Day 9, August 28, 2004, book days end of 42-48: We gas up in Saguache before we backtrack to the trail on SR114, then head south again. The terrain is high with lots of evergreens and we cross Carneros Pass at 10,166 ft then drop down into some neat canyons into Del Norte, where we gas up again, because it's 190 miles to Abiquiu and possibly the first gas.
After Del Norte, the road is paved for the first 12 miles, then turns to gravel. The rocky road starts to climb to the highest pass on the entire trip, Indiana Pass at 11,910, and the old disserted mining town of Summittville, CO.
Mark's Pics 1668-70, kens 458
We've been up and down but mostly above 10,000 ft for the
last hour and now were going over Stunner Pass where there are a few old cabins
and a gorgeous view.
Ken's Pic 460, Bill's Pic 033
Summitville town and closed mine with bad water
contamination!
We pass through an area around Platoro, where there are a
lot of cabins on the hill sides and several campgrounds. The canyons here are different colors and
quite spectacular. The Conejos River runs along the trail for
quite a way until we hit pavement 26 miles ahead.
Ken's Pics
461,462
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Here we take the Los Caminos Scenic Byway for 12 miles. It is a really nice section with some awesome views, and goes over La Manga Pass at 10,230 ft.
Mark's Pics 1672,1673
Where are we Bill?
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We get back on gravel and it immediately becomes a switchback while descending steeply. We cross into New Mexico around 3 miles and it's pretty rough riding. We start climbing up this really rough rocky road until we get to the Brazos Ridge overlook with views into the Cruces Basin Wilderness. To me the scenery is the most beautiful so far on the trip.
Mark's Pic, 1676, Ken's 463, Bill's pics
034, 025
Rocky!
The rest of he days ride was tough and similar to the
previous 15 miles but in the end we made it into Abiquiu by 6:30 and gassed
up. We stayed at the Abiquiu Inn that
night for $85 (they wanted $120 but Bill negotiated well) and what a difference
from the night before! This place was a
beautiful modern adobe style with cable TV (weather channel) and a good
restaurant. We were very happy after
250 miles of some of the most consistently difficult riding on the trip.
Day10, Friday August 27, 2004, book days 49 & 50: We woke up in our awesome adobe hotel room and decided to take our time and have breakfast here, which was very good! Mark has been having problems starting his bike and he decides to fix it here so we find the maintenance guy and Mark and the guy head over to his shop. Bill and I finish loading up then head over to the shop to find Mark wiring a light switch to the side of his bike! We don't need no stinkin handlebar mounted starter switch! It works, so off we go.
Bill's pics 122,163,055
Master electrician Mark!
Mark's savior.
Voila!
The ride starts out just out of town, along creeks and
through ranch lands before climbing up through the sparse terrain. It starts to get steeper and rockier winding
through the pine forests. We get to an area of slick rock, which are large
rounded rocks with grooves cut in them.
It almost looks like a bulldozer drove over them and cut them. It makes for slow going.
Eventually we get out of the slick rock and keep climbing higher where the trail starts getting really rocky and steep. It's really tough trying to keep from bashing things and staying up. Just before the top I get stuck in between some big rocks. Bill has to come help me get off the rocks! Finally the top with a big view! While we're taking in the views a pair of hunters come riding by on their horses. I get the distinct impression that they don't like seeing us up here!
We keep going along the top of the mountain to a crossroad mentioned in the book as being difficult to find. I take the trail I believe to be the right one and we keep going. It starts to become a two-track heading down with some huge boulders and lots of fallen trees. When I get to a steep washout, I stop and survey the situation, and ask the opinion of Mark & Bill.
After consulting the book, I still feel were on the right trail, so we keep on going a few more miles, even after it turns to a single track cow path.
Bill's pics 089, 128
Single Track
Anyone?
Ken & Mark rethinking
strategies.
We go through the first fence but can't get through the next one so we turn around and backtrack a mile or so, where another trail goes off to the left and down the mountain. I stop to check it out and ask them their opinions, when this hunter comes walking out from behind some trees and asks us what we're doing down there. We explain about the CD ride and the trail were supposed to be on and he tells us to take the one I was just looking at, to Fr 99 and then we can get out to the main roads again. I realize that we can't reconnect to the CD trail now so we head the way the hunter had said to. It was a rough decent but we made it to Fr 99 and down to another road that would take us to pavement and the long way around. We turn onto what is a county maintained road and pass a truck pulling up a large horse trailer. This road turns into an awful, rutted, washed out, steep downhill mess and it's about to rain! Thankfully we got down the 20 some miles without rain or incident and we did get to stop and take some really spectacular photos of what I believe were the Sandia Mountains.
Bill'sPic 094, Ken's pic 465
Awesome!
Just before we made it back to the pavement, I finally saw a
rattlesnake sunning himself on the road.
Cool! We head down to Cuba on Sr
96 and actually ride along the continental divide near Regina. We get into Cuba in the late afternoon and decide to stay there tonight
even though we only covered around 140 miles today. With all the problems and
backtracking, we were exhausted, but we did manage to find a good local diner
for dinner.