Silver City to Antelope Wells... Change of plan... Columbus, NM

After a good night's rest in Silver City we decided to hang out until about noon before heading toward Separ on I-10.  It was about 50, relatively flat, miles to Separ and a lot of desert along the way.  We headed to a local bike shop to pick up CO2 cartridges, tubes, and Stan's tire sealant.  While at the bike shop we ran into a couple more divide riders, both heading north, so we compared a few notes before heading to lunch at Diane's (bike shop recommendation).

View from Separ road south of Silver City, not a tree in sight

One of the other riders joined us there for lunch.  He was a retired school teacher from Vermont, but was originally from Germany.  He had been at the bike shop to get new, wider tires to deal with the sandy roads.  We were soon to find out why he was looking for new tires.

We headed south after lunch on Hwy 90 for the first 18 miles.  For being relatively flat, it sure felt like a lot of climbing, but after 8 straight days of bike riding there was definitely some fatigue in the legs.

When we reached the turn for Separ road, there was a good shade tree and we had been making good time on the pavement so we decided to take a siesta before continuing on down the dirt road portion of the ride.

Back on the bikes we were quickly treated to a long gradual descent with a tail wind.  It was a fantastic 15 miles that literally blew past.  Then we got to pay for that.  The road turned to the southwest and the wind continued to steadily increase as we ground our way toward Separ.  As we reached a potential campsite without a bit of shelter from the wind, we decided to push on to Separ, home of the Bowlin's Continental Divide Trading Post on I-10 and not much else.

As we neared Separ the road went from just loose gravel and washboard to add deep sand.  The last few miles were truly a grind.  This was as bad as any road we hit in Namibia last summer. We arrived at the trading post in time to buy some cold drinks and snacks before they closed for the night.

They said we could pitch out tents anyplace we could find to get out of the wind including the big dilapidated plywood covered tee-pee at the end of the parking lot.  While it would have been entertaining to pitch the tent in the tee-pee, we opted for east end of the building among the yuccas and palo verde trees.

Sunrise over I-10 at our campsite at Separ 

To the sounds of the constant truck traffic and the fairly frequent trains, we tried to get some sleep for the final 75 mile push to Antelope Wells.  About 10PM, I noticed that my air mattress was flat.  I blew it up again and it quickly deflated.  I got out my flashlight and pretty quickly found 2 fairly large punctures in the mattress.  When I had set up the tent, I had missed a stick with 2 nice sharp points sticking straight up.  Luckily the mattress came with a patch kit, so I cut a patch to cover both holes and pretty quickly had it repaired and reinflated.

The trading post opened at 7AM, so we got fresh coffee before heading out toward Antelope Wells.  The first few miles are on a gravel frontage road next to I-10 and went by quickly.  Then we hit the paved road to the small town of Hachita and then on to Antelope Wells.

Start of the final leg of  the Great Divide route.

The first few miles of the paved road toward Antelope Wells went quickly as well then somewhere, somebody flipped the switch on the wind and we had a pretty steady 15-20 mile per hour breeze out of the southwest and it was only 8:30AM.  Usually this would happen sometime between 10AM and noon.  We ground on for a few miles as the wind continued to pick up.  I knew that after we passed Hachita, the road would turn more to the southwest for over 40 miles.  With this wind, it could take 6 hours or more to make the last 40 miles.  I had arranged with Beth to pick us up at Antelope Wells between 1 and 2PM.  At the rate we were making progress, we would still be 20 miles or more short of the border.

Russ would occasionally quote Buzz Lightyear "To infinity
 and beyond" as we mounted the bikes to get going...
in this case he was correct

I flagged down Russ and proposed an alternate finish at Columbus, NM.  It was also about 45 miles from Hachita, but straight east.  It is an official alternate start/finish to the Great Divide route, so it really wouldn't be cheating on our goal of riding the route.  It didn't take much convincing on my part for Russ to agree to a change of plan for the finish.  I luckily still had cell service and sent a text to Beth that we were re-routing to Columbus. NM.  That would also save her 75 miles of driving as well.  A few minutes later I had a text back that she would meet us in Columbus at roughly the same time as previously planned.

Russ and I trudged on to Hachita.  We could see the village for more than 5 miles away since the area is so flat.  It seemed to take forever to cover the 5 miles in the wind.  When we finally rolled into town, we were greeted by a guy who claimed to be a coordinator for the Great Divide Race.  He was helping reopen an abandoned gas station and pointed us to some cold drinks.

We saw a few of these yucca with
what looked like a snake growing
out of the top.  These are usually
straight stalks with a massive flower
clustered at the top. 

We also chatted with one of the many Border Patrol officers that we had seen since turning south from I-10.  9 out of 10 vehicles we saw were boarder patrol.  All gave us a friendly wave and occasionally stopped and asked if we needed anything.  The officer said they occasionally pick up an illegal immigrant, usually very thirsty since it is quite the hike over open desert.  Very rarely do they see much in the way of  "bad hombres".  Further west in AZ there are more issues, but the area we were in was basically safe and getting a bad rap from all the news.  To be sure, from our experience, there is a significant Border Patrol presence in the area.

Heading east from Hachita, the pace picked up with the mostly tailwind.  Averaging 15+ mph on the slight climbs and well over 20mph on the downs.  We continued to see a significant number of Border Patrol.  As we headed east we were getting closer to the Mexican border.  Antelope Wells is at the southern tip of the NM boot-heel, while Columbus is straight west of El Paso.

After about 25 miles from Hachita we had a surprise.  Beth met us with the truck 20 miles west of Columbus. She took our camping gear to get the load off the bikes and brought us some Gatorade and water.  With the lighter load, we pretty quickly covered the last 20 miles to meet her back at Pancho Villa State Park in Columbus.  We had made it.... 500 miles in 10 days with a broken bike, plenty of wind, snow, a ton of climbing, all sorts of road conditions, a bunch of really friendly folks more than willing to share their water with us and several "lessons learned" on bike packing through the wilds of NM.

Pie Town to Silver City

Couple from Tucson taking a break from hiking the CDT 

After a hardy breakfast at the Gathering Place in PieTown we saddled up and headed south toward Silver City.  The weather was near perfect.  Not even a punctured front tire could slow us down too much.  Because I was riding my backup bike I hadn't checked the sealant in the tires before we left and so the puncture didn't seal.  I had brought one small bottle of sealant with me, so I shot that into the tire and got it fixed quickly.

We continued to see a number of Continental Divide Trail (CDT) hikers along the roads leading to Pie Town.  All were looking forward to pie and a shower at the "Toaster" house.

We stopped for lunch at Valle Tio Vences campground.  We were running low on water and the spring was barely a trickle into a horse trough with a lovely film of moss. A group of 5th wheel campers from Belen, NM were there so we asked where we might find water.  They told us about a small pond down the road, but gladly filled us up from their own supply.

We headed on down the road which took us along the western edge of the Plains of St Augustine, a very large high mountain valley where the VLA radio telescope is located.  From the look of the area, there hasn't been much rain or snow in here this year.

Dry camping south of Pie Town

By late afternoon we were running low on water again and in search of a stock tank.  We flagged down a ranch hand and asked about water.  He said he could kick on the pump at a near by stock tank but he had a half gallon in his truck which was enough to get us through the night. He said there was another tank about 10 miles down the road.

After almost 60 miles for the day we set up camp about 4 miles later knowing we could get to water in the morning.  But the lack of water was starting to weigh on our minds.

Really glad to see a stock tank with water

As we continued our trek toward Silver City, we found the stock tank as advertised.  I carry a filter that can clean about a half gallon of water in 2-3 minutes once it is setup... Gravity fed, no pumping required.  With enough water for the day (or so we thought) we headed toward Collins Park and our first siting of a Continental Divide sign.  Collins Park is a large open mountain meadow popular with campers and horse riders.  When I say popular, we saw one travel trailer and 2 horse trailers on a Sunday morning... You are 50 miles from Pie Town and 80 miles from T or C... Middle of nowhere.

Continental Divide at Collins Park

After Collins Park, we entered a long winding, DRY, open, treeless valley.  We descended for almost 20 miles with a fairly strong cross wind over rough roads.  Without a tree in site, we finally broke for lunch at a very inviting cattle guard.  At least it had concrete supports we could sit on while we took a short rest.

As we packed up from lunch a truck came by.  It was a young man and his wife who had been camping in the area.  We asked about how far to water and they indiciated that the Beaverhead forest service office was 10 miles down the road was the nearest place on our route with water.  Just to be safe they topped off our water bottles before heading out.

30 miles of high mountain desert south of Collins Park

Once we arrived at the Beaverhead NFS office we splurged on a cold Coke from their soda machine.  We had planned to ride on to Wall Lake, another 7 miles down the road, but a sign outside the forest service office said the area was private property and no longer open to public camping.  There was a camping site just down the road from the forest service office, so we called it a day since we had ready access to water at the forest service office.

While we were camped at Beaverhead, I had a guy walk up toward our campsite with a very large revolver.  Before he got to the camp site, he set his gun down and walked up to introduce himself.  He was camped near the road in a 5th wheel while he worked on a bridge repair job down the road.  He was just coming up to do some target practice and wasn't aware we had camped near him.  Really nice guy from near Showlow, AZ.   We talked for a while and he topped off my water supply so I wouldn't have to go back to the forest service office to fill up again.

Wall Lake... too bad you can't camp here.

We were up and on the road by 8:30 the next morning since we planned to make it to Roberts Lake just north of Silver City.  This is the heart of the Gila national forest with some seriously steep climbs on some pretty rough roads.  It was a tough day of 54 miles and 5300' of climbing.   After a couple of "wakeup" climbs we reached Wall Lake.  It would have been a great campsite with ready access to water, but as advertised there were no trespassing signs posted everywhere.

I had yet another flat tire at Wall Lake.  Luckily Russ had a 29" tube that would fit my tire since I didn't have any more sealant and the spare tube that was in my bike bag had multiple holes in it.  After getting the flat fixed we were back to climbing on our way to Black Canyon and a water resupply, or so we hoped.  Since we weren't  absolutely sure we would make it to Lake Roberts we were carrying a pretty full load of water in case we needed to dry camp again.

Creek in Black Canyon

If you haven't noticed yet, water was becoming a pretty consistent concern.  My max water capacity was about 2 gallons and Russ could carry 1.5 gallons.  That might seem like a lot, but when you are riding 6-8 hours per day, the winds are warm and dry, you may need to dry and camp ride to water the next day, it is barely enough.

We flagged down a construction truck coming toward us to ask about water ahead.  They confirmed the stream at the bottom of Black Canyon was running and there should be no problem.  Just like everyone we asked about water, they offered us a few bottles.  This time we said we were OK and could easily make it to the stream... but we appreciated the offer just the same.

A view of some of the switch backs dropping
into Black Canyon

The descent into Black Canyon did not disappoint.  It was a winding, steep set of switchbacks to a narrow canyon floor.  As promised a nice flowing stream was there and we took the time to filter about 6 quarts of water to restock our supply.  Some dark clouds were rolling in, but only a few sprinkles fell as we climbed our way out of the canyon.

After climbing out of Black Canyon, we quickly descended into Rock Canyon.  We had been warned about this section of road by several people we had talked to over the past couple of days.  The road for the descent is on an almost talcum power white dust.  I noticed my bike was acting a little squarely on some some of the corners and almost loosing control on one particularly steep sharp corner.  I finally stopped to check out my bike and found my front tire was almost flat.  It's amazing what a little air pressure can do for your bike handling.  I pumped it back up and it held for the rest of the trip.

When we hit the bottom of Rock Canyon, there were no less than a dozen rock strewn dry stream crossings in the narrow canyon.  I had been told by the construction worker from AZ that we might have to walk our bikes through here.  It was nowhere near that bad... that's why we are riding mountain bikes, but it was clearly too rocky for anything but a vehicle with a foot of ground clearance and 4-wheel drive would have been a good idea.

As we climbed out of Rock Canyon, the major climbs for the day were behind us.  We met another cyclist coming our way and he stopped to chat for a while.  He was trying to ride the entire 2700+ mile route in 20 days.  He had started at the Antelope Wells border crossing at noon the day before and was already 45 miles past Silver City (about 165 miles total).  He was packed ultra-light, planning on riding 150 miles/day and only sleeping only about 6 hours per night.  That is just plain crazy.

We later heard that he was probably pre-riding the divide route to race it later in the summer.  The Great Divide Race, is an unofficial race that can be done either Banff to Antelope Wells or Antelope Wells to Banff with about the only rules being you can't have any support and you must follow the specified route.  It is pretty much on the honor system as there are no race course judges and no specific start date.  There is a website to track your progress.

Last Continental Divide crossing before Silver City

We rolled into the Lake Roberts area about 6PM in hopes of finding a room or cabin.  Lake Roberts is a small community with limited services but a general store and a couple of campgrounds.  After asking at one lodge about a room (cash only) we moved on to the general store which also had cabins.  They had a 2 night minimum, but were nice enough to open the store to let us get some cold drinks (first beer in a week) and offered to let us camp in their picnic area with water available.  That was plenty good enough after a long day of riding.

After a cup of coffee at the general store, we headed toward Silver City.  It was only 29 miles, but 2500' of climbing, some of it at greater than 10% grades.  By 1PM we were in Silver City and having lunch at Wranglers Bar & Grill which include a big piece of cheese cake for desert.  

We checked into the Motel 6 to get some rest, do some laundry, get some rest, resupply and plan for our last to 2 days to make it to the border.

Day 2 - Epic; Day 3 - Seek Alternate Route; Day 4 - Let it Snow

... I'll try again... had a blog post written but lost it...

Russ doing an Arroy crossing North of Mt Taylor

Day 2 was an epic ride from our camp site south of Cuba to Grants.  A total of 71 wind blown miles on sandy gravel roads with 5300' of climbing and a total time of 11 hours from start to finish.  It is beautiful desert scenery including more peaks similar to Cabazone. By late afternoon we had clear view of Mt Taylor which lay between us and Grants.  

Our original plan had been to camp at San Mateo spring on Mt Taylor but we were told there was no water and we weren't carrying enough water to make it throughthe night, so it was on to Grants.

After dragging into Grants after dark we were happy we had, it was snowing just above town in the morning with temps in the 20's.  A warm bed and hot shower at Southwest Motel on Rt 66 and hot breakfast at Cafecita cafe were great. 

Day 3, parts of the route are impassable when wet due to mud.  So we took the alternate route down the east side of the El Malpias National Monument on the highway.  The road was good, but the wind was brutal again.  We made camp with no problem other than my tent getting filled with sand from the wind.

La Ventana Arch near the El Malpia 

After eating dinner, a hiker walked into the area and came straight for my tent.  He sad hi, how's it going and then starts digging under the tree next to my tent.  He was after his stash he had buried under the tree...a gallon of water and a big Ziploc full of food.  I had almost pitched my tent on top of it.

Day 4 we had yet another surprise, snow.  The temp was in the low 30's and a dusting of snow. Our first goal for the day was to make Pie Town.  There was no wind, so Russ suggested we break camp and hit the road and hit the road early.  We were pedaling by 7:15 and in fact we had a tail wind which was really enjoyable and much appreciated I might have frozen.  After an hour or so the clouds started to break and we were in Pie Town by 11. 

We had been pushing pretty hard and there is a bike/hiker trail angel house called the "Toaster" house with a shower, a few beds, a washer, donated food, etc so we decided to call it a day for riding. 

So it was it was time for lunch and of course... PIE.. I had peach.

We are meeting a number of continental divide hikers and a few bikers heading north and they are all worried about the snow pack in northern NM and Colorado.  We met one at lunch who plans to meet his wife about where we camped the first night south of Cuba.  He is from Minneapolis and I offered to help his wife find him if needed.  He was concerned about taking a rental car there and that is probably a good concern.  Beth made it with the truck.  I'm not so sure about a car.

We used our time at Toaster House to dry our tents from the snow, do some laundry, clean the bikes and get some rest.  Tomorrow we move into the Gila National Forest on our way to Silver City.

Day 1 Disaster...

Day 1 of the Continental Divide ride started with mild temps, clear blue skies and a little tail wind.  After a McBreakfast (about the only option in Cuba) Russ and I set out on the route.  After a quick 10 miles on the highway we turned onto the gravel part of the route.  The roads were fairly good and our progress was quick.  We were moving along so quickly it looked like we would cover the planned route of 45 miles by noon. 

The wind picked up but still manageable and even had a few sprinkles of rain, then the first sign of real trouble hit.  I was peddling along, but just spinning and not driving the rear wheel.  I stopped, unloaded the bike and pulled the rear wheel off.  The axle adapter was loss, so I tightened it back up and that seemed to solve the problem.  But in just a couple of miles the same thing happened again, but this time to make it even more fun we were hit with cold rain and sleet.  It was on a pretty good hill so I pushed it until the rain let up.

I unloaded the panniers again and pulled the rear wheel again.  The axle was tight but a spring in the rear hub was broken.  Of course this is not something that I have ever seen break in many thousands of biking miles.  So now I have a fully loaded scooter bike.  Fortunately we were less than a mile from our camp site.  So we pushed on while I kept checking for cell service as we climbed the hill. Before we got to the top I was able to get a text through to Beth.

Now I'm sure most of you reading this have at least 2 front suspension mountain bikes set up for cross country trekking just setting in your garage. So it should be no surprise to you that I,  just like you, happen to have a second bike at home ready to go into action.  I text Beth to bring my second bike to the campsite.

I send her the location from my Spot locator and she was able to get Google driving directions to our remote campsite. Luckily the roads were in pretty good shape and there hadn't been enough reason to turn them into mud bogs which can happen out here... see the sign.

She had a late afternoon meeting for work but was able to deliver the bike the 80 miles to our boonie campsite by about 7:30PM.  I can't thank her enough for bailing me out.

Hopefully tomorrow is a better day.  It has been windy and raining off and on so we could have some fun with the mud ourselves.

Continental Divide Ride - Phase 1

We have plenty of travel planned for 2017.  A lot of it revolving around my (Ted) riding the Continental Divide bike route from Banff, Alberta, Canada to the Mexican border at Antelope Wells, NM.

My loaded bike.

I plan is to cover the 2700+ miles of the bike route in 2 stints.  The first leg will start on May 16 in Cuba, NM and cover 540+ miles south to the Mexican border in about 12 days.  This is some of the most desolate country along the entire route.  But given the winter we have had in he west this year, it is the only part that can be ridden this early because of melting snow pack and muddy roads further north.

After completing the first leg and getting back home, we'll pack up the RV and start a slow trek to Hood River, OR to visit Jim and Heidi.  Jim recently took a new job with Insitu there.  Our nephew, Nicholas will join us in Portland as well.  After the 4th of July we'll continue on to Jasper and then Banff in the Canadian Rockies.  On July 13th I'll start my bike trek back to NM while Beth and Nicholas drive the RV back.

Cuba to Antelope Wells, NM route

For the first leg of the Continental Divide ride I will have a companion, Russ.  He is the brother of one of my mountain biking buddies, Brad.  When I was telling Brad about my riding plans he said his brother might be interested and put us in touch.  So tomorrow we hit the road.

Unlike most of the bike trips Beth and I take, this will be completely self supported with a lot of camping and few sources of food or water.  So filtering from windmill driven cattle tanks will be necessary, plus packing enough food for 4-6 days at a time.  So my poor bike will be loaded with up to 60 lbs of food, water, clothes, camping gear and bike parts.

I'm not sure how well blogging will work since there are only 4 signs of civilization {and one of those being Pie Town, population 186 per Google) in the next 12 days and I'm writing this hunt-and-peck style on a mini-tablet.