High Country Riding

6/30

An incredible day today. We started somewhat late out of Abiquiu (elev. 5900) to begin one of today’s many climbs. The first was on pavement for 12 or so miles to the town of El Rito (elev. 7000). It was easy enough, but last night’s downpour left the air quite humid, so we really sweat this climb out.

In El Rito we turned onto FR 44 to climb into the mountains. FR 44 was a nice quiet dirt road through stands of Ponderosa pines. It was, however, extremely rutted, which was ok for us (we always had the choice of a good line), but would make for some difficult driving. Thus, we did not see a single vehicle on FR 44. Up to 8200 we climbed, only to drop down to 7500 in the town of Vallecitos. Then, more pavement to the town of Canon Plaza.

As we rolled past barking dogs and a group of friendly people walking (gasp) down the highway, we saw the tiny “Snack Shack” on the side of the road. It was filled to the brim with chips, candies and drinks. “Honk Please” the sign said. Paula laid on her Monkey horn and soon Silvia came riding a mountain bike down to meet us. She opened up the shop and let us choose whatever suited our fancy. I drank a Hawaiian Punch and ate a Rice Krispie treat, a Twix and a bag of chips. All the while we talked to Silvia about her little (for fun) business and all the other riders she had seen over the years. Only one other group had signed the guestbook this year and it didn’t have a date!

We thanked her for the tasty snacks and as we were leaving her dogs kept stealing Paula’s hankerchief (that she was using for her hair). Datson the dog kept taking it and trying to tear it. He even grabbed it out of her pannier bag. Eventually he took off into the woods with it, playing tug of war with “Jaws”–the other dog.

While we snacked the winds picked up and things were threatening rain. I was getting worried about the upcoming climb to Burned Mountain (10,192 feet). But as we left things started to lift and clear up. The climb out of Canon Plaza was quite nice. I was feeling top so the climbing melted away. I felt like I could climb to 14,000, let alone 10.

We rode through areas that were straight out of the Wasatch–even moreso than the Jemez mountains. We were treated to some excellent mountain vistas where the trees cleared, and, tons and tons of Aspens.

We crested the ridge of Burned Moutain fairly easily, then dipped down to 9700 only to climb back to 10,000 and Hopewell Lake. About 0.2 miles from the top a mountain biker approached. I thought this was odd–he was obviously a serious rider and had very little gear so at first I thought he was just out riding. Then he seemed familiar somehow–hey, it’s Mike Curiak and our first “Cannondale Run” racer.

He was a super nice guy, stopping to chat with us (and eat some of our food). I’ve never seen anyone so happy to have a Cliff Bar (which was pretty much all he wanted). He started 2 days before we did (from Canada!). He’s got almost 2000 miles while we’ve gone 600 or 700. He is absolutely smoking. We told him a bit about the upcoming conditions and then wished him well. I couldn’t believe how light he was traveling. But, that’s the way to do it!

We rolled on past the lake and saw more cyclists–this time on road bikes. 3 guys, one from Sweden, one from Mexico City and one from Vancouver were cycling from New Jersey to LA. We chatted a bit and told them about the GDMBR then were off down US 64 for some of the easiest miles of the trip.

30 mph downhill for 5 miles. As we descended it got nicely warmer, then we turned to climb up to the Tusas Ridge. We were still feeling great so the climbing was easy. Here the views were astounding and the best yet. Cisneros Park was incredible. You could see faraway ridges that extended above the tree line. Big booming meadows with groves of aspens next to stands of Pines. The evening sun lit up the green hills so nicely. I felt like I could ride up there forever.

But the sun was dropping, so around 8pm we found a place to camp near the Rio San Antonio. As we set up camp another cyclist–Pete in 2nd place and maybe 6 hours behind Mike rolled. It is still anyone’s race. He looked quite tired and only gave a “Hey” and a wave to us as he passed.

Tomorrow, Brazos ridge and supposedly some difficult riding. We climbed an almost ridiculous amount today, but the riding was still pretty easy.

75 miles, 8700 feet of climbing.

7/1

We had super weather today for climbing, and we had plenty to do. We awoke to frost and ice on the tent poles, so it was a bit of a slow morning. But eventually we rolled out at 8800 feet. From there we climbed to 9700 then dropped. Here we saw our first view of the challenge: Brazos Ridge. It looked mellow enough, but was quite high.

The adventure cycling profiles are once again way off for this section. They claim the high point is a tad above 10,500 when actually (on GPS and the USGS map) it nearly reaches 11,000. 10,967 was the highest I saw.

True to form the hardest part was at or near the very top. It was some very nice granny gear, hold onto your bars for dear life style of riding. I was hoping for just that. I managed to clean it all, and was feeling great. Paula, on the other hand, was feeling like pooh. The climbs (and especially) the rocks were just a bit too much, and even though I felt great the climbs and descents did never seem to end. It was slow progress. By early afternoon we were only 30 miles into it, when usually we have racked up much more. I think the lack of progress was shambilizing Paula too.

We saw Mike Curiak’s wheel cutting deep into now solid ground–he said he walked/rode through 5 miles of mud up here. It’s amazing how fast it dried–we had very little problems getting through without mud on our bikes and it was only 24 hours or so later!

Mid descent we crossed into Colorado! One state down, 4 more to go.

We met a couple of jack-ass high school students on one of the descents. They came ripping by on an ATV, yelling and harassing us. Just down the hill they were loading the ATV into their truck and as we passed they yelled “Don’t get run over!”. Puerile behaviour just never gets old, does it?

We rolled down the descent a bit then went off into the trees, allowing them to pass without seeing us. Too bad, I’m sure it would have made their day to run us off the road, their lives are clearly boring enough that they need to harass others to make things interesting.

The pavement climb to La Mangas pass was excruitiating because we were riding so slow and had so many cars passing us. The descent into the Conejos valley that followed was huge–I was thankful to not be riding up it.

At the restaurant in Orca (the town at the bottom, by the river) we saw a guy look hard at us from the deck. I looked around and noticed Bob’s and bikes in the parking lot. We had caught the riders of the wheels we have been following for days.

Kurt, Steve and Karen are from Pennsylvannia and were a riot to talk to. They had many a hilarious story to tell (mostly about their mishaps, technicals and crashes) about the trail so far. We hope to meet up with them tomorrow to do a little riding.

We ate some tasty grub at the restaurant, then enquired at the Mountain Home Lodge to find that they no longer rent but are selling Condo’s–a correction to the map is needed here. So we took off up the Conejos valley to find some other cabins, but instead ended up at Conejos CG, just off the river. Currently the residents are mostly quiet, except our neighbors who are singing and harmonica-ing as I type. It’s 10:02pm, time for bed guys.

Unfortunately it’s a holiday weekend which could mean more traffic and full campgrounds/motels. Don’t you just love the Holidays?

7/2

Excellent climbing weather once again today. The sky was deep blue with the sun shining bright.

The warmup was to climb the town of Platoro (rouhly 10,000 feet). It was easy enough, and the miles simply flew by compared to yesterday. We were there in no time.

The road here paralleled the Conejos River (which we camped within 10 feet of last night) up a huge canyon. The first 10 miles are strangely deceptive: it seemed to both Paula and I that we were riding downhill, though we were clearing gaining elevation and riding upstream of the rushing river. I guess yesterday was so steep that slight uphill now seems like down.

We ate PB&J sandwhiches on the side of the road at Platoro. To our surprise vehicle afte vehicle of tourists came rolling own the road to Platoro. We worried that it was going to be a busy day on these narrow mountain roads, but it turned out everyone was driving down from the reseviour to eat lunch.

Climb #1 was to Stunner Pass (10,541). It couldn’t stun or phase us. I rolled over the top hungry for more and without hardly breathing hard.

We coasted downhill from here back to below 10,000. On the descent huge views presented themselves including the spectacular little and big red mountains. These huge peaks tower above the valley and are naturally colored red, yellow and white by mineral deposits. They are quite unlike any mountain I’ve ever seen.

The next climb was a big one: to 11,600. It was steeper than Stunner but still had a great surface (compared to Brazos, Jemez or other New Mexican roads), so it did not seem difficult.

Steve, Kurt and Karen were resting in the middle of the climb. They were lying next to a bubbling creek with tasty cold water (we had pumped out of a previous stream but the water was too acidic to drink). We chatted some more and tried to convince them to continue climbing with us. They saddled up but let us go a bit early.

Switchbacks continued, higher and higher above 11,000 feet. We found ourselves in one of the most beautiful areas of the entire trip thus far. When we topped out into a basin we were really treated by huge alpine meadows framed by treeless peaks. Creeks and brooks crisscrossed across the valleys, dumping into snowmelt ponds. Everything was SO GREEN! It was almost surreal–an otherworldly place. Steve caught up to us where we stopped to take some photos. Photos, unfortunately, are powerless to convey anything about this area. Everywhere we turned we saw what would be an incredible photo.

This continued for 5-6 miles of high country riding. It was almost too good to be true. Eventually we said goodbye to Steve and Karen (who had also caught up to us) and rolled on for some more climbing. It was too bad they aren’t a bit faster because it would have been great to camp and ride with them. They were going to camp somewhere near the top of the big climb (brr… cold), while we were going to push on the Del Norte and a hotel room.

We passed summitville, site of a SuperFund cleanup project. All of the water has been severely contaminated by heavy metals, and there was definitely a metallic smell in the air. After watching man’s foolish stewardship of the land in New Mexico, namely cattle ranching, it was at least a change to see different foolishness. But it was still somewhat sad.

My thoughts turned to Indiana Pass, the high point of the entire GDMBR at 11,910 feet. I knew that it would not be technically challenging, but I was still quite charged during the initial ups and downs before it.

Finally my altimeter read 11,700 (the highest so far) and I knew the big climb had begun. Paula was ahead of me, hammering to beat me to the top. I struggled into higher gear but had difficulty catching her. She slowed down (she thought the top was closer than it was), and once I passed her I only dug deeper. It was just something about this being the highest climb we’ll do, and also a willingness to test myself at a somewhat high elevation. This was the highest I’ve ever ridden a bike (though I’ve hiked much higher), so I really let loose all the way to the top.

I nearly collapsed at the top, but rode it out in middle ring and with a world full of momentum. I circled and inspected the view I had just earned. Wow. I pulled out the camera to snap one of Paula cresting, then took a panorama.

A tiny hill after the pass took us a big higher–my altimeter read 11,960. Then we hankered down for a huge descent: 25 miles and a 4000 foot drop. We had to stop to rest our hands and upper body, but it was very pleasant. Endless groves of aspens and firs lined the road.

We hit pavement and soon saw 3rd place in the big race: Jan. He looked strong but frustrated by losing his way and equipment failures. He’s still setting an incredible pace. He’s got a big climb ahead of himself into some cold and high country. We wished him luck and cheered as he climbed away.

Del Norte seems a suitable place to eat huge amounts of food and get some well needed rest. We climbed much today, but compared to yesterday it was a piece of cake–all because the road was never too rough. Colorado might not be so hard.

66 miles, 6500 feet of climbing.