Grants - Wild Camp - Cuba - Hey Bear! - Counting Wildlife on GDMBR

May 16, 2025 to May 18, 2025

Grants - Wild Camp - Cuba

We stayed 2 nights at Lavaflow Hostel in Grants. We'd booked 2 dorm beds from the side of the road at El Malpais and were a little underwhelmed when we arrived. The bunk room was tiny with 6 beds stacked in there, and 4 already claimed.

Fortunately Ross, one of the owners, offered Karo a different room and I went with the dorm room, expecting a hot and noisy night with the 5 CDT hikers. They turned in quickly and not a snore was heard all night!

Ross also let me store Wally and gear in The Old Cottage and made very good coffee next morning. He shared a little of his story - Forest Service in Wisconsin, to Army Engineers in Kansas working in HR/ DEI. He feels he is just barely holding on to his job and plans to just keep his head down for the next 3.5 years to survive the current administration.

We also met a German CDT hiker who had arived through Houston and been pulled aside for the next level of questioning. After a stressful 2 hours he was allowed to go but cannot figure what the issue was. This is not his first visit to USA.

We spent Friday on laundry and another Walmart ordeal. Karo wanted to cook, so we had a magnificent vege and salad feast.

The Brit Squad were also at Lavaflow and we enjoyed their fun energy some more. Saturday morning they left early and we followed 2 hours later to climb for 3.5 hours out of the Grants basin.

Spring was definitely a thing at San Mateo withlots of bright green leaves on the trees

The next 2 days were gently downhill with a following breeze through magical rock formations and desertscapes. Water was a challenge and I managed to get some from a cattle trough inlet, but just as Karo reached in, the flow switched off! We think it was on a solar timer rather than just denying bikers water.

It was like riding through all the spaghetti western movies we'd ever seen.

After 95 km, when it was clear any rumored campsite was some distance away, we opted to wild camp in a flatish dusty spot among the cactus.

Sunday our priority was water so after 15k we deviated to the Homestake Well. It was lovely water!

A few more hours of nice riding aross quite green prairie land, a brief patch of pavement in a vicious crosswind, and we came across a Trail Angels encampment. Set up for CDT hikers, the volunteers had cold drinks, pasta, sandwiches, coffee and snacks to take away. They shared freely with bikers too. Awesome!

More nice dirt road and then we came out onto US 550. Pavement, cross wind, and very noisy tires! It felt like a terrible shock after days without traffic or noise!

Arriving into Cuba after 15km we almost had a meltdown over the complete absence of accommodation - all taken by CDT hikers!

We decided to eat first, then address the options. We ended up camping at the RV park for $10 with $5 for a shower. This was a nice improvement on the dust camp the night before!

Forecast is for cold & windy Monday, improving Tuesday, so we will get a motel room and stay another night.

Today's ride: 195 km (121 miles)
Total: 847 km (526 miles)

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