Day 16 – Can’t touch this (boo BLM!)

The mesa country north of Mount Taylor. One of the most beautiful and remote sections of the divide route.  Discovering that there was now CDT singletrack was a huge impetus for getting this trip off the ground. 

I was perhaps more excited to explore the mesa country and ride along rims than for any other section of the CDT.

And why shouldn’t I be?  It’s BLM land, subject to drilling driving and grazing among other uses. Should be good to go on bikes right?  Well, information on cycling the CDT is sketchy to nonexistent. Getting the right person on the phone could take hours or days.  The best way to figure things out is to get out there… and that is what we are doing.

The first no bikes signs were a Bummer but not wholly unexpected since there are wilderness study areas (closure still questionable but understandable).  We had our hopes up for the northern sections.

But we were continually denied. Parallel dirt roads… Beautiful ones but emphatically not what we came to ride.

The worst was resigning to the fact that with the last section of trail marked no bikes, we were stuck on a 70 mph US highway into Cuba.  11 miles of highway is not the remote and solitary experience we were looking for, nor a safe route.

I would like to know the logic behind closing these sections when, if anything, the CDT needs more people to use and love it in this area. Unfortunately the BLM office left cuba years ago so I can’t speak to anyone in person.

Anyway enough with closures, it was not a bad day on the bike by any stretch.  We rode quiet forest singletrack, took in amazing views, saw few people and cars (until the highway) and even scored us our first trail magic!  It was well timed.  Mother goose was there, a legend of a thru hiker.

I have a CDT-bike route from cuba with a hot spring and possibility of a 7 mile singletrack descent, so there is much excitement ahead.