More Tour Divide Riders

More Tour Divide riders! These 3 guys came through town; Per Nilsson Eklof, Trevor Browne, and Paul Howard. Per was real hardcore riding a rigid Karate Monkey. They should be finishing up tomorrow, riding into Antelope Wells around 1:00 PM.

Yeehaw to Per, Trevor, and Paul!

Other things today, I rode the Continental Divide Trail (CDT) "South" this morning. This ride is becoming my benchmark. It was the first ride I did when arriving from Venezuela. I suffered big time from the altitude. On today's ride, I assume I was still tired from South Boundary Ride, but I cleaned everything. I didn't need to stop and breath like the past. The new SID Team fork is way better than the old SID. The steering is now precise and plush. Nice!

South Boundary Trail, Carson Nat. Forest, NM, USA

Preface: Last week when I went to Gallup, I left my Litespeed and Vertex with Steiner. He completely rebuilt the Litespeed so that the only original part of the bike is the titanium frame. The new Rock Shox SID and new Avid Ultimate V-brakes are incredible!This past Sunday, 5 July, I finally rode the world famous South Boundary Trail near Taos, NM. Steiner picked Jim and I up around 7:30 in the morning and we headed up the road in his small pick-up. We made a quick breakfast stop in Santa Fe (breakfast burritos for me and Steiner) we continued on north to Taos.In Taos, we met Cory and Sean, brothers who had driven up from Albuquerque as well. We left their car at the Taos Visitor's Center and piled their bikes and gear into/onto the 4-door mini-truck and we all piled in and headed up to our start point at Garcia Park.
We decided to do an out-and-back towards Angel Fire. Not sure what park we ended up at, but we took a break near the high point of the trail, 10,700 ft. We were probably between 10,500 and 10,600 ft above sea-level. To get to that spot, I climbed mostly in my middle chainring, but only when I was going down did I realize how steep it was. No wonder I was breathing hard!Back at Garcia Park we took another break before heading towards Taos.

The rest of the trip was mostly downhill. We rolled through meadows, groves of aspens, and as we decended, thick patches of oak. These miniture oaks grew only shoulder high and had flexy limbs that hurt if they bent back and sprung back to hit you. Their root systems made the trail a bit more challenging as well.
The trail itself ranged from smooth single track, to rooty sections, baby heads (rocks stuck in the ground) and finally a steep, stair-steppy, deserty finish. The last 4 miles of that steep stuff was very challenging, but not impossible. It reminded me a lot of the Gila conditions.

Overall, it was super fun! The Artist's Ale and vegitarian green chile stew made it worth it.
Ready to do some more challenges!

Matthew Lee wins Tour Divide 2009

Matthew Lee is the greatest cyclist you've never heard of.

*****

My story today with the Tour Divide...
*****
It was a surreal time out in the desert.

I slept in the car while waiting for Matthew at Separ. At 4:00 AM Matthew is banging on the window of the car yelling, "You can't sleep here!". At 4:30 he heads off towards Hatchita. I drove the dirt frontage road to Hwy 146, then headed south down to Hatchita. I had an hour or so to pass so I took several pics of things in the desert.

At 6:30 Matthew shows up in Hatchita, wakes up the store owner (who is living in a beat-up travel trailer next to the store) to buy some food.

He heads out of Hatchita at 7:00 for the last 45 miles of pavement to the border/finish line. While milling around on Hwy 81, looking for good places to to take pics from, a U.S. Border Patrol vehicle turns around and starts following me. My car looks suspicious. It is a white rental from with Texas plates and covered with mud from driving on the Georgetown road yesterday. I pull over and stop and the Border Patrol agent stops. He spends some time in the car radioing in information. Finally he approaches the car. I make sure that my hands are where he can see them and I ask if its okay if I can stand up (my door was open). He says okay, and I immediately explain I am with the bicyclist. He asks if I am from Canada too. I say no, Silver City, but I am helping him out, taking photos, trying to get an angle on a story. The special agent relaxes and explains that it was dangerous out where we were and that we should be careful. After we exchanged pleasantries, he gets back in his truck and heads back the direction he was heading in the first place. I wait for Matthew to get some pics.


I drive farther down the road, wait again for another 45 minutes to an hour to get more pics. No harassment from law enforcement now.

I drive into the Antelope Wells US Port of Entry and one officer immediately comes over to me with his hand on this wand. I quickly explain what I am doing and ask if its okay to take photos. I get permission as long as I don't photograph the US Customs building. So I got this pic as he rolled in.They have really ramped up and militarized the border. Now there is a huge barrier fence, the US Customs are heavily armed and very curt and short (they warmed up to us after Matthew arrived explaining the whole thing).

Matthew arrives to the border. I get a few pics. We go to the "podium" to get a few more pics. Soon Matthew is just milling around getting chummy with the customs agents (one was still very cold and all business...the other two relaxed a bit).

Note: Just over the hill, about 10 air miles away, is the 1970's-built copper smelter town of Playas, NM. This town was sold to the Dept. of Homeland Security for training purposes. Part of this training are F-16s!

If you got to the Tour Divide website and listen to Matthew's audio, you'll hear the F-16 scream over. I was outside when it came over...less than 100 ft over head...less than 200 ft from the international border. It had vapor trails being generated by its wingtips, missiles (it was fully armed) and a white cone-shaped shockwave coming off the afterburner. It was loud! Of course my camera was in my pocket at the moment.

The F-16 flew out a ways...probably to the border where New Mexico's border with Mexico turns due north. The jet pulled a vertical turn and comes back over Antelope Wells. This time I have have camera ready and aimed. The pilot, again about 100 ft off the ground banks side-to-side, left to right, saluting the Customs agents as he blasted past.

A few minutes later the F-16 came back again just under supersonic. We did not hear it until it was nearly passed us.

We packed the car with Matthew's bike and drove up to Lordsburg for lunch.


Now Matthew is passed out on the living room floor, feet elevated on a chair. He pedaled for 29 hours from NM Hwy 12 crossing to Antelope Wells.

Matthew Lee is the greatest cyclist you've never heard of.

Tour Divide at Silver City, NM

I went out and looked for Matthew Lee today. I drove the Georgetown Road which proved to be too slippery for my rental car. I thought I was going to put it into the ditch a couple of times.

Gave up on driving in the slippery mud, so turned around and went out to the Mimbres to look for him, but again, no luck. Came back into town, looked at the Tour Divide website a while later and saw he was on his way into town. I went out to see what he was up to and what he wanted me to do about picking him up in Antelope Wells.
We met at the Grinder Mill, a local-local restaurant where he rode in and had that 2700 mile stare. He ordered a combo burrito, smothered with green chile. Some other cyclists were there, and were asking him all sorts of questions.
You can see the 2700 miles of fatigue in his face. Beat!

Later we went across the street to Jeff's house so Matthew could use the Internet. I will leave in a few hours to meet up with Matthew at the Continental Divide at Separ and I-10. From there he will continue on to Antelope Wells where I will pick him up.

Tour Divide at Pie Town, NM

I drove up to Gallup Saturday afternoon and drove back Sunday afternoon. On the way back, I decided to see if I could intercept Tour Divide ride leader, Matthew Lee. The last fix I had on him was he was halfway down NM 117 at 1:30 PM. By the time I got down there, it was 6:30 and he was well past Pie Town. I did see his track however!

Also I may have driven right past his camping spot. It seems he is camping near Old Horse Springs. I drove right by there but it was dark. I expect to see him tomorrow evening.

Here is a pic of the mountains near Pie Town just north of US 60. I had forgotten how beautiful of place this part of NM is.

More Riding

This morning did the Continental Divide Trail South in a clock-wise direction. It is such a great trail because it is very diverse;

1.) once on the single track, there is this open grassy country. Very scenic. I like the cairns along this section.

2.) The finger gate; things start changing here. More trees, including ponderosa pines.

2a)Not too far away from the finger gate, there is an unusual patch of soil. It seems to be covered with something that looks like lichen. I looked a little closer and it looks like the lichen seems to be covering a crust of cryptobiotic soil. Cryptobiotic soil is more common in the 4-corners area and this is the only patch of the stuff I've seen or know about in this area. Like I posted earlier, this patch has been there for a long while.

3.) Gomez peak area, is a mix of vegetation including agave and alligator bark juniper.

I had reached the road and met up with Nathan and Mike. We rode the Gomez Peak Trail System, then headed back into town.

Sound of Summer

Just heard then saw my first slurry bomber of the summer...a converted Lockheed PV-2 Neptune. Looked like the same plane as the photo above.

When I was a kid in the 70's the bombers were badass WWII vintage B-17 bombers complete with the radial piston engines. They didn't have the horsepower of these modern turbo prop engines and therefore never got a lot of altitude by the time they'd fly over town.

Photo credit: this website: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fox-firebase-aero_union-N716AU-030724-01adj.jpg

Navel of the Universe (part II)

Got up this morning and rode the Continental Divide Trail again. Still struggling with altitude here, but gawd, do I love riding in the Gila! The trails were in perfect condition after our light rain yesterday.
Took a few pics with my "back-up camera", a Canon A530.

After pedaling out from town (5 miles of steady climbing), I started out on the Gomez Peak Trail system.

This is a typical trail in the Gomez Peak system. Nice swoopy turns, and rock outcroppings to make it interesting.

Fresh coyote (?) scat. Probably shat in the last 12 hours or so.

Prickly pear flower providing food and moisture for all sorts of critters.

This is an interesting patch of ground approaching the "finger gate" On the right side of the pic the ground is covered with lichen. Usually lichen grows on rocks. This patch has been there since I first rode this trail back in the early 90's.

The Gila! Looking north-northwest toward the wilderness area. The knob in the center is a Preacher's Point. It is a waypoint when riding "Horseshoe Bend" on Bear Creek. It is a mini-epic jeep road type ride that I haven't done in 15 years. I first explored that area with my old Jeep CJ-5 when in high school. I used to drive all around that country alone...without telling anyone where I was going...of course that back-in-the-days before cell phones. There is some wild country out there!

Right about here, I scared up two mule deer, then a little further down the trail, I came across 5 adult wild turkey and 3 "turklets".

Cholla are in bloom as well.

Typical trail conditions for the "Hill of Death" part of the CDT. Lots of golf ball-sized rocks.

Large critters spotted:
- mule deer
- raven
- wild turkey
- turkey vulture
- numerous pinon jays
- javelina

The CDT "South" is always great ride!

"Navel of the Universe: this place and Easter Island"

Sliding back into Silver City, the Navel of the Universe. This place is such a surreal place. Growing up here, you kind of take things for granted but when you grow up and move away, see other parts of the world, you realized how unique of place it really is. Sure, places like Sedona, Durango, and Santa Fe get all the press, but the Gila is the true Navel of the Universe...this place and Easter Island.

Yesterday did a euphoric ride on the trail system on the north side of Gomez Peak and then finished up by riding back into town via the Continental Divide Trail "South". Its really an interesting thing to straddle the continental divide. For portions of the ride we are on the Pacific drainage and on other parts of the ride were are on the Atlantic side. I've done these trails dozens of times, but I've never gotten tired or bored of them. They are so fun to ride. (sorry no pics right now...waiting for a new camera.) Total distance ridden was about 25 miles with 15 of it on genuine single track!!! Nice!

Today I milled around town on my trusty Univega Gran Turismo (1981). This is the bicycle I rode from Mexico to Canada in 1981. It is still a great riding bike. In the afternoon I ended up at Dave's were we walked down to the brew-pub and quaffed 3 pints each. I.P.A....aaaaaah! Tasty!

Dave, the Swami.

More later...

R.I.P. SD 1000

I took my Canon SD1000 scuba diving on Thursday. I used a vinyl waterproof camera bag that was rated to 33 ft (10 m) which is 1 additional atmosphere. Everything was fine to that depth, we we soon swam down to 40 ft and hit somewhere around 49 ft at our low point. At this point, I noticed the bag taking on water. Soon the camera was immersed in sea water and was fried. This is really unfortunate because I was getting some spectacular shots underwater. We saw all sorts of cool sea creatures.

I've decided I am finally going to invest in a real underwater housing unit for the next camera...probably a SD1200IS.

PS: Posting this from the USA. I arrived today. Tania is very upset that I came.

Iguana Pics

I've been on vacation since Saturday afternoon. Mainly just getting up, riding my bike, vegging out. No Internet connection at home, so I had to come down to a local coffee house with WiFi to make this post. I will be posting more when I get to the USA.

I've taken a few interesting photos of iguanas I took yesterday while out on the bike. This guy was bold and didn't mind me hanging around to take his pic. The other two hid in the rocks. After owning a parrot, I am sure that wild animals are just like dogs and other domestic animals. They all have distinct personalities...bold, shy, smart, dumb, whatever. This guy was pretty bold.