Aug 29, Day 65

Hachita, NM to Antelope Wells, NM and the U.S. / Mexico Border!!!

Distance - 45.5 miles, Av speed - 11.1 mph

We set the alarm for 6am as we told Bill we would be at the border at noon. It is still dark at 6am however so we take our time getting ready. Sam comes out and instigates yet another round of coffee. We feel sad packing up the tents for the last time, although by now, we can do it with our eyes closed. The road down to the border climbs around 300ft and there is a bit of a headwind just to make it a bit more challenging. We wave farewell to Sam and Bear and promise to send him a photo when we get home.

As yesterday the road is quiet, except for the constant stream of border patrol cars. We don’t see any rattlesnakes, but do see a couple of turtles, both of which we pick up and put on the side of the road in case they get squished by the border patrols, and one of which pees on Numb Stuff as he picks it up – how ungrateful.

 There are a number of vultures circling overhead and Numb Stuff gets a great photo when they land. We have heard so many horror stories about the border area, i.e. drug barons and illegal immigrants, but the reality is that it actually feels like the safest road in the USA due to all the patrols and cameras. There are no discarded backpacks or clothing along the roadside. However, we do see a tarantula cross the road which adds a soupcon of excitement to the day. And a dead cow and a dead fox.

Numb Stuff takes photos of the last 10 mile markers, then finally the border station comes into sight. The border station is small, only dealing with around 5 cars a day plus the Mexican shuttle buses which go to Phoenix airport.

The border patrol staff warmly welcome us with a root beer popsicle and allow us to clean up a little before having our photos taken. Numb Stuff also rustles up a Mountain House lunch while we wait for Bill.

While we are waiting for Bill, a few shuttle buses pull up from Mexico and their occupants scrutinized by the border patrol. We are intrigued by the questions and actions of the border guards. For example, they pay close attention to the type of clothing worn. If it looks like it was bought in the US, then that means that it is likely that that person is already living illegally in the USA and is trying to get back in again, having popped back to Mexico to see family. Again, contents of wallets and pockets are examined in minute detail, in particular receipts. At least two Mexican are refused entry and have to cross back over the border with their suitcases to wait for the next bus back.

We start to play the game of guessing who is and who is not going to get in, giving thumbs up/down signals to each other! We give the thumbs down to one young guy, who looks nervous, but are surprised to see that he gets through. On chatting to the female guard, it appears that she shares our suspicions on the basis that according to his papers he has already spent a year in the USA but still speaks no English. However, she has been outvoted by the other two guards

Eventually Bill arrives, having been stopped twice by the border patrol cars, once for speeding and once for peeing by the side of the road. Takes a while to lose bike habits! We are joyfully reunited and catch up with his story of how his ride ended. He takes us back to Silver City, where we check into the historic Palace Hotel (built in the 1800s) and go out to celebrate with beer and margaritas. It is probably a good job the ride has ended, for the three of us no longer have inhibitions, brain or mental discipline.

This ride will never be forgotten – the journey has imprinted itself permanently into our spirits and minds. Big thanks especially to Deb for patiently updating our blog from fragmented emails, to Julie for riding with us in Montana, Judy & Deb for being support crew in Montana and to everybody out there who has been following us on a daily basis. Bikes have been broken down, packed up and are ready to go home

This is not the end, only the beginning… there will be more adventures in future- watch this space! Hopefully we have inspired people that you are never too old to do this sort of trip and anything is possible with a little determination.

Aug 28, Day 64

High Lonesome Bull campsite – Hachita (Sam Hughes’ house)

Distance - 49 miles, Av speed - 9 mph

We wake up to find the bikes lying on a flooded tarp, but thankfully our tents have held good, and other than being absolutely filthy, have kept us and our gear dry. We don’t expect to see any traffic on the dirt road following all the rain, but lo and behold, a truck pulls up just as we are packing up and the lady tells us we are lucky not to have been flooded last night.

Further down the road, we encounter large pools of water and the bikes quickly become all caked in mud.  Numb Stuff’s de railleur becomes stuck in first gear.   We spot a couple of snakes on the road, and also a group of horses who come galloping down to greet us.

Finally, the dirt road hits the interstate 10 and we make our first encounter with Border Patrol – a large truck with infra red cameras. We have a lunch stop at the world famous Separ trading post, which has a odd selection of merchandise – a huge firework selection and some hideous trashy gifts, such as a cowboy fountain. Afterwards, we have our final 7 miles of dirt, running parallel to the interstate, before turning off on the 146 pavement to Hachita.

This must be one of the quietest roads in the entire USA, as the guide book says, you could probably lay down in the middle of the road and take a nap, there is so little traffic. There is just us and our new friends, the numerous Border Patrols, which seem to appear every 15-20 minutes. Oh, and a million grasshoppers. We have given up trying to avoid riding over them, and just get used to the splat sound you make when your tire runs over them. There are also some suicidal ones which like to jump in your spokes.

Soon, we arrive in Hachita, a small town of 40 inhabitants. Sam is waiting for us at the newly opened convenience store. Jim and Nancy have been waiting with him for us, but alas, have just left 10 minutes before we arrived. We are so disappointed to have missed them, as we wanted to congratulate Jim on making the border. But we are super-excited to find they have left a great bottle of red wine with Sam for us – Jim and Nancy – you both rock!

Sam is a true Continental Divide trail angel, both for hikers and cyclists. He lets them camp in his yard and also drives hikers to the start of the trail. Not only that, but he is really interesting to talk to and has a great sense of humor – we just love his business card! And we have to give a special mention to Bear, his dog, who makes us very welcome. Sam points out the border patrol spy balloon on the horizon, which is set up to detect any heat motion in the desert. You get the feeling you couldn’t even fart around here without the border patrol finding out about it.

It feels a fitting way to be spending the last night of our ride camped here, sitting on Sam’s swing and listening to his stories about his life, watching the sun set and the moon rise. We both feel so grateful for having the opportunity to do this ride and meeting so many amazing people.

Aug 27, Day 63

Silver City, NM to High Lonesome Bull campsite

Distance - 32 miles, Av Speed - 9.4mph

The night before, we meet up with Jim and his wife, Nancy. Jim has had a few flats cycling into Silver City, so he has decided that he is going to finish the ride without his BOB trailer.

Nancy will drive their Subaru alongside as support.

We meet again for breakfast at Vickis and we all start the ride together down the state highway 90.

Soon it starts to rain, and Jim realizes Nancy has his raingear in the car! The rain is quite heavy, and the weather forecast is for thunderstorms, heavy rain and localized flooding. As we think Nancy will not be able to drive down the dirt road, Jim decides to continue on the pavement, so we part ways at the turn off to the Separ road.

It is tempting to continue down the pavement with Jim, but we both want to experience a final night in the middle of nowhere, even if it is a wet one. Plus, it has been well over a week since we last rode on dirt, and this is the last section before the border.

Within a mile or two of being back on the dirt road, Numb Stuff notices that Dirtbaby has a slow puncture in her front tire, the New Mexico thorns have struck again. This is her third flat, all in the front tire. By now, Numb Stuff is such an expert, he fixes it in minutes.

The road is sandy rather than muddy, some parts are so sandy we have to get off and push the bikes through. We only see one car all afternoon, a Prius, which passes us, then a few minutes later, thinks better of it and comes back out again!

There are no campsites mentioned on the map, so we use the book for guidance. This suggests camping at mile 30 – High Lonesome campsite. Therefore, it is an early camp for us. However, this is rattlesnake country, so we take some time to choose a site that has the least undergrowth.

There is a bull on the other side of the road, who is all on his own, so we decide to christen the campsite High Lonesome Bull campsite in his honor. He comes fairly close to us to check us out, but is not threatening.

We have packed a nice bottle of red wine, so decide to have an early Mountain House dinner, in view of the dark storm clouds gathering on three sides of us. The wine slips down a treat, and we regret not bringing two! However, we have timed it perfectly; by the time we finish dinner, there is just time to dive in the tents before the rain starts to hammer down. It rains hard for 3-4 hours solid, so hard that the water splashes up underneath the fly spreading dirt into the tents. We just hope that we have not camped where the flood water drains!

 

Aug 26, Day 62

Layover day in Silver City, NM

Downtown Silver City really feels like a fun place. We ponder on the differences between Silver City and Grants. Silver City is full of cafes and restaurants and is visually pleasing. Grants is, well, to put it kindly, a dump. Both have the same population and were founded in the same decade. Both have Walmarts. Grants is on an interstate intersection, Silver City is not – is that the difference? Or is it that the people in Silver City love their town and have worked hard to restore and preserve it?

In any case, we intend to fully benefit from the array of fine dining opportunities, starting with the Javalina café for breakfast and The Curious Kumquat for lunch, where we have 2 bottles of French rose. But first we hit the laundry, which we vote the best we have been to during the entire trip, much to the laundry lady’s delight. She tries to give us a bag of free peaches which sadly we must decline as we don’t have space on our bikes to carry them.

Whilst waiting, we have a call from Poptart Bill. Bill is now in Tucson, but his flight home doesn’t leave until August 31st so he is sitting in his airport motel feeling bored. So bored, he offers to rent a car and come and pick us up from the border on Sunday – how cool is that! It will be great to have a fun celebration at the border with someone who has been through the same journey and we are really looking forward to meeting Bill again as we have not seen him since Salida.

During lunch, we have an email from Jim saying he is 20 miles away from Silver City. He is riding alone as Vicky, Ann and Harry decided to stick with the dirt trail. Hopefully we will get to meet Jim later on for a few beers. In the meantime, it is time to pack up and get ready for our last couple of nights camping.

Tomorrow night will be spent in the desert, then Saturday night we are camping in Sam Hughes’ backyard in Hachita. Blog will be updated either Sunday or Monday on our return! Wish us luck on the final push to the border!

Aug 25, Day 61 - Silver City

Buckhorn to Silver City, NM

Distance - 38 miles, Av speed - 9.8 mph

We realize we have dropped to below 5,000 feet and Silver City is around 6,000 ft so today is going to be a climbing day. To our surprise we find a coffee shop in Cliff, which does not look at all open, despite the sign outside saying open but actually is. Two lattes later, we stop at the gas station to check our lottery ticket but alas we have not won. Dirtbaby was planning on first class two seats back home, one for her and one for Sherman, if we had won the $115 million…… oh well dream on.

Mr Headwind woke up as usual, between 10 and 11 and boy, was it strong! It slows us right down and it makes for a slow ride to Silver City.

For some reason, there seems to be a lot of cicadas on the road and as we are riding so slowly, they provide us with some entertainment. They are either having rampant sex or eating their dead colleagues which have been squished by cars. What a life!

Eventually, we make the Continental Divide Crossing, and dive down the road to Silver City, where we have a late lunch then try to find a motel with a ground floor room – third time lucky!

Numb Stuff goes to the Post office to pick up our last ship forward box, while Dirtbaby goes to the store and tries to buy beer. Alas, the store has a policy of carding everyone, even grannies and Dirtbaby, and as Dirtbaby being from the UK, is not used to having to carry round ID with her, she is not allowed to buy beer, despite looking by now, 100 years old.

Never mind, we hit the bistro next to the bike shop and make some damage to their wine and beer stock instead. We now have to figure out our last 120 miles to the border, of which 30 miles will be on dirt and the rest on pavement. Oh yeah, and the last 46 miles is a mecca for Mexican drug dealers – whatever, I’m sure we’ll cope!

Aug 24, Day 60 - Buckhorn

Reserve, NM to Buckhorn, NM

Distance - 62.7 miles, Av speed - 10.9 mph

Dirtbaby wakes up and decides to go across the street to pick up lattes. Upon opening the door, she is greeted by a fountain that was not there last night. Looks like the construction workers have ruptured the water pipe – uh oh. We have to flush the toilet by filling the bin with hot water from the bath tub!

Again, the day starts off with blue skies which slowly cloud over – we are starting to see the pattern.

We stop in Glenwood which seems to have lots of restaurants, but every single one is closed! Out with the jet boil and we have a Mountain house lunch. When packing up his BOB trailer, Numb Stuff notices his trailer has a flat – the first on this trip! We find a thorn has made a small hole – must have happened when we rode through the mowing clippings earlier that day. We replace the tube and head off again.

By 2pm, thunder is rumbling and lightening is starting to flash all around us. It looks like we are going up into the storm, but Numb Stuff works out if we can just get to the top, the road swings round to the right and we should miss the lightening. As always, Numb Stuff is right, and we just have the rain and the wind to cope with.

While riding in the rain, a couple stop and offer first Numb Stuff a ride, which he refuses, and then when Dirtbaby catches up, they offer her one too.  The thought flashes through Dirtbaby’s mind, wouldn’t it be fun to take the ride and wave at Numb Stuff as we pass him on the way to Silver City! But you wouldn’t desert your mates like that, and besides the rain is not cold, so she politely refuses too.

She is surprised to finally catch up with Numb Stuff a few miles later, maybe, just maybe, she is getting fitter! But no, on closer inspection, she sees that his BOB trailer has another flat and waves to him to stop. However, Numb Stuff already knows he has a flat, he just doesn’t want to stop in the rain to change his tire! He cycles the last 14 miles with the flat, luckily the tire isn’t shredded!

We find the RV park in Buckhorn, Dirtbaby stayed here in December 2007 when cycling the Southern Tier with her husband so it has some happy memories for her, albeit ones of waking up with ice in her hair! They even have a shelter for us to camp underneath, which we take full advantage of! On the way to the RV park, we passed what we think is a bar in Buckhorn so go back there for a pint and food – however, it is actually a liquor store that also serves pizza. We order their home made pizza which is great, then take a 6 pack of beer to drink back at camp before flaking out in our tents.

Aug 23, Day 59 - Reserve

Quemado, NM to Reserve, NM

Distance - 54 miles, Av speed - 11.4 mph

Pretty uneventful day, although there were rainclouds hovering above us most of the day, we managed to avoid the rain.

While we are having a break at the Apache Creek general store, we start to notice posters about Mexican wolves, which have been introduced to the area to replace the native wolves, which presumably have been hunted to extinction. Obviously, the feeling here is anti-wolves, because the wolves hunt and eat the elk, meaning less for the hunters? At least the wolves will take out the old and sick elk whereas the hunters take them in their prime. We can’t quite see their logic.

Reserve is a nice town, where they are replacing the town’s main street drainage so that it can cope with the regular floods. We eat dinner in Carmen’s then cross the road to Uncle Bill’s bar. The barowner comes over to chat to us, but starts telling such offensive racist jokes that we have to down our drinks and leave – fast. We rename the bar Uncle Bigot’s bar.

Aug 22, Day 58 - Quemado

Grants, NM to Quemado, NM

Distance -  87 miles, Av speed - 9.8 mph

As planned, we meet Harry et al in Dennys at 6.30am. However, by this time, they have decided to take a rest day in Grants, although Vicky and Ann are making plans to go back and ride one of the Continental Divide Crossings missed because of the route change. Harry and Jim have decided they are going to spend the day like “two old ladies” by the pool. We feel sorry that they still got up at 6.30 on their day off! They have heard from Phil – he made it to Pie Town OK but will probably take the pavement option to Silver City.

We bid them goodbye and hit the road. Today, we are going to take the El Malpais (the badlands) Alternate route for the first 37 miles, as this seems to go through some interesting country. There are thunderstorms predicted for later in the day so we will get to the turn off to the junction for the dirt Pie Town road and decide whether we can make it when we get there.

The ride through El Malpais is gorgeous – there are steep cliffs on one side of the road and lava beds on the other side of the road and lots of rock formations, such as La Ventana natural arch. There is very little traffic.

We stop for lunch at the turn off to Pie Town, and see the dust from a car hurtling down the dirt road towards us. We hail the car down, to ask what the road conditions are like. The lady inside looks stressed and in a real hurry. She says the road has just about dried out after the last rain, but it is going to rain later on and she had to drive her dogs out to her friend and get back again before the rain came as otherwise her car would get stuck in the mud for sure.

By now, there are dark, brooding clouds gathering overhead – it looks a cert it is going to rain so we decide reluctantly not to take the dirt road but to continue on the pavement to Quemado. We are gutted to be missing Pie Town!

About an hour later, the heavens open and we are, in the words of our dear friend Poptart Bill, absolutely hammered with hailstones and rain! It is so bad, we have to get off the bikes and shelter under the tarp. That said, at least it is all over in about 10 minutes, and soon we can get going again. The tarp is the one thing we have hardly used on the trip, just as a picnic table cover, so it is good that finally it has its moment of glory, and glory it is!

At the road junction where we turn to Quemado, Numb Stuff spies a closed gas station and figures we can sit up there for a break. However, he fails to notice that the road up to the station is dirt and as soon as his bike hits the dirt, the mud sticks to his tires like cake frosting, and his crank and gears clog up. Yep, that’s why you don’t cycle New Mexico dirt roads when they’re wet! If you think about it, they use this mud to make adobe houses and bricks…… doesn’t bode well for bikes.

Numb Stuff cleans off his bike as best he can, then we polish off the final few miles to Quemado. Again, we hit a huge rainstorm and have to abandon the bikes by the side of the road and take shelter below a small tree, taking the tarp with us. It is raining so hard, we can barely see, but we try our best to look out for snakes as we climb down the side of the road to the tree. We obviously disturb a skunk, as within seconds we smell his pungent odor.

Once back on the road, we almost run over a rattlesnake – this one is as big as the dead one we saw at Jay’s bar, but looks alive! Luckily he looks quite sluggish, as it is quite cold, he has probably slithered onto the pavement looking for a bit of warmth. Again, it brings home the need to keep your eyes open and on the road! Sorry no photos, but neither of us wanted to get too close to this baby!

As Quemado is not on the Adventure Cycling maps, we are not too sure what is there. The first thing we pass is a ranger station so at least we know we have a camping option, even if it’s a damp one. However, further on is a scrumptious new motel with a café attached! The rooms are wonderful, but the café just offers the usual greasy burgers etc so we cook up a Mountain House dinner in our rooms and just go to the café for apple and blueberry pie a la mode.

Aug 21, Day 57

Layover day in Grants

Since there wasn’t anything to do in Grants, we visited Walmart 3 times, hung out by the pool drinking beer secretly in paper cups, then went to dinner at the Worst Western Steakhouse next door.

While eating dinner, who should come in but Harry and the Socialites! They had just checked into the Motel 6 as well, having heard we were there from Phil. Vicky and Harry made it OK over the dirt roads from Abiquiu to Cuba – in fact, Harry said, he didn’t know what all the fuss was about, it really wasn’t that bad! Vicky, however, did not say a word……. We heard that Jim had had a few flats on the paved road between Abiquiu and Cuba so that he and Ann had to road camp along the way. They were intending to set off for Pie Town the next day, so we all arranged to meet up at Denny’s for breakfast.

Aug 20, Day 56 - Grants, NM

Jay’s Bar to Grants, NM

Distance 20 miles; Av speed 12.7 mph

Early morning traffic on the nearby highway wakes us up well before sunrise. Our usual routine of Starbuck’s instant coffee, packing up then hitting the road…. For some reason the concrete pad we slept on was not a comfortable as others previously. I think we are just getting a bit tired and worn out.

The road is downhill and an easy ride into town.

Not much to see in Grants. The town is mostly boarded up and a newer area developed near the Interstate with hotels and fast-food. We check into the Motel 6 and being our usual routine of laundry and re-stocking food supplies.

We will take the day off tomorrow as this will be the last push to Silver City, two days from the finish. It is now quite hot and little to no water sources are available moving forward. Careful planning tomorrow is a must so we can get to Silver City smiling still. Phil has decided to move on tomorrow…

Aug 19, Day 55 - Jay's Bar

Cuba, NM to Jay’s Bar

Distance 104 miles; Av speed 10.3 mph

We meet the newest member of our team, Phil at McDonalds as planned, at 6.30am. Phil, thankfully is now looking a lot better. Phil is from near Toledo, Ohio and is 65, so an inspiration to us all. After picking up our foot long sandwiches from Subway, we are on the road by 7.15am and cranking out the miles. We have to take the paved alternate to Grants, since the main route runs over private land, and the owner has since denied access to cyclists crossing his land.

By 9.30am we have already done 30 miles, and it feels like we could easily cover the 120 miles to Grants in one day…. However, by 10am, our old friend Mr Headwind has woken up and our average speed degenerates quickly so that we are lucky to reach the grocery store at mile 53 by 1pm. We sit outside the store, drinking Gatorade and munching our sandwiches, hoping that the crosswind that we will have for the remainder of the day is not too bad. Phil is just chatting to Numbstuff, when he breaks off and says uh-oh… we follow his gaze to NumbStuff’s front tire which is as flat as a pancake. This time, it is easy to spot what is wrong, there is a staple embedded in the tire. We perform our quickest tire change to date, and swap out the old tube for one of the new self sealing tubes, which hopefully, should last us all the way to the border.

Even though we changed the tube quicker than normal, it has still take 20-30 mins out of our travelling time, so we hop back on the bikes and motor on. The route starts to climb up through colorful canyons and we start to feel the heat of the desert sun. The wind at least helps to cool us, but we still drink 4-5 liters each, including Gatorade.

Eventually, we have a glorious descent in the evening sun down to the junction where there is supposed to be a bar that has a campsite. Just before the bar, lies an enormous rattlesnake – dead fortunately, but it is Dirtbaby’s first sight of a rattlesnake and she is rather alarmed! We have cycled 104 miles, our first century this trip!

It is just gone 7pm by the time we hit the bar and the next decision is whether to continue the last 18 miles to Grants and hope we make it before dark, or stay at the bar, which just about looks like it is open. Given the state of the road and the speed of the cars, we decide to go into the bar and see if we can camp.

The barmaid, Jessie is friendly, and says we can camp on the porch once the bar has closed for the night at 8pm. How much closer to a bar can we get? We managed to squeeze 3 beers in before she closes, and also check our lottery tickets to find we have won the princely sum of $1!