Days 47 through 52

Day 47 - Grants to Pie Town

Leaving Grants the 2nd time I decided to take the El Malpais alternate rather than the main route.  It goes through El Malpais National Monument on pavement.  Although I thought my bike tires could would handle the goat head stickers of road C-42 after being converted to tubeless, I had already seen most of that route and wanted to do something different.  The alternate turned out to be far more scenic and is not the official route only because it is on pavement.  Traffic was light, so I was quite happy with it.  

Midway through the day I got back on gravel at Pie Town Road.  The road eventually turned to a pretty rough dirt road but nowhere near as bad as others I have ridden.  Once at Pie Town I enjoyed a couple of slices of pie in the town cafe and spent the night at the Toaster House.  Its a 2nd house that the owner no longer uses and instead serves as a hostel for CDT hikers and Great Divide riders to stay in on a donation basis.  

Lava fields near El Malpais:

Going through El Malpais:

Giant Arch:

The start and end of Pie Town Rd:

Pie Town:

The Toaster House:

Day 48 - Pie Town to Apache Creek Campground (partially off route):

The next morning I hit the same cafe for a large breakfast before taking a ride through the rest of Pie Town.  The entire town is about the same length as the street I live on.  After that it was back onto the dirt roads.  Although there were no big climbs remaining on the route, this day and the previous one included a significant amount of up and down on rolling hills.

A bit before lunch I ran into some motorcyclists who told me that a section of the road just before Silver City was closed due to having been washed out.  Due to large fires in NM last year, all the foliage had been burned off, leading to huge washes of mud this year.  Later on when I had a cell connection I was able to confirm that it was on my route, which led to about 20 minutes of searching around online, and a call to ACA to find out what the options were.  I could have spent another half day on dirt roads but due to concerns about my ability to navigate a bunch of small off-route fire and farm roads I decided to take 12 to 180, which meant adding at least 30 miles, all of it on pavement though, which makes for much easier riding.  A few miles before the turn onto 12 I had also met up with Patrick, a Swiss rider around my age who had already decided on the highway route.  We ended up sharing a site and a few beers at Apache Creek Campground.

Does & Bucks Cafe in Pie Town:

Downtown Pie Town:

Back on the dirt backroads:

Day 49 - Apache Creek to Bighorn Campground in Glenwood (off route):

Since the scenery was kind of mundane I didn't take many pictures this day (or for the rest of the ride).  I passed through a couple of small towns, having a breakfast in the town of Reserve, and a late lunch in Alma.  There was some nice scenery along the way but it was hard to enjoy it since the high speed traffic and limited shoulder required me to pay constant attention to my mirror.  Patrick and I shared another campsite just south of Alma at Bighorn Campground.

Along the way I had a minor issue with my rear wheel.  My cassette had somehow come loose and I had to take off my rear wheel to tighten it.  I didn't realize it at first but I had somehow managed to get the brake rotor between the brake pad and the caliper when putting the wheel back in.  I spent the next hour stopping periodically to try to get the scraping noise to stop and wondering what I did wrong.  I eventually ended up "fixing" it by just removing the rear brake pads until I could deal with it later. That is when I saw the damage to the back of one of the pads and figured it out.  By then I had managed to lose a cotter pin in the grass, so I stayed without a rear brake until Silver City.

Cafe in the town of Reserve (you have to watch out for those attack chickens):

Cactus thing along the way:

Bighorn Campground:

Bizarre bug in the campsite:

Day 50 - Glenwood to Silver City:

Not much to share since this day was mostly on paved highway with little along the way.  I did get a nice outside view of Gila National Wilderness (which the actual route goes through) but that is about it as far as nice scenery goes.  The day included a surprising amount of climbing, including one last sort of sizeable climb right before Silver City.  I also had some small thunderstorms stalking me for the last 10 miles.  

Gila National Wilderness from afar:

One last somewhat sizeable climb:

Silver City and a very happy cat at the bike shop (the Bike Works) that replaced my rear brake pads: 

I really enjoyed the service at both this shop and the one I previously visited in Albuquerque.  At home I normally take my bikes to a place in Livermore when I run into something I can't fix myself.  The usual turnaround time for a repair is 3 or 4 days.  Livermore has a lot of road racing types and its clear I am just not a priority compared to some of the guys who do assorted weekend races.  At both of the shops I visited on this ride, the moment I mentioned I was doing the Great Divide my bike was in the hands of a tech, despite there being a row of bikes awaiting work.  In both cases the repair was done and I was out of the door in under 30 minutes.

Day 51 - Silver City to Hachita:

Leaving Silver City was on a highway with huge shoulders, which made for some relaxed riding.  I returned to dirt just north of the town of White Signal.  From there it was about 30 miles of desert to the town of Separ, where I had lunch at a convenience store that was pretty much the only place in town.  I ended the day at the Hachita Bike Ranch.  Its another hostel for CDT hikers and Great Divide riders.  The owner also offers shuttle services to and from nearby airports.  The shuttle services are pricey but given the distances involved (50 miles each way to the border to pick up finishing riders, and 130 miles each way to and from El Paso airport) its understandable.  

Riding through the desert between White Signal and Separ:

Separ:

The road into Hachita:

There was very little traffic and the majority of cars on the road above were border patrol vehicles.  The road also unfortunately included a ghost bike memorial for a rider (Mike Rachelson) who was killed by an inattentive driver a few years ago.

At Hachita Bike Ranch:

Day 52 - Hachita to Antelope Wells Border Crossing:

I had not been planning to do this section since it is on road through nothing but desert but decided at the last minute to go for it since I had the time.  Below is a shot of one of my tires right before I started.  Each wet spot on the tire above is a puncture.  The tubeless sealant was doing its job perfectly and there was negligible pressure loss overnight.

The ride out to the border was one of the fastest 50 miles I have ever done.  I finished in a little over 3 hours.  It helped that the road was flat as a pancake with no wind.  51 previous days of riding 50+ miles per day no doubt didn't hurt either.

The south side of Hachita:

The final miles:

If you are wondering about the sad looking jersey with its messed up zipper, this is a Great Divide themed jersey I bought for the trip and the damage is from the deer that chewed on it all the way back at Tuchuck Campground in Montana.  I had closed the mangled zipper with a combination of stitching and a safety pin and kept right on using it.  It seemed appropriate to finish in it not in spite of the damage but because of it. I doubt anybody gets through this route without a significant number of items getting lost, destroyed, or mangled along the way.  

Riding this route was a great adventure that I thoroughly enjoyed.  It was more challenging than the Transamerica Bike Trail (that may be partly due to me being 6 years older) and the scenery and riding conditions were better since most of it is away from paved roads.  I would do it again if I ever got the chance (shhh, don't tell my wife).