June 8, 2023
roads worsten still
we have picked up a lot of dirt
Somewhere in Plains of San Augustin to Valle to Vinces campground
We woke up around 645 to bright sun, but it was still quite cold. I heard Bill moving around in his tent and figured I should get going as well. We packed as efficiently as possible to avoid another yesterday. The oats have gotten increasingly basic. First we lost the apple, then the bananna, then the raisins. Now we are onto 4 apricots. Tomorrow will be worse. We got on the road by 9 am and planned to make it to a campground on the other side of the plains. Luckily we had climbed to the continental divide last night and we enjoyed many miles of downhill. We began to see signs warning that the road was ending. I kept checking the maps, but all seemed ok.
Finaly, the road "ended" which means its basically single track. Huge rocks and deep ever changing ruts. I lost my shoes and sit pad off the back of the bike. Fortunately it was only a 1/4 mile back. We left this little canyon with no road and entered a real road. It was almost as bad. We went back out into the plains and rode the everlasting washboard. We were both feeling a bit down. I took a 4 mg THC gummy and that helped aleviate the feeling of dread and misery as I watched the road I ride go up a slow hill in the distance. A bunch of dusty trucks passed us too, covering us in grime. Bill had told me of a water for cyclists stop at mile 25, but that came and went with no water. We were planning on that, but would have to press on. There wasnt anything out there but cows and fences. Eventually, I got to the point that I was just monster trucking through the thick gravel to avoid some of the wash board. These were the roughest roads yet. We hit a brief period of smoke from a controlled burn and made it to hwy 12. From here, it was a steady climb to a camp spot. There was no water at the camp, but there was supposed to be a water spot about a mile before. We started the climb and were becomig increasingly angry. I suggested we stop and eat the last of our snacks as lunch.
| Heart | 2 | Comment | 0 | Link |
There was no shade to be found, so we huddled around a rock and split a tortilla with nut butter and some dates. We each downed a tablespoon of honey and pedalled on. The grade was mild, but the climb took a couple hours. We eventually happened upon Bill again (he had left earlier than us this am) and he seemed pretty tired. We rode together to the top and started to search for the promised water. We couldnt find it, but bill said there was supposed to be a spring past the site. We rode 1/4 mile past and saw a sign posted "Valle to Vinces Spr -->". We hiked up to a water trough and sure enough, it was dry. I gave up and went down to the bikes to search through the map and see where we would have to go. We only had about a liter each, it wouldnt do. While I looked, Bill perused up the mountain and crossed a barb wire fence. After passing a few dry spring holes, he found one just like yesterday and it was still pumping out cold water.
We were saved, we couldnt do any more mileage at this point. After filtering water, bill headed on. He was tired, but wanted to stick to his timeline and he watnted to get to grants, NM to get his bike checked out. He said he had some weird noises, but he is riding a full suspension after all. So Mary and I had a scenic nalgene bath up on this hill. The drywind dried us off in no time and we headed back to the camp. It was all desolate at camp, but had a pit toilet. We set camp and made dinner. it was about 630 when we finished dinner, so just enough time to write this here thingy and maybe ill get one other thing done on my ever growing list of small things to do.
Mileage:45
Up:2646
Down:2224
Ride time:8h
Also, Mary's watch says her fatigue level is max and it will take 81 hours to recover.
Today's ride: 45 miles (72 km)
Total: 127 miles (204 km)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 4 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 1 |