Day 88 - Hatch, NM to Mimbres, NM

We left Hatch at a pretty decent hour in the morning. We had a big day ahead of us and I was ready to go. After discussing cutting our trip shorter, I was in much higher spirits than the day before.

The first sight of the day was this bad boy. What it is used for, I have no idea.

We found Caballo Lake State park just in time for a break before we started our ascent.

Though murky, the lake was very beautiful.



Back on the road again, we had a long ride up to Hillsboro. We didn't gain much elevation, but we sure climbed for a while.



The views of the surrounding areas were very nice.



Hillsboro was an interesting little town. I kind of liked it. It was small and just dropped into the mountains. Hillsboro also meant lunch, so I was very happy to find it.



At first we were rather disappointing with the town, not realizing that there was more up the road for us to see. The downtown area was quaint, and most things were closed on Wednesdays.



Except for this place. It seemed like the entire town was here. It must be famous. I had myself a burger with green chilies and a slice of delicious pie and ice cream to wash it all down with. I didn't want to spend the money, but I wanted to help out this little town that provided an oasis to passing cyclists. I also wanted a burger.



After a troublesome ride post burger consumption, we made our way into the Gila Forest.



And so the climb began.



9 miles and approximately 3 or 4 thousand feet. I dislike climbing, so I was pretty unhappy during the entire crawl up the mountain. Brian loves this stuff so he zipped right on up.



The views, however, are spectacular.



Here is a shot of everything we just rode on, from the top of Emory Pass. Those mountains off in the distance are where Caballo Lake is - where we started our ride.



Though I hate ascending mountain, the descent is always wanderful.



The sun was beginning to go down, so we  had to cruise down the entire length of the western side of the mountain.



I tried my best to capture the amazing scenery around me while riding, but the pictures didn't turn out that great.



Well, this one wasn't so bad.



Some of the rock formations that we rolled around were spectacular. The diversity in the area was also very impressive.



Like I said before, sunsets in New Mexico: they don't get much better.



After the sun went down, we found ourselves in a small town called Mimbres, where we managed to pitch our tent behind a church. It was freezing cold. I knew well before climbing into bed that my crappy sleeping bag would not be keeping me warm during the night.

Total mileage: 81

Day 87 - Las Cruces, NM to Hatch, NM

We had a short ride today. the wind was obnoxious and I was not in the mood for it. My body was growing tired of this trip. I haven't been able to relax in quite some time. The mountains have also been taking a toll on me since I've left Austin. I reached a point where the wind was making me mad, where many things were making me mad - so I resolved to skip the Grand Canyon. After Tucsan, I'm heading right for San Diego to begin my much anticipated expedition through the Pacific Coast.

The ride today was not so bad. We saw a lot of Chile farming. The smell of the chilies being picked was intoxicating. It was really putting me in the mood for a burrito.

You would never expect the wind to be so nasty on such a beautiful day - but it was. I was going very slow.

We rolled though some Pecan farms. The fall weather had taken its lovely toll on the outer trees.



This is the Rio Grande - not as beautiful as Duran Duran makes it sound.



I was moving at a snails pace. I'm certain that I could have covered the distance by foot much faster. My panniers were acting as sails and were forcing me to pedal harder through the wind.



There is a lot of farming down here. More than I would have expected. Cotton, for instance, is something I would never had imagined being grown in New Mexico.



Finally, after an arduous ride of 35 miles, I made it into Hatch. Apparently this place is more famous than I had realized.



The first stop once we were in the town was at a burrito restaurant. We were served some authentic Mexican food - which was very tasty.

Our next stop was at a fire station to request permission to camp on their property. They said we could, but warned us of the dangerous area we were in - so we found a church to camp at instead.

There was a gas station/Subway down the road that we spent a good amount of time at discussing our route. We were making a lot of changes to the original plant - mostly to get our butts to San Diego sooner rather than later.

Total mileage: 35

Day 86 - Cloudcroft, NM to Las Cruces, NM

I didn't sleep much last night. You can't tell (and neither could I until I laid down) but the tent was on a bit of a slant. I shuffled all night in my sleeping bag, trying to avoid rolling onto Brian.

Here is a better view from the trail head we were on yesterday. Off into the distance are the San Andreas Mountains and White Sands.

It was a 16 mile ride into Las Cruces from Cloudcroft - all downhill. It was lovely.



We knew we were getting close to the White Sands when we saw this sign.



38 miles into our ride, we found the national monument.



After a visit at the visitor's center, we decided to ride 6 miles into the monument and take a short stroll through the sand.



We got rid of all our baggage to make the 6 mile ride a little easier.



The dunes were magnificent.



It was like riding on snow. What is amazing about the sand here is that it does not get hot - in fact, it stay very cool.



We lollygagged through the sand dunes and explored for a while.



It was nice to take off my shoes during the middle of the ride.



Beautiful, huh?



This picture basically sums up White Sands National Monument: white sand, dunes, and mountains in the distance.



I found this while wandering through the dunes. I thought it was worthy of taking a picture of.



At some point during the ride, after we hopped back in the saddles, I ran over a big bug and it blew up all over my leg.



The wind was not being kind to us after our stroll through the sand. It was rather difficult to ride to the hills we had to climb.



I've begun to very much dislike these mountains. There was a lot of climbing involved in this trip that I did not anticipate. I do not like climbing for thousands of feet. It is no fun.



Up the hill we go! 1,800 feet until the top of the pass.



It must have been an hour until I reached the top of this hill. I believe it was 8 miles long. after 8 miles, I could have done without it.



There are many things about New Mexico that I do not like: mountains, large bugs, desert, etc. There is one thing that I really do lie: sunsets. They are simply magical.



Brian got a pretty nasty flat tire on our ride down into the city. After having stopped for a while, we continued on and found a bike shop where I purchased new gloves to stop Brian from complaining about how bad mine smelled. We were fortunate enough to find a fire department that would let us camp behind their station for the night. Unfortunately, Pizza Hut never called us back about free pizza. 

Total mileage: 105

Day 85 - Ruidoso Downs, NM to Cloudcroft, NM

The morning was pleasant enough. We had our breakfast at a nearby hotel and stopped at a gas station to fill up our water bottles.

Unfortunately, it was cold and the sky was ominous.

It got colder and colder as the morning progressed. And the sky got darker and darker. What was unfortunate was that we were descending a huge hill, that I knew we would just have to make up for to reach our destination at 9,000 feet.

The view of the mountains from our perspective was absolutely breathtaking.



It was shortly after I took the picture above that I got a flat tire. My tubes had been able to handle a large fish hook through them the day before, thanks to the Stan's, but for some reason a thorn was much to much for the tubes to handle.

It started to snow as I was replacing the tube. I turned around to find Brian all bundles up.



We finally turned onto the road that would wind us into Cloudcroft.



Apparently they were doing road work on the entire road, all the way to Cloudcroft.



It was a beautiful ride with a lot of scenery.



We were making pretty good time for a good portion of it - mostly due to the incredibly long descent we had to make after climbing up to 8,500 ft.



We made it into Lincoln National Forest!



With 10 miles to go, we finally began to ascend to Cloudcroft. The wind was blowing strong right in our faces. I wasn't going anywhere fast.



With 3 miles to go before we reached the end of the road, I was beat. The climb had kicked my butt, but there was still more to do!



We made it! we had a nice descent into the town.



Cloudcroft turned out to be a very nice town. It's apparently somewhat of a destination town because of all the outdoor activities.



We were fortunate enough to find this bike shop perched high in the town. I was in desperate need of some tubes. We were also given some great advise as to what we should do with the remainder of our day while in town.



We had some tea and pie, then out out into the wilderness for a hike - and to find a place where we can set up camp.



We found a place to camp. Very exciting.



We laced up our running shoes and went out for a 4 mile run through some beautiful trails.



I was loving the leaves. They were pretty and crunchy and amazing.



At such a high altitude (9,000 ft) I could feel my lungs burning a bit.



We found this spectacular area and really wanted to set up camp here - unfortunately there was absolutely no way we could get our bikes down the trail with all the weight we were packing.



Cool stump. Also, nice pose Brian.



I love the leaves!



It is difficult to see just how spectacular this area is.



A lot of it reminded me of the northeast.



After our excursion into the woods, we strolled back into town to be somewhat social. I was served a large cup of coffee in  just about the best mug ever.



We returned to set up camp and get cooking. We had to be careful with our food because of the animals around us. I wish I got a picture of Brian's bear bag set-up. It certainly would keep our food safe, assuming that bears grow no taller than a foot high.

Total mileage: 45