The last state!

The morning started early - up at 4.30am and rolling out by 5am and straight into a pass. La Maunga Pass was our last in Colorado. Shortly after that we turned off the main road and headed into Carson National Forest and New Mexico!! What an awesome feeling to be in our last state- I think it helped carry us through the day. There was a lot of climbing today 2400m and 140kms but we were pretty happy bikers for most of the day! It was a lovely forest, and nice to be back in the trees. 

It was also closed due to extreme fire danger but there was some sort agreement that let us riders go through. ( that evening we passed some firemen and they all just waved hello). At about the 90km mark we hit the main road again and headed up another pass towards lake hopewell about halfway up the climb a truck stopped and asked us if we needed any water. No we replied but thanks for the offer! Then at the top of the climb there sat an empty mini bus, the driver had just dropped off a group of people to a yoga retreat and he had waited for us to get to the top then proceeded to give us ice cold water, an orange and a sausage in bread- so good to have real food! After this revival we decided to crack out another 40kms to Vallecitos. The majority of it looked to be down hill and easier riding ( so we hoped), and it was. It was a lovely evening for riding and we again enjoyed having the National Park to ourselves ( we had crossed back into Carson) we got to Canon Plaza and hoped that the roadside stall might still be open - though it was 7.40pm! As we zoomed down the hill we saw the shop on the side of the road and pulled in- there was all sorts of amazing treats inside and we were lucky enough to have the owner come down from her house above and serve us! 

After some ice cream, chocolate and coke we headed on down to Vallecitos and the local community centre where we hoped to stay the night. We pulled in and asked a local if we could pitch our tent and he sent us down the road to the coordinators house. He very kindly let us sleep inside, charge all our stuff and hook up to wifi so we could catch up with NZ.  

Another great experience with the locals of New Mexico. Today was turning into one to beat! 

The following morning we were up a wee bit later at 5am as we didn’t have a tent to pack up. We had been in contact with Russ and Kane and they were just up the road in Abiquiu and were waiting on a shuttle to collect them and take them to Silver City as they had run out of time and had to catch flights back to NZ on Thursday. We planned to have a shower at their motel and breakfast with them before making a plan to get to Cuba without having to take the road diversion.

It was a pretty easy ride down to Abiquiu, a small climb but then mostly down hill and about half paved. ( only 50kms total) we get to their motel just after 9am and enjoyed a shower and hand washed our clothes as it had been a few days since the last hand wash in Del Norte! 

After a big breakfast the boys had cleaned their bikes and backed their gear they decided it would be cool to set off the bear spray. Kane got the short straw while Russ videoed it. I stood well back but Mckayla got a bit closer for a better view- well..... some of you may have seen the video. We didn’t quite get the wind direction right and some of it came back on them, burning eyes and skin! I got a bit of a peppery taste in my mouth - it is definitely not a pleasant taste! Mckayla had a second shower and the boys ended up washing there t-shirts out, there was quite a lot of coughing going on!! 

Anyway now it was time to say our final goodbyes. It’s been a real pleasure to share the journey with these two guys, they have been great company and I think we have all helped each other get through some tough times out on the trail and we have had some good laughs together. 

As we rode off we had to make a decision. Try and get a lift around the road or bike the just reopened that am Santa Fe Forest. We stocked up on food and decided it was too hot to bike anywhere until later that afternoon. It was time for a milkshake and some lunch. As we sat at a little cafe joined to the gas station and convenience store we got talking to some old guys sitting around us. They told us we were very brave to bike all the way down the country and seemed a bit in awe of us, it was quite funny really. We told them of our delima and one of them offered to drive us to Cuba. He was Tony, 72 yrs old, retired and loved to help people he said. So we put the bikes in the back of his wagon and drove the 100kms to Cuba. It was a lovely afternoon and Tony told us about his life and some history of the area. Another great New Mexician experience. We don’t feel guilty about the ride. It gave us a win when we needed it, tired and sore after a few big days and we got to connect with some locals. 

In Cuba we checked into a motel, sorted out the bikes for the next day and went to bed early. 

In the morning the alarm was ringing at 3am and we hit the road at 3.30. We had 190kms to ride( all paved and undulating- no big climbs) to get to Grants. 

It was a nice morning and we ticked off the kms happily enough. We didn’t have too many stops along the way today as we just wanted to keep moving forward before the wind and heat caught up to us. We had a good day and made good time, 11hrs to Milan (4km before Grants) we stopped for ice cream and coke and then carried on to Grants and found a motel. Stocked up with food for the next few days and went for a swim at motel, did our laundry and then it was time to sleep after our early start. 





Today was an exciting day for us. We were biking to Pie Town!!! The place had been talked about since Banff it was promised to have the best pie in America and seemed like a place we might never reach not so long ago! 
The first 60kms were paved and it was a nice ride down through an area called “the narrows” there was huge rock walls to one side with some very impressive rock formations it was lovely riding. 



We then turned off onto Pie Town Rd( gravel) and had 50kms to Pie Town. It wasn’t a bad section of road, as we rode along we could see thunderstorms ahead of us. We got a little shower of rain but nothings to major and we were lucky it wasn’t a peanut butter mud section. We got to Pie Town about 2pm and headed straight for the cafe. There was an amazing selection of pies! I chose the pear and ginger one and Mckayla got the mixed berry. They were the best pies we have had in America- very yum! 

We had some lunch after pie, ordered some food to take away with us for dinner that night the the following when we will be camping out and another pie to share for pudding- this one was pecan and custard. 

After catching up with Scott and the kids we headed to Toaster House. It’s a free hostel that a local lady (Nita) has donated for people to use who are traveling the CDT route. There was no one else there when we stopped in so we enjoyed having the place to ourselves. It is so well set up and an amazing place to stay. You can donate some money for your stay which Nita uses to purchase food supplies that people may need passing through! We were lucky enough to meet Nita later that evening which was lovely. 

We were off to bed again early planning on another 3am start to try and avoid the afternoon thunderstorms, but at 2.30am we woke up to rain and then again about 4am so we reset the alarm for 5.30am and would see what it was like then. When we woke it seemed to have cleared a bit so we decided to head off. The road wasn’t in too bad a condition and we had some nice biking but we could see rain clouds ahead and then it started to drizzle. 40kms in and we hit peanut butter mud and it stopped us in our tracks. We couldn’t go more than about 2m without the back wheels clodding up so we ended up waiting it out on the side of the track for an hr or so until it stoped drizzling and the track dried a little.


We then got back on the bikes and carefully carried on. We made it another 20kms to the main road that we crossed through then carried on, our gravel track. We could see thunderstorms in front of us and made it 7kms down the road before stopping st the side and decided to watch it from there in the hope it moved off to the left so we could carry on our way. But no! More formed all around us and we were sitting in the middle of them. We had a decision to make, wait where we were- not the best option as no shelter and lots of lightening. Go back to main road as house there and wait it out, hopefully with wifi so we can get a weather report. 

We decided to cycle back to the main road. Turns out the house was actually a church- no one there! So no weather report. What to do now??? Sit and wait I guess. We sat there for about half an hr watching the storms get bigger and bigger . We talked about how we had 100kms to go along that road to where we wanted to be that night - beaverhead work centre, and the map info stated that in monsoon season that section of road was in passable due to the mud. Oh no we had just hit monsoon season and these storms weren’t going anywhere! What to do- we would just have to cycle the road to silver city I guess. Not ideal as we had tried to avoid the highway as much as possible. There is little if any shoulder on most down this way and cars are definitely not as curtious as further north! 

With a huge headwind we decided we would just have to wait it out and then carry on the road. With no map or wifi we were a little apprehensive about what was in store for us. Suddenly Mckayla yells at me - truck coming! ( we had only seen 3 vehicles all day) 
I ran over towards the road and flagged them down. Turns out they were the grader drivers who were grading the road we had tried to bike up. They had seen our 4 bike wheel marks and wondered where the bikers were. We asked if our estimation of which way to silver city way right- yes and how far? About 150miles! 

They were headed to Reserve which was a town on the route about 40miles away so we decided in that moment to get a ride there and sort out what next from there. 

We checked into the only motel there. Luckily I had put a roaming pack on my ph a few days before so we could make some ph calls as we needed to ph the lady to self- checkin. Reserve is a tiny place with a couple gas stations, convenience store and pub. We mulled over what to do next and decided we really did not want to ride 160-180miles on the major highway with little shoulder - we want to finish this thing but we don’t want to do it at all costs. So we phoned a shuttle- both feeling a wee bit down and out about being off route and having to get transport back. But you make decisions on what you know at the time and in the middle or nowhere and with limited info you can only do so much. Never mind it has always been about exploring a country to us and seeing as much as we can so this way we get to discover another place no one else on the TD has and we have decided we will spend the next two days exploring Silver City as we don’t really want to finish earlier than we had planned to having made accommodation and transport arrangements to Phoenix. So to Silver City today, and a warm showers host tonight and tomorrow then we will carry on to the boarder. 

It’s been a mixture of emotions these last few days in New Mexico. It really does seem to be throwing everything at us ! 





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a 4500km journey