Final Numbers

According to my GPS I rode a total of 2,824 miles, had an average speed of 8.1 mph, climbed a total of 221,454 feet, spent 347 hours on my bike, and crossed the Continental Divide approximately 29 times. I saw a lot of beautiful country, met people of all different walks of life, made a lot of memories, got some serious tan lines, and had a great time. I would like to do some more bike touring, but probably a route with a little less climbing. I'm tired of climbing. Maybe the Pacific Coast or around the Great Lakes might provide some interesting scenery without copious amounts of climbing. Thanks for reading and now I'm going to catch a plane and head back to the real world. Tootles.

Day 63 MEXICO!!

I met up with another rider that I met in Pie Town. Bruce had taken the gravel that I didn't want to take because of potential mud. He said the road was fine, no mud, but he did have to go around some road closed signs because part of the road was washed out. So Bruce and I headed down to Antelope Wells together. It felt a little like the final stage of the Tour de France only I wasn't riding The Champs-Elysees and seeing the Arc de Triomphe. I was riding down to the Mexico border where 4 out of 5 cars were Border Patrol. As a side note I never felt unsafe. There were several people that I ran into on my trip that told me that Mexico was the devil and I was putting myself in danger. I felt no such thing. It was just another ride.

When Bruce and I got to the border the border patrol were really nice and chatted with us and gave us some Schwans pop's. We got our passports stamped and rode a couple hundred feet into Mexico. There were even some kids that came running out of their house to see us. That was kinda fun. Instead of riding back we caught a ride with a lady that was dropping off her relative to go back to Mexico. She was super nice and got me refreshed on my Spanish. The weather really wasn't too bad. It was in the high 80's low 90's when we were coming back.

Day 62

I rode out of Silver City and headed down to Hachita. I had my last taste of a gravel road. The sand/gravel road took me back into the desert away from civilization. After being on pavement for 250+ miles it felt kinda cool to be out in the boonies again. I rode to a little stop in Separ that turned out to be nothing more than a convenience store/fireworks place. It was stuffed to the rafters with knick/knacky junk. They were doing their part to support the Chinese economy. Then I continued on to Hachita. I saw my first Antelope Wells sign and border patrol. Not much else though. I stopped at Sam Hughe's place. My map had pointed him out and he turned out to have everything I needed. A place to camp, water, and even SportsCenter.

Day 61

It was a short ride today. 37 miles to Silver City. Not a very interesting day at all today. Finished up what hopefully will be the last of the hills. Made some calls when I got to Silver City and lined up my return trip, and called it a day. No, I will not make 60 days. The timeline doesn't matter to me at all. It has been an incredible trip so far, and just two days left.

Day 60

I went from Reserve, NM to Buckhorn, NM today. About 62 miles. I was trying to get all the way to Silver City, but it ended up not working out. I stopped at a cafe and I was just about ready to pay when this retired guy came up to me and started talking to me. He was interesting, but I really wanted to get going so I didn't ask a lot of questions. Didn't seem to matter though because he talked non-stop for about 1/2 hour. I learned about his 500cc scooter, or scoot as he affectionately called it. His German background. His military career. His low paying social work career. Yadda, yadda, yadda. I did finally get out of there, but Silver City was most definitely a bust. The other thing I have noticed,, that I wasn't expecting is the number of cowboy's here. I don't know who has the tighter clothes me, or the cowboy's wranglers. I guess they are probably for practical reason like me. Gotta watch out for those PTO's!

Day 59

I was a little sad to leave the toaster house. My best memory will be eating lunch at the Pie-O-Neer and the Cowboy that lived in the park came in and started playing his guitar. It seemed like that was his gig. Anyway one of the songs he played was John Lennon's "Imagine" and the other 8 people that were having lunch all sang along. But I needed to get going so I got on the good at about 8:30. I wussed out on the dirt road route because I was scared of the mud and the monsoons. I went about 77 miles and called it a day.

Day 58

I went to Socorro today and got my thorn proof tubes. It was pretty amazing watching the miles fly by in the car. Maybe more impressive was just pushing the accelerator a little harder to go up the hills. Ahhh the internal combustion engine... I was planning on heading out after I changed the tubes, but it was about 3:00 and I didn't think it was worth it. Plus the toaster house was just too cool to leave. The only thing that wasn't so cool was the rooster's crowing at 4:30 in the morning. Grrrr. So I cracked open a book and listened to the Beatles, The Doors, The Eagles, The Rolling Stones, and other hippie music. The photos I posted are of the VLA that the movie Contact used as a backdrop. I drove by them on the way to Socorro. It is not to be confused with the VLBA which I mentioned a few posts ago.

Day 57

It rained a lot last night and some this morning too. I decided to take a rain day and let the road dry out. Nita, the lady that runs the house, is going to let me take her car into Socorro and get some more tubes and patches. It is about 80 miles away so that is super nice of her. She also gave us the dime tour of Pie Town. There is a radio telescope that is part of the the Very Large Baseline Array in town. One of ten across the U.S. We also ate at the Pie-O-Neer which had good food and great pie. Cheers for the Toaster House for being one of the best places I have stayed at yet.

Day 56

I went from the little campground to Pie Town today. There were rain clouds threatening all day, but it didn't amount to any other than some sprinkles. About 3 miles away from Pie Town I rode up on another biker doing the trail. We both were headed to the Toaster House in Pie Town. The Toaster House turned out to be an awesome place. A shower, bed, and great pies. I also had two flats today. I couldn't get the tube to hold air after I patched it. Holes just seemed to appear after I got the one hole patched. I'm down to my last tube and two patches so I'm a little worried about that.

Day 55

I did a short day again today. I had a real campground about 17 miles away from Grants so I decided to stay there instead of camping on the side of the road today. It was a pretty secluded spot and I was the only one there until about 7:30. This for ranger pulled up and it seemed a little unsure of where to go. I watched it back into a spot, sit there for a little bit, then back into another one and do the same thing. In the meantime I found a little overlook that was pretty cool. It looked over this wilderness/desert and you could see for a really long ways. So I was sitting there having a moment of zen and I heard this person humming and it was coming closer. I was sitting behind a tree so I figured he/she didn't know anybody was there. I decided to say something so the person didn't do something drastic. So I started, " I don't..AHHHHH... want to surprise you." I guess I really freaked out this older lady. She apologized for intruding, but I felt pretty bad for scaring her so bad.

Day 54

Since I did a big day yesterday I decided to only go to Grants, NM I had laundry to do that was well overdue anyway. The road I was one was Route 66 so they had a bunch of historic motels. Problem was they were not renovated. That was definitely the biggest dive I have stayed in yet. You can't beat the $30 though. Peeling paint, spider webs in the shower, linoleum that was probably original, you get the picture. But everything worked and the bed was clean. The picture of the bikes are the Polish guys bikes.

Day 53

I went from Cuba, NM to about 18 miles outside of Grants, NM. It was a total of 103 miles. It was hot and boring. When I finally got to this little bar with camping behind I was pretty spent. I also ran into the guys from Poland again. They were having a few beers with some customers and chatting it up with them. Pretty soon they asked me where I was staying. I said I was thinking of camping here. They said I come with them and they were going to stay with the guy they were talking with. I thought that sounded good and continued to eat my pizza and drink my beer. Then another customer came in and when he found he we were going to go to this guys house he motioned from me to come and talk to him. I went over and he said, "You cannot stay with him. He is crazy. He lives way out on the reservation." So I told the Polish guys and we decided to stay there. I don't think anything would have happened, but it worked fine just camping there.

Day 52

I left my campsite pretty early and had Cuba, NM in mind as a destination. Not a very interesting day. Just riding in trees for a long time. I saw something pretty weird though. This road I was on was extremely rocky. No car should have been on it. A four-wheel drive vehicle might have had a tough time with it. As I was coming down on this rocky road I rounded a bend and saw this Jetta sitting there with all its windows broken out. It sortof looked like it had rolled, but not really. So I don't know what the story was behind that car, but it was pretty weird happening upon that. I made it to Cuba though and another day under my belt.

Day 51

I had an enormous breakfast this morning at the Inn I stayed at. It was delicious. Probably the best tasting breakfast I have had yet. I also went up the hill into Abiquiu to try and find the Library so i could update the ol' blog. I couldn't find it right away so I stopped at this house that had a crude sign for tourist information. All I wanted to find out was where the Library was and if I was on the right road. Well the guy told me that, plus about 20 minutes worth of other information. He was a pretty interesting guy. Apparently Georgie O'Keefe's right hand man, and an artist in his own right. The library was closed so I continued on.

I only went 23 miles, but they were pretty hard miles. It was hot and windy, and I had to gain about 4300 feet in elevation. The road that I was on was some of the roughest I have been on. Some type of lava flow/rock made the road pretty rough. It took me 6 hours to go those 23 miles so I got a little camping spot in the woods and called it a night. Even though it was a pretty slow day and I didn't get very far it felt like a pretty decent day. Probably a big part due to that awesome breakfast.

Day 50

I wanted to get to a small town called El Rito today. It was about 75 miles, but I got going at 8:00 so it looked promising. Shortly after I left I rode up on some guys from Poland. They were not riding with much stuff at all. They had a duffel bag and a sleeping pad strapped to the back of their bikes, and a handle bar bag. They also had no helmets, cotton clothes, and tennis shoes. I felt a little insecure if they could do it with that equipment and I had all this fancy gear. They were faster on the hills so they went on ahead of me. I met up with them again at a campground that had a water source. I don't think they had much food or had run out of food. I shared my big bag of trail mix with them and made immediate friends. Kristoff (sp?), Damien, and Paul were quite they guys. Good for them if they can conquer this beast of a ride.

I ended up making it to El Rito in pretty good time, but the town turned out to be a bit of a dive. Basically no food on the shelves of the two "grocery stores" I went into. I couldn't get ahold of the community college that had some dorm rooms available. So after about 20 minutes of scratching my head I decided to try and make it to Abiquiu before the sun went down. It was on pavement and I didn't want any cars to hit me. It was a bit of a frantic peddle, but I did the 15 miles in less than an hour and got a motel room. I ended up doing 90 miles instead of 75, but it worked out and I got a good spot.

Day 49

After my unpleasant day of riding in the cold, windy mountains of Colorado I set out for New Mexico. I packed my stuff up in record time so I didn't have to pay the camping fee. I was down to about $4 in loose change and didn't have enough cash on hand. I left before 8 and before the campground host made his morning rounds. It was also really cold. I had bought some snickers the day before and they were pretty hard. That's right snickers for breakfast.

Just before I got into New Mexico there was a narrow gauge set of railroad tracks that they now use for tourist rides. My map said if you were lucky or a good planner you might get to see the train. I got lucky and was able to see the train. I could see the train coming on the otherside of the valley so I peddled fast for about 2 miles and got to the intersection about 5 minutes before the train did. I think that might be one of the highlights of the trip. It was pretty cool to see that old steam engine come puffing and blasting it horn up the mountainside. A lot of the passengers waved at me and took my picture. I waved back and took their picture.

I got to a really remote campsite at the top of the mountain. After i got my sent set up and ate there were some guys on motorcycles that pulled up. After they settled in I went over and said hi. They turned out to be pretty interesting. They had done everything from ocean kayaking, climbing "El Cap" and "Half Dome" in Yosemite, they had even raced camels across the Sahara. They were quite the adventure seekers. It was fun to sit around the campfire and listen to their crazy stories. Oh, and I tried to use the outhouse and I couldn't do it. It smelled and looked like it belonged in a refuge camp. It was the worst one on the trip. Much worse than the two-holer in Montana.

Day 48

I had a really big climb out of Del Norte and I wasn't really looking forward to it. I stocked up on some groceries and was on my way. I had looked at the map beforehand and knew I had to gain about 4,000 feet in elevation in about 20 miles. What I didn't really anticipate was after getting over the pass I had to ride up and down at 11,000 feet for another 15 miles. It was cold and windy up there and I started to hate the ride shortly after I got over the inital pass. I started to get a little light-headed, I was cold, and I just wanted my descent that is the reward for doing such a big climb. By about mile 10 I was ready to banish this ride to the 5th ring of biker hell. I eventually got to go down, but by that time I was hungry, angry, and bitter. It took a long time too. I pulled into my campsite at about 8:00 and was riding in dusk for about 3o minutes. The only redeeming thing about the ride was I got some really cool pictures. Not my best day, but I got my 50 miles in, dove in my tent, and hoped the next day would be better.

Day 47

I got up this morning and got a warm, cheery, good morning from a flat tire. I'm not sure how that happened, but it went flat overnight. A patch fixed it pretty easy and the bike was ready to go again. I had a very large bowl of yogurt and granola and was on my way. Again the climbing was not a problem. I felt like I was able to charge right up the mountain. The scenery has really changed since the Denver area. No more mountain pine beetle. The top of the mountain that I went over today was very lush, with many shades of green. The rocks are now much more reddish in color, and I am going through towns like La Garita, and Del Norte. So I'm getting more of a Southwest flavor. I passed the 2,000 mile marker today as well as the 500th picture. I took a tiny detour and saw a natural arch. I don't think it was worth the 1.5 mile to see a hole in a rock wall, but the coast back to the main road was fun. I also turned on to what my map referred to as a very primitive road. It was exactly that. It was pretty cool to be on that back road. There were also tires, spent gun shells, and various types of garbage. I think I saw a bed spring and washer. It looked like they were being used for target practice. It was a regular redneck paradise.

Day 46

I started out from Sargents CO, and headed toward a little campground at the top of a pass. The day turned out to be a really good day for riding. The climb didn't seem to bother me. No beer to slow me down. I had even turned down a beer from a guy at the RV Park where I stayed at. When I got to the campground I had it to myself and I hoped to sleep better than my other times sleeping by myself at the top of a mountain. I actually did sleep quite well, although I did have a dream that I opened my tent and there was a pride of lions or tigers just chillin' outside my tent. Don't ask me why. It's not like I'm in Africa. I guess I have issues with wilderness camping. The setting was really cool though.

Day 45

I had a long climb ahead of me when I started out from Salida. I didn't think it would be too bad since I have had long climbs before. It was probably a combination of things, but that climb turned out to be a mild form of torture. It was an old railway grade so it was pretty gradual. I would look down at my mile odometer, and elevation and then 10 minutes later I would look again. I've only gone .35 of a mile!! What is wrong! That is pretty much how 5 hours went by. I had also indulged a little bit the night before. Nothing extreme. A couple beers with dinner and a coke, but I didn't seem to have much in the leg department. My map said that there was 12 miles of singletrack that was considered to be the premier singletrack in all of Colorado. I really wanted to do it, but I was just too tired when I got there. Anyway I finally got to the top and was treated to some more spectacular views. Never gets old.

Day 44

I did about 75 miles and rode to Salida, CO. The ride was really cool, and not too much climbing. Plus the descent into Salida was pretty awesome. I lost about 3,000 feet in about 10 miles, and I got some fantastic views of some 14ers in the distance. I stayed at a hostel that was a really great deal. Cheaper than some of the campsites I have stayed at. I met another guy who was doing the divide. He was a little more into it than me. He had quit his job, and sold his car. Once he got to Mexico he was going to keep going south. I also met a lady named Treehugger, and a guy from California who was doing some Mountain Biking and on a "Vision Quest." I'll let you decide what exactly that means, but judging from his odor it probably required a lot of weed. I probably should have stayed up and played cards, but it was 10:30 and I was ready for bed.

Day 43

I rode from just outside Silverthorne to Como, CO. It turned out to be a very nice ride, a pretty big climb, but I only did 35 miles. I camped outside of a B&B. It was fine expect for the car alarm that went off three different times. It had to be faulty. It went off at 12:15 a.m., 12:30 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. I can't believe they would have accidentally hit the button three different times. The morning one didn't bother me since I was already up, but it made me laugh a little bit. The car turned out to be the owner of the B&B, so when it went off at 7:30 the lady came running out, but then went running back in with the car alarm still blaring. I can only imagine the frantic search for the keys that ensued.

Day 40, 41, 42

I got to David's and took a few days off. Probably the highlight was going to a Rockies game. They played the Cubs so it was pretty much a sellout. We got some cheap tickets and sat in the Rockpile, (centerfield blechers). Good seats for the price, but the crowd was your cheap ticket crowd. We saw an entire row get kicked out, then a guy get cuffed, two rows ahead of us a guy started to toke up with his friends, and then one more guy got removed for harrasing the fans or something like that. We also got to see a Rockies game, all for $4. On Sunday Dave took me back to Silverthorne and I rode about 5 miles and found a campground. I had a great couple of days of R&R. Thanks Dave and Kristi.

Day 39

I rode down from Estes Park to just outside Denver. The hill down from Estes Park was pretty fun. Winding and pretty steep. I stopped in North Boulder and had my brake pads replaced and my tires rotated. Hopefully they will get me all the way to the end. I had to ride about 10 miles on freeway from Boulder to Broomfield and that was not fun. I should have looked up a different way, but it worked and i didn't get hit by a 70 mph car.