Bikes out of the Garage Lean

Took the bikes out of the garage this afternoon to show my friend Kialo. Each bike is unique and has a story or history. Not shown is my Univega touring bike because I was riding it when the photo was taken by Kialo. Just a cool photo in my opinion. 

Merlin, Litespeed, Coconino, Bridgestone

(not shown: Univega, Rocky Mountain)

Dubois, WY 1981

Dubois,WY...I have a good story about that place in regards to my Mexico - Canada tour in 1981. 

A rangy cowboy with a broken nose and his buddy walk into a bar where a couple of stink'n cyclo tourists in funny pants are drinking beer. We start talking, swapping tales of adventure (the cowboy got his nose broke because his horse, a barely broke mustang, ran him under a low hanging tree branch). My cycling buddy, Bruce, a bit inebriated, bragged that he could ride anything because he ridden his bicycle from New Mexico by gawd! 

After a few more rounds we go out back behind the bar where the horses are tied up and there's the semi-broke mustang! Bruce gets up on the saddle and the horse goes wild, bucking like a saddle bronc! The cinch strap breaks and off goes Bruce and the saddle ends up on the horse's belly. The cowboy with the broken nose fetches his horse while Bruce lays flat on the ground, the air knocked out him, staring up at the twilight sky. He eventually gets back up, the horse is tied back up, and we go back into the bar for a few more beers.

We close down the bar and another guy meet says we can camp in his backyard and gives me verbal directions. I finally get Bruce out of the bar, he is hurting and very drunk, and is wondering where we are and where was the rest of our crew. I informed him they left, they went to a campground up the road towards the Tetons, but I assured him we had a place to stay. 

I actually found the guy's house at 2:00 AM and he answered the door. He was surprised, his wife was pissed, but he kept his word and let us sleep in his backyard. In the morning we used his bathroom, brushed our teeth and got on our bicycles, but as we were leaving, our host came out and offered us some frozen moose steaks. We took the steaks and headed up Togwatee Pass to catch the rest of our group. 

We finally caught the rest of our crew at the Tetons (I have a great photo of Bruce climbing the pass). At the general store at the national park all we could find to eat was cream of mushroom soup...but we had the moose steaks. We ate pretty good that night.

Dubois was one of the best towns of the tour.

Some Pics of Big Bend State Park (TX). Good fun!

Gypsum crystals on the Crystal Trail

Resting

Heading to the mine

Contrabando Trail

Coconinos!

Down Freno Canyon

Coconino bike and Mimbres Man jersey

Nice bike!

Fresno Canyon

Water Trail

Water Trail long angle

Mass Mountain Bike Descent to Lordsburg, NM via the Continental Divide Trail

The other day, November 9th, I finally got to do the mass accent to Lordsburg. This is the one ride I was somewhat envious when reading about it from Venezuela. 

We had a group of about 15 leave the parking lot on NM 90 about 25 miles south of Silver City. Our plan was to ride the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail to Lordsburg. I ended up using my back-up bike, my geared Litespeed leaning against the bumper of that Ford pickup because the rear valve on my Coconino started leaking as I was airing up the tire that morning. 

It turned out to be a beautiful day and ride, about 40 miles of dirt, the first half being single track and the other being 2 track dirt roads across the desert. 

The group regroups

Cooke's Peak in the distance

Technical uphill rocky section (walked this section when I should of/could of ridden it)

End of the single track

Into the desert

Lordsburg is to the left of center just below the horizon.

Charging the bull

Hard turn

Skewered

My bike's puny wheels

End of the ride: mediocre food, cold beer

 I really enjoyed the ride. I wasn't as fast as the 29" wheeled bikes, but I didn't care. I wasn't the last to reach Lordsburg, and it is all about the ride and enjoyment. This ride was well worth the wait!

The Niva

This was my Lada Niva. I had it from about 2004 to 2006. Picked it up in Caracas, and somehow it got us back to Puerto la Cruz without mishap. It was a small miracle after I learned about all the weird quirks of the vehicle as time went on. Cool car but it was always breaking down in one way or another. Never got to use it for its intended purpose, exploring offroad. The one time I tried, it broke down out in the boonies and had to get the help of a local to pull it up a hill with his truck so I could get it going down hill so I could eventually get it to run again. I think that was one of the last times I used it. A guy I worked with wanted it, I tried to warn him about it, but he bought it and flipped it for more money. Lesson learned.

Back at It

I have decided to start blogging again. I was heavy into FaceBook, a real time suck, but I've closed my account because of all the BS and decided I will publish my pics and stories here again. I might go back to using FB some day, but it will be a highly trimmed down version.

In the past my blog served as a diary of sorts, especially when living overseas in Venezuela. I am now back in the USA with my family, not sure if my post will be as interesting or colorful, but I am back in my hometown in New Mexico, we've been back for a little more than year.

The biggest news so far has been moving back to New Mexico, got a new job, new car, and a new bicycle. My new bicycle is probably the biggest deal. I have not had a new new bicycle since 1992. My custom Coconino is hand-built masterpiece by frame-builder Steve Garro (mentioned in other parts of the blog) whom I've known personally for at least 20 years. I am real happy and pleased how the bike turned out. It is an amazing ride.

More on everything later!

Bali Hai

I'll tell you a story...This pic is somewhat of an experiment on my camera's settings. Didn't really capture the image the way I saw it this morning. 

That is Isla Borracha (Drunk Woman Island), about 6 nautical miles NE of the mainland. It is my Bali Hai (if you know anything about old movies). It looked mysterious and beautiful the way the low angle light plays on those valleys. The first time I saw it, I wanted to go there.

One Sunday way back in early 2002, I paddled across in my kayak (Klepper Aerius II), alone, without telling anyone where I was going. It turned out to be a long open-water paddle that crossed a major shipping lane where I had to wait for a container ship to pass so I would not get run over. 

I thought there would be a place where I could buy lunch, like the other islands off the coast, but there was none; just a ramshackle fishing village, and a neat cove where people take their boats to picnic. 

Though I was bonking hard, I needed get back to the mainland, so I got back in the kayak and paddled back in choppy afternoon seas. I obvious made it back safely, but haven't tried that paddle again. 

Anyway, I still look at this island the same way every time I see it. Bali Hai!

1981: Bike touring from Silver City, NM to Animas, NM

The other day I posted on Kent Peterson's blog about when touring from Mexico to Canada  in 1981 and meeting a cyclist in Socorro NM who had a stash of 700c tires when I needed one. 

Been thinking about this lately...

Today I was telling Tania about that same ride, but when I was heading to Mexico via Animas and NM Highway 9. It was June, southern NM and already triple digit temps. I rode from Silver City to Lordsburg, then to get to the Animas highway, I rode about 8 or 9 miles of I-10 (that sucked). Made it across the Lordsburg Playa (dry lake bed) then turned south onto NM 338 towards Cotton City and Animas (in NM’s bootheel) . 

Don't know what the temps were exactly but it was just after high noon and all the water I had probably was 2 small water bottles. It was hot (did I say that?) and riding along the edge of the Lordsburg Playa was like being the rider at the beginning of High Plains Drifter, everything was all shimmering. I kept riding forward because I didn't really have a choice. In the distance I could see some trees which were in Cotton City (Cotton City might have a pop. of 100).

I was hot and getting desperate and I knew there were not any stores in Cotton City so no place to get out of the sun. I was going to need water. 

I was about 3 miles out and I could make out a building which was surrounded by trees. My plan was I was going to have to knock on their door for water. I didn't have a choice. 

As I got closer, I could see that this building was a church and it had shade and a sprinkler turned on watering the lawn! Small miracle! 

I parked my bike and jumped in the sprinkler and drank. I drank at least a waterbottle full and felt good. As I lay there in the sprinkler, I actually felt chilled when a minute before I was overheating. I spent about 10 minutes there in the shade and the sprinkler then decided to ride to Animas. 

It was hot again. I got to Animas feeling defeated.

Once in a Lifetime...

A link from Adventure Cycling on Facebook got me reminiscing. Lately I've been encouraging my senior students to go out and have some kind of epic adventure early in their lives. Anyway, in my recollecting of my  1981 Mexico to Canada Bikecentenial (now called Adventure Cycling) adventure, I remembered this photographer guy, Art Wolfe, who helped me when my Suntour freewheel exploded on Going to the Sun road in Glacier National Park. It was early morning, we had to get up to the pass before 10:00 AM or the NP sweep wagon would take us off the road, to our starting point. Apparently this guy Wolfe was out chasing the morning light, but he stopped and offered help because I was basically dead in the water.  My riding companions took off, continuing up the road, where I had to stash my bike off the road,  and hid it behind a fallen log out of sight of vehicles, hoping a grizzly bear would not find my food stash in the panniers. Mr. Wolfe and I stuffed my rear wheel among large format cameras and tripods into the crammed Porsche 924. Art took me back to Whitefish, I fixed my bike, he got his car fixed (a wobbly shift lever) and he went for a swim in Whitefish Lake. Eventually he drove me back to my bike when the road reopened to cycling after 5:00 PM. I had put a new axle on the bike which turned out slightly too long or I had misaligned it or something and I had to hacksaw about 3 or 4 mm off one end. Mr. Wolfe had a 1/2 of a hacksaw blade in his car and I eventually trimmed the axle with that primitive tool. Now it was about 6:00 PM and he took off leaving me alone. I pedaled alone up the highway. Beautiful scenery, awesome ride. I made to the Canadian border via the Chief Mountain highway at midnight, where I kept thinking I was going to run into a grizzly in the middle of the road. I crossed the border in the morning and caught up with my group in time for breakfast...pancakes if I remember correctly.