"Never Say No to Adventure"

Thursday, August 15, 2019

Grants to Pie Town Photos

The first half of the ride was here.

They had a nice ranger station about 15 miles out, I read much.

After awhile the views turned to this...

And 38 miles in, my first dirt since before Abiquiu!

It started out with bright loose gravel and cows.

Then dried mud. This road was reported impassible the day before.

Very dry, rolling hills, and pretty.

A well for hikers and bikers.

Eventually the turn to Pie Town!

When I arrived at the Pie Town Cafe, I discoverd Kiwi Bikes!

These next are of the Toaster House, and open hostel-type thing in Pie Town for CDT Hikers, Divide Riders, and other folk.

My bed tonight.

Back and Grants, I decided not to eat here.

Collins Park to Black Canyon Camp Ground

Today was a great birthday ride, it had a bit of everything! I turned 39 on the trail today and boy did it decide to test me.

The ride started out easy enough, 30 miles to to Beaverhead Work Station over a rolling terrain of some gravel, some mud, and some crazy rough rock roads. Really all types that I've come to know, with a few climbs and downhills, and through forests and wide open plains. I leapfrogged with the Kiwis most of the day too.

Lunch was nice, I ate it at the Beaverhead Work Station with the Kiwis and a very very very insistent mule (I think it was a mule), and a local ranger guy. The mule really wanted my shit, and I spent most of my lunch fending it off, to be honest.

Leaving lunch at 12:30 we only had 25 miles left to go, but the thunderstorms were already brewing. We also changed terrain, switching to Appalachian-style steep and long climbs, over and over again. It was very beautiful. For the first 15 miles I was just surrounded by storms, but the last 10 we got pounded. Luckily we weren't on Murder Mud, but it still got very muddy and hard to ride, and much of it was a long climb. It made for a hard day. I didn't get in until after 4pm, at 55 miles at 5:15 on bike. (Not, earlier this week I did 70 miles in less than 5 on bike, this was a hard day)

Eventually we got to camp in a canyon, but most of the campground was inaccessible due to a high river. We found a good spot though that seemed above the flash flood warning line. I was getting pretty cold and shivery around this point, but a quick tent pitch and dry clothes inside solved that. Eventually the rain stopped and we had a nice, damp, evening together.

I never expected to be dealing with intense rain and related cold in Southern New Mexico. I only have three riding days left, I'm barely 200 miles from the border! The weather really had been the star of this Divide ride. Storms literally every single afternoon for the last 15 days.

Tomorrow the Kiwis take a side trip up to some hot springs since they have some extra time, and I continue on my own to Silver City.

I've really enjoyed the three nights and two days of riding I've spent with them. We do our own thing when it comes to pacing, but we still end up in many of the same places and, for these three days at least, have the same itenary. It's been great getting to know them, and they have great stories. They also keep giving me things like coffee, soup, and chocolate, which is sweet (but I have nothing to share back!)

The riding tomomorrow will be long and tough, but hopefully dry. I'm now two days ahead of schedule though, so I may take a rest day in Silver City if I can find a cheap way to stay. When you read this, it'll be uploaded from that town.

For those counting, I believe this is my 15th day on the Divide this year, and if you count RAGBRAI that'll be 22 days of riding so far. Last year I did 26 days on the Divide (then 7 more on RAGBRAI). This segment of the Divide I'll finish in 18 total days. So, about 8 days less than last year on the Divide, but I still feel like I've been on the road for a long time. My journey started with Country Fair in Oregon around July 7th or so, and I've only been home a day since. I think, all in all, I may actually be away from home longer this summer than last.

So I only have three days of riding left and five days to burn until Andrea comes to get me in Tuscon and we road trip together back home. I'm not sure how I feel. The Divide this year has been... comfortable. Difficult, hard, stressful, and scary - especially New Mexico which is as hard or harder than Montana and Wyoming were - but also comfortable. It was like visiting an old friend. My growing pains with it were all last year. This year I knew what to expect and I had a year to love it before returning.

While riding today, working up up a rough gravel hill in the rain and mud, carrying too much water and not enough food, I was thinking how much I was enjoying myself. I'm no GDMBR Racer, but when it comes to touring I'm not sure there is anything that's out of my abilities to enjoy anymore. It's a good feeling. I am homesick and look forward to being home, but I also could spend forever out here.

Next time though, a tandem and Andrea comes with. The Kiwis have sold me on a pretty great North to South New Zealand dirt tour...

Pie Town to Collins Park

I fully expected today to be a much tougher day than it was. Perhaps it's my fitness, or perhaps it's because I can smell that the end is near, but today was easier than it had any right to be.

It should have been hard - a 72 mile day with rough roads and a dry camp at the end of it, with sketchy water availability during the ride. I carried 12 liters of water, 6 liters more than any other time on the Divide. The extra I carried in two 3 liter water bladders inside my bear bag that I strapped to my handlebars.

There were rumors of water sources here and there - a water tank that may be full, stock tanks, a scummy reservoir, but I carried enough to get me through the day, overnight, and 30 miles into tomorrow (where known water was) if I was careful with it.

Luckily, one of the water sources came through! About 40 miles in a rumored cooler full off water and snacks turned out to be true! Gallons of water, oreos, applesauce, peanuts, etc all left out for Divide riders - and according to the guest book it's been used a ton. I used a whole gallon: two liters to refill the two bottles I'd used, and then I drank the other 1.8 liters right there. This means I have more than enough water for tonight and tomorrow, so I can be comfortable and hydrated!

The ride was 72 miles, from 7:30am to 4pm, with just under 6 hours on bike. I was definitely feeling it by the end with the extra weight, rough roads, and a few climbs.

I also leapfrogged with the Kiwis today, Diana and Andrew, and we are free camped together in Collins Park, a vast field of grass and Ponderosa up in the lower New Mexico Mountains. Just us and... nothing.. really, but views and nature. And, of course, thunderstorms.

The kiwis have done quite a bit of adventuring, including biking across Laos and Cambodia, and tons of other stories. They've been good company.

We biked through a perscribed burn today, that was pretty interesting. Currently we are in our tents sheltering from one of the many scattered storms around. My tent is currently too hot to be in due to sunlight, but also being rained on. Thanks, New Mexico.

I only have four days of riding left, but this location I'm at tonight is pretty special. I can't wait for sunset and storms.

Grants to Pie Town

Well today was an eventful day!

Firstly, I'm back on dirt. Hard, washboarded, dirt. It feels good in a painful sort of way. Today's riding was definitely a chimera. It started out paved for about 38 miles going through The El Malpais national monument; a mix of sandstone cliffs and arches, and vast volcanic fields with ... junipers? growing in them. It started with a headwind but eventually was a side/tailwind. It took me less than 3 hours on bike and I finished it by 12:30.

Then I got in dirt. Some deep loose gravel, most washboarded, much of it trashed from when it was wet. The riding was still pretty and through rolling hills of desert ranchland. The last 30 miles took 2:37 on bike (which I guess is still about the same pace) making for 70.6 miles with 5:37 on bike, arriving at 4:20pm - but much sorer and tireder.

Pie Town, btw, is awesome! It had about 60 people living in it, two cafes that specialize in pie (one more official than the other I think) and an amazing open house called The Toaster House for Divide Riders and CDT Hikers and other travelers.

I got to the cafe first, where I met the two Kiwis that I'd heard a bit about being in front of me. They are a couple who've been riding since Bannf and I joined them for lunch and great PIE! I caught them because they took a rest day in Grants.

Then on to the toaster house where they are staying as well, and I met another great couple who work on a goat farm near by (for now). The are traveling artists who couldn't get out to their farm yesterday due to mud (on the same road that was fine for me today) and were awaiting a ride and staying at the Toaster House until one was available. The five of us had a good night of hanging out and conversations.

This place is amazing. Full of CDT and Divide stuff, extra food, tons of rooms and beds, and completely open to us. No one else is here. A family of 5 was raised here from about 1981 to 1998 it seems, sometime after that time it became a hiker haven. It even has a full bike work stand out front that was donated by a Divide racer. You'll just have to look at the photos on the next photo post. Pie Town wins, for real.

One other thing that's become clear to me is that water will be an issue over the next day or two. My original planned camping spot tomorrow has been reported dry, so instead I'm pushing to a farther out dry camping spot. I'll be heading out with 12 Liters of water, with a worst-case scenario being the next water I see is at 99 miles and one overnight away. (Remember, I'm now in a New Mexican desert ecosystem) However, I'm pretty sure at least a few of the reported water spots will pan out, I'll just top off frequently and deal with the extra water weight. "Go slow, carry extra water, go slow, carry extra water." I'm clearly not a racer, and I'll gladly admit to packing my fears.

On the other hand, this cuts another day off my schedule. It's tempting to take a rest day here at The Toaster House because it's so rad, but there is a lot of unknown coming up and I don't want to stress about tomorrow for an entire other day. So, Toaster House, I love you, but this is our only night together. I could spend a week here and still not fully comprehend the history and adventure that's passed through here. It's truly inspring to be in a place that has been integral to so many years of adventuring!

Sunday, August 11, 2019

Chaco Trading Post to Grants Photos

Sunset form the night before. You can see rain plumes a well.

Best thing about pavement riding? I can put my donuts just on top of my handlebar bag and they won't fall off.

Morning Views

This bride connected two sides of a mining operation

So this is where I took a brea 40 miles into my ride. The storm on the left doubled in size in about 15 minutes and was throwing lightning everwhere, but it moving left (East) away from my route. The storm on the right was huge and rainy, but had much less lightning (thank goodness). I rode right through it.

Look at all that murder mud. Also the Uranium Mine. For a long time I rode besides a fence with signs that said "everything beyond this fence is radioactive."

Shots of Grant's Parks

Water is there on purpose, I think.

Route 66 being replaced by I40 hit Grants hard.

They are still trying though

Outside the mining museum, which was closed today (Sunday)

And one last shot of the Chaco Trading Post sunset last night.

Chaco Trading Post to Grants

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.