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.