water still tastes like lake water.

My campsite from my rain hiding hole.

Where I ate dinner and spent much of the afternoon. An outhouse awning.

First photo always last! If you look at the tree line a little to the left of center, you can see my bike and where I camped last night. Free, 100x the wildlife, way prettier, better tasting water, and also had an outhouse.