On July 25th I did 51.3 Miles to just North of TLC Ranch. On July 26th I did 64.6 Miles to Long Canyon. On July 27th I did 68.6 Miles to South Diamond Trail Head. On July 28th I did 41.6 Miles to Spring Canyon. On July 29th I did 148.7 miles to Antelope Wells.
Listen to “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea” by Neutral Milk Hotel. Its the happiest/saddest song I listened to on the trail and its always bittersweet to finish a big adventure. This ride has kicked my ass more than any other trail I have hiked or biked and humbled me as I pushed my way South. A break would be nice to recover and regroup but I don’t want to this to end because my body might be broken but my spirits are high.
After getting my butt kicked on Indiana Pass I made my way around the San Juans and finally broke into New Mexico! I wasn’t out of the woods yet as Indiana Pass may be the tallest, but the pass (which isn’t actually named) outside of Abiquiu, NM is the longest and has about 6,000 feet of elevation gain. I was thrilled to be in New Mexico not only because it is the last state but also because it is my favorite state. New Mexico is a hidden gem and while the towns are on hard times the people are extremely friendly When riding through tiny towns, people will come out and meet you in the street to talk to you for hours on end, and before you know it you know their entire life story as well as all of thier relatives stories. The food is also amazing with Hatch Chilies on everything. I wanted to get to Abiqui in the evening so I could go up the large pass first thing, but I got delayed eating a huge meal in the tiny town of El Rito and had to stealth camp along High Way 554. I got up early and made it to town where I resupplied at a gas station and just as I started the climb I met back up with Taz! It took us the better part of the day to make it to the top of the Polvadera Mesa and it was a blast to have company on the climb which made the suffer fest a little more enjoyable.
I carry more water than most cyclists and had enough water to camp for the night. Taz was running low and pushed ahead to the next water source 10 miles down the trail; after the huge climb I didnt feel like doing another 10 miles and set up camp. I woke up early to catch back up with him and we went into Cuba, NM together to grab some grub and a quick resupply. We headed out of town together after eating our weight in food. It was a complete road ride to Grants, NM. I hate road riding but to be fair the NM drivers tend to give us a lot of room and the scenery was absolutely stunning so I tried not to complain to much. On our road ride we bumped into Shawn Cheshire and her crew. I had never met her before but Taz knew her well and introduced me. Shawn is completely blind and doing the tour divide (after hearing this I went though all of my blog posts and deleted every sentence that had me complaining in it). Shawn has a support crew and rides with two other riders. The rider in front has a speaker attatched to the bike that is playing music which she follows, the other rider gives verbal cues as to what she needs to do and what possible hazards are infront of her and they all have two way radios built into their helmets for constant communication as she is pedalling her bike and steering it but cannot see anything. Her website is http://www.shawncheshire.org/ and definetley worth a look. It was fun to run into them as they are a hilarious crew and had some spare food to give to Taz and I from their support vehicle.
Taz and I made it to Grants the next evening after camping in the middle of nowhere near some abandoned cabins. There isn’t a ton to do in Grants and if I was feeling strong I would have blown through it, but I wasn’t and grabbed a motel as I started to look at the ending logistics as I was now less than 400 miles from the border. I got an early start the next day to try and beat the afternoon storms but got stopped in my tracks around 1 pm as the skies just opened up and lightning was dancing across the sky not far from me so I stopped and took a break in a ditch. I was hanging out in the ditch when I saw two riders approaching and low and behold it was MJ and Karolina, the Polish couple, who I hadn’t seen since the crazy storms in Whitefish, MT. The two of them stopped and we hung out as we watched the storm pass in front of us. After the storm was far enough away we continued down the road but after about an hour of riding we got completely bogged down in the mud, we couldn’t even push our bikes because the mud was clinging to the tires and getting stuck between the tires and the bike frame so we literally had to pick up our bikes and carry them. Karolina’s bike was covered in so much mud that it became too heavy for one person to carry so we actually had to have two people pick up her bike. We carried the bikes 500 yards to a flat spot. It took us over an hour to get our bikes there and all we could do is laugh and set up our tents.
We got up early to check on the road conditions, the mud had mostly dried and we were able to make it 20 miles down the road to Pie Town, NM. Pie Town doesn’t have much in it, in fact, its basically just three different cafes and a few houses and that’s it, not even a gas station or convenience store. The cafes, of course, have pies and we went into one of the cafes to get some calories in us (I took a risk and ate a mango jalapeno pie and it was so good). Taz later joined us as we all devoured our food in the booth talking about the absolute shit show the mud was the day before (Taz got stuck in the mud about 10 miles behind us). Because of the mud Karolina, MJ and Taz wanted to take paved roads to Silver City, NM. I hate road riding and did not want to do a 180-mile road ride so I said goodbye to them and took off down the forest road by myself while they took the road. It didn’t take long before the afternoon showers started and I got bogged down. It wasn’t as bad as the day before and I was able to fight my way through the mud even if the bike slid out from underneath me a few times causing me to crash.
The scenery was spectacular on my ride towards Silver City but I was making super slow time because of the mud; it was also very hard to find water since the area had recently burnt causing all of the streams to be contaminated with fire runoff which is impossible to filter. Karolina, MJ and Taz all stuck together and made it about 20 miles past Silver City three days later while I was still 30 miles from Silver City. They were going to make an attempt for the border the next day which would have been about a 100-mile day for them and a 150-mile day for me. I was texting them on the phone that there was no way I was going to catch up to them and that I unfortunately would finish the day after them. They didn’t like that answer and started to harass me telling me that I had to give it a try and that they would even start late the next day to give me time to catch up. I thought there is no way in hell I can do 150 miles in a day but that I would try and see what happens.
I set my alarm for 3 am and was riding by 345am. I made it to Silver City a little after 7 am and grabbed a quick cup of coffee and met up with Tyler who had finished 4 days earlier but was waiting for Taz. Tyler gave me a pep talk of a lifetime and suggested that I fuel my entire day on baked goods from the coffee shop which I thought was the best idea I have ever heard and filled my backpack up with pounds of sweets and took off down the road. I was on a mission and didn’t stop pedaling till noon when I caught up to the crew. I couldn’t believe I caught them and was exhausted as I was averaging 15 miles per hour which may not sound like a lot, but on a fully loaded bike on gravel trails that is hauling ass. I had done 80 miles by the time I caught them and had another 70 miles to go. We all took off together and formed a line where we could draft off one another. The tiny town of Hachita was 30 miles away where we all took one last break. This was my opportunity to call it a day as I had already done 110 miles and I was so tired I had a hard time standing up, and forming complete sentences was out of the question. With the border so close and my friends with me, I said fuck it and went for it. The last 40 miles were a slog, it was all paved but I was completely gassed. There were mile markers along the road and I restarted the same song every time I passed a marker and tried to make it to the next mile marker at the same spot in the song every time to keep my pace consistent.
Around 7 pm I got to the border crossing at Antelope Wells and completely dropped my bike, partially because I didn’t care, and partially because I didn’t have any energy left to hold the bike up. I hobbled over to the border crossing sign and smacked it… I was done with my 2,700-mile journey and I was hurting. Everything hurt and if the border was another mile away I probably would have had to crawl to it (and I would have crawled). I hadn’t felt this sense of accomplishment since I hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2015 when I blindly tackled an unknown.
I’m not really sure what the point of the ride was, or what the point of any of the stupid stuff I do in the mountains is but it felt good to do it. I was out of my comfort zone, I was out of my area of expertise and I failed a lot and did a lot of stupid shit but I kept pedaling and it felt good to tap into internal sources of motivation that I haven’t touched in a long long time and forgot that I even had. I completed the trail in 46 days which is a far cry from the race winner who did it in 14 days this year but I couldn’t be happier with the result, and cannot wait to come back next year with everything I have learned and give it another try. Life isn’t about doing things perfectly, its about learning and growing and most of that happens at the edge where fear and comfort meet (you should read “Standing at the Edge” by Joan Halifax)
As always keep your chain lubed and call your mom when you have service (but leave out the details so she doesn’t freak out too much).
Samson-The-Bear
