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Published: September 20th 2015
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El Malpais
Dirt road connecting Grants to Pie Town. We saw 5 rattlesnakes close-up before lunch, giving us the heebie-geebies for the next 6 days at least. Greetings everyone, and thanks for checking in with us. It's been a little while since our last update, and we've eeked out quite a few miles since Chama. We have a lot of photos that we'd like to share, including ones from our passage through the southern Rockies, into northern New Mexico's red rock desert, then into the stunning rattlesnake haven of El Malpais ('Badlands'), then through the curiously but appropriately named hamlet of Pie Town, through the wind blasted San Agustin Plains, back up into the beautiful and remote Gila (pronounced HEE-la) National Forest, and finally down into the Spanish-western influenced town of Silver City at the northern reaches of the Chihuahuan Desert.
Due to the remoteness of where we've been over the last week or two, we've been camping a lot more, often against our will, but we've become pretty well coordinated with our division of labour: as soon as we roll into a campsite, we both take a moment of self pity and lament that there's no motel within 50 miles. Once we've checked that box, we set ourselves to business by putting up our tent (also known as our frigid, sleep deprivation chamber). Then, Fi starts
Brazos Peaks
In the Chama River Valley, near Chama, NM cooking dinner while I inflate air mattresses (Big Agnes mattresses are the only way to go!). After dinner, I'll typically wash the dishes, then rewash one or two after dropping them in the dirt, while Fi builds a dangerously large campfire for our evening's entertainment. I'll collect all of our remaining food to hang from a tree out of bears' reach, usually resulting in a tangle of rope and our food being hung so poorly that even the most decrepit raccoon would tackle it like a child's pinata. I'm always amazed the following morning to discover our foodbag still intact, rather than seeing it torn to shreds on the ground next to several obese raccoons and squirrels lying around in a food-induced coma.
Thus far we've racked up nearly 2200 total miles and 115,000 feet of ascent, including one day's brutal ride where we desperately covered 116 miles between Cuba and Grants, NM just to avoid having to spend another night camping in the desert with a dwindling water supply; a scenario that I also attribute to less-than-stellar planning. More recently, we've also accumulated 7 tire punctures, including 5 that occurred in the space of 30 feet (our heavily
"Don't tread on me... no really, or I'll bite you for real"
We think this is the dreaded Green Mojave rattlesnake. This 4-ft fella didn't appreciate Fi nearly riding over him. We would see several of his cousins over the next few days. patched innertubes are starting to resemble narrow quilts), closely encountered 6 rattlesnakes, including 3 highly venomous/feared green Mojave rattlesnakes, slept in one abandoned house currently occupied by a transient band of friendly hippies (I think I'd rather have the rattlesnakes), have seen a bunch of pronghorn sheep, and camped within a few hundred yards from a male elk, which although we never saw, we heard at night as he was out searching for a girlfriend. We've also met more genuine, friendly, and interesting folks along the way. Many of our campsites lately have been bone dry, forcing us to carry enough water for drinking, cooking and dish washing for a couple of days at a time, and even then our water resupply points are sometimes just spigots at ranger stations. Lack of reliable water sources has been our primary challenge lately, but we've managed well enough so far.
I think I'll leave the narrative short and just post the photos. Fi and I are both doing well, riding stronger now than ever before. We're also both eating more than ever, just to keep going. Hard to believe that in only a few more days, we'll be at the US-Mexico
Red Rocks near Abiquiu, NM
In fewer than 5 miles, we were out of the pine and aspen covered Rockies and plunged into the starkly beautiful red rock desert. We would spend a few days in this environment before climbing back above 7000 feet and back into high forest again. border. This segment of our adventure will soon be over. Time to start figuring out how to best get to South America... but first things first: laundry and rest today, get back on the bikes tomorrow and point them south.
We hope that you enjoy our poor quality, amateur photos below. ~ Ken
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