To Infinity and Beyond….

 


To Infinity and  Beyond, stolen from  Buzz  Lightyear, was today’s theme. Once we got off I-10 (that’s another story), we were surrounded by mountains but the sight lines went, well, to infinity. Beautiful terrain- again.

We had to start the ride on I-10 for the first twelve miles. It was ok for a couple of miles, being repaved for the next 5 miles, then just plain crappy. Due to lack of a shoulder we crossed over to the lane being repaved and worked our way around the construction equipment. The construction workers got it and gave us no flack.

After I-10 we had great roads with no traffic for the rest of the 48 miles. The only negative was 10-15 mph headwinds for most of the ride.

Coming into Hachita we pulled into the half mile dust and dirt drive to the Bicycle Ranch. Jeffrey pulled right in behind us and immediately and pulled out a couple of ice cold Coors  Lites almost before we got in the door. Being only 3 miles from the Continental Divide Trail he gets a steady stream of cyclists and hikers along with touring cyclists going across the southern route like us. He has a great place with reasonable rates and room for up to a dozen.

Then he says, want to see a turquoise mine? We jumped all over that and before we knew we were headed up a jeep trail into the mountains. After bumping by some stone ruins, the Grand Cherokee busted it up a final steep, rocky pitch to the mine. We spent an hour or so exploring the pit and searching for turquoise. Jeffrey’s friend was also up there working on a we vein - after mountain biking up the jeep trail. 








Overall a great day. We finished with pizza at the Bicycle Ranch.  Tomorrow- off to Columbus NM and a possible visit across the border to Mexico!

Today’s ride 47 miles for a trip total of 689 miles. 

 Brian looking like a long distance cyclist.

Mayfield Ranch- we looked around- Baker’s not out to pasture yet…

 Crossing the Continental Divide


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Southern Tier- the hard part is getting there

Image
 San Diego to El Paso by Bike - the hard part is getting there  10/23/21. After spending the better part of the past week boxing my bike and figuring out what I need for about 3 weeks on the bike, I’m finally sitting in the airplane. The alarm went off at 330 this morning and so far the trip consists of a 45 minute drive, 45 minutes getting my bike checked and 45 minutes in TSA. Cycling should be easy after this.  American has a bike rate of $30 which is a deal. Unfortunately the gate agent had no idea about the rate so it took her and 2 others to figure it out- thankfully it didn’t turn into the $200 oversized charge. The bike box came in at 49 pounds against a 50 lb max! I’m meeting my friend Brian Blair in San Diego. Earlier this year we rode the OTET trail from Cincinnati to Cleveland with a group of four. The last time I biked with Brian was in 2011 when he and Susan Spinelli let me join them for the Seattle to Glacier National Park part of their cross country ride. ...
Read more

The Sonoran Desert

Image
The first 20 miles out of Gila Bend was a low grade climb into a 15 mph wind, taking over 2 hours. This area has not one structure. It was mostly scrub sagebrush but as the mountains came closer we started to see saguaro cacti. The slow climb brought out a lot of beauty in this place. I’d like to have explored some of the trails we saw. The first structure we saw at about 30 miles in turned out to be the admin building far a very busy landfill. Of course the wide berm petered away and we were assaulted by numerous 18 wheelers returning from the landfill and passing too close for comfort. Then I get my first flat in a few days. I immediately found a stainless wire that had pierced my tube, put a spare tube and the tire back on with Brian‘s help and got on the way. 3 miles later, another flat And I again found a tiny wire that pieced the tube. Another repair.   We got to Maricopa and stopped at the busiest Circle K in the world and I bought an extra large Mountain Dew to quench my th...
Read more