Days Two and Three

Day Two

So, Doc and I made it over to the Continental Divide Trail via our own off-road adventure today. It was hot and dry and the sun beat down on us, attempting to melt our bums to our seats. Every time we got on our bikes, it burned.

The ride itself went through some pretty cool country, including an old ghost town called Mogollon, NM. It was great. There were lots of old buildings and even some people lounging around in their old cabins. We didn't have time to check out the old mining museum, or any other stuff.

After the ghost town, it was a lot of hot weather and gravel roads. We joined the actual route at about 1:30 or so. As we rounded the bend to hook up with the route, we came across six other riders that were doing the Continental Divide Route. Most of them were from the Phoenix area and were only riding up to Colorado Springs, before turning around and heading back to work. Poor guys.

Our one goal was to make it to Pie Town, NM by 3:00. The cafe in town serves the best pie around, or so we've been told, and we needed to get some. We raced down the gravel to the highway and to pie heaven before the rest of the riders could take the best of the sweets.

The owner of the Pie Town Cafe is a very nice woman who entertained us with tales of other riders on the route and of the nasty roads that we would see shortly. We should have taken her advice to stick around until the rain passed, as we would find out just how nasty the roads really can be. About a half an hour after leaving the cafe, it began to rain and the roads turned into a disgusting, sloppy mess. It was impossible to keep both wheels on the ground. Actually, Doc didn't have a problem. I did. Luckily, Doc didn't have his camera handy.

We eventually landed in Grants, NM for the day and ended up sleeping at the rodeo grounds. Not on a nice grassy spot, but on the actual steel grating for the bleachers. Crazy.

Day Three

We left the comforts of our metal be fairly early in the morning. The first stop was a Walmart to purchase a pillow. For some reason, I never pack a pillow. I end up stuffing a stuff sack with clothes or other items, creating an incredibly uncomfortable pillow and one that is difficult to actually use. After making the best purchase ever, we hit the road. We had some GPS issues, but worked them out after a bit.

Once we were on the route, we were running through the desert. It was fast and fun. Check out the following video:

We opened and closed several cattle guards and muscled our way through sand and rocks to eventually land in Cuba for a break. Dark clouds were rolling in, but we wanted to make time so we took off, despite warnings of more impassible roads when wet. As soon as we hit dirt, we started to climb. The road was by far one of the most challenging that I have ever ridden. It was rutted out with large rocks and loose stones to contend with. This, coupled with the fact that it was incredibly narrow, made for an interesting ride. We had a blast.

Once we were on top of the ridge, the slow going roads turned into high speed gravel. We were making good time on the route, but the sun was quickly disappearing. As luck would have it, we ran into a local guy who was heading home. He said that we could follow him off the mountain and into town, so we jumped at the chance. We enjoyed talking with him and he recommended a hotel for us for the night. After we checked in, it was lights out.