Day 83

Miles 20.5 miles Total for trip 3196.95
Avg spd 6.43
Max spd 19.09
Climb 1538
Alt chng ++1026
I started a little late today to give my gear a chance to dry out in the early morning sun. I had a 1000 foot climb to start out the day. I was riding in a canyon that had an honest to goodness river running through it. There was great scenery all day today. It was probably the prettiest 20 miles of the trip. I stopped a few times to take pictures and could have stopped even more. There was a lot of traffic today, all the 4th campers getting back into town. I wanted to get about 20 miles out of Platoro today, because I get to my highest elevation of the trip tomorrow at 11,910. I pulled into Platoro at around 12.30 and saw an RV sign that said showers, laundry, wifi, and more. I decided to see how much it was and it only came out to $14, boy did I need a shower and laundry. I decided to stop for the day, with the big downhill I could still get to Del Norte tomorrow.

Day 82

Miles 34.82 Total for trip 3176.45
Avg 6.65
Max spd 37.61
Climb 2466
Alt chng --951


As I was packing up my gear to get going the neighbors dog came and visited me. He had his leash on but there was no one around, it was about 7.30am. I thought they had taken the dog down to the lake and he beat them back to camp. I looked for the owners of the dog and could not find them. He was a great dog so I walked him over to their camp and chained him up. As I was leaving the campground they said he had unzipped the tent and got out last night, and thanked me for chaining him up.



Today I was going to hit almost 11,000 feet and according to my info the road could be less then ideal. My first destination was called Brazos Ridge were you could see for miles into Colorado. It was really cool at the top with a little wind. I went off road for about 50 feet to find snow. After the ridge the road did turn real bad. There was a .5 mile section where I had to walk my bike downhill because the rocks were so bad. I made it to the next plateau and was riding in some mud. Most of the time some motorcycles had made another trail around all the mud, which was nice. I saw 4 more racers today. They said that only 19 remained of the 42 that started the race. I don't think I will see anymore racers.

I made it to Colorado today. Yippee. Colorado welcomed me with about a 4 hour rainstorm during the night.

I found a campsite that was empty on the 4th of July. It is called the Spectacular Lake Campground. It had a picnic table and spring water so I decided it was worth the fee for the night.

Day 81

Miles 34.82 Total for trip 3176.45
Avg spd 6.27
Max spd 36.74
Climb 3505
Alt chng ++760 The above picture is a mud bog. There were many of these on the day, but other travelers had made nice trails around the mud.

Yep that's me in all my gear. It is cold at Hopewell lake. Windy and rainy. I waited to see if it would stop raining, but it looked like it would rain for awhile. I had pavement for the first 6 miles so I decided to tough it out and hit the road. It didn't rain very hard, just sprinkled for the first hour or so. The warm gear only lasted until the first hill. I got too hot and it came off. I thought it would be an easy day today since it was only around 35 miles and I started with a good 6 mile downhill. It ended up being a great day weather wise and was tougher then I thought. I was looking forward to getting a good campsite at the Upper Lagunitas Campground. The last mile of the day was straight up into the campground. I found there were only 3 official campsites and all were taken, so I found a spot that my tent could fit in and I set up camp. I was a little worried about my water supply until I went for a little hike and found a couple little lakes. I fixed my water filter at Hopewell Lake so I found a nice log to sit on and filtered enough water to get me through tomorrow. It was the first time on my trip I would have liked to have the fishing pole. It was a great log to sit on and fish.

Day 80

Miles 38.61 Total for trip 3106.62
Avg spd 5.10
Max spd 32.69
Climb 4983
Alt chng ++2738
The above picture is an old cabin that sits above a huge meadow in NM.


Today my destination is Hopewell Lake Campgrounds. For some reason I have really been looking forward to getting to Hopewell. I had hoped to get there by 2 pm to beat the 4th campers. No such luck. I knew there would be a lot of climbing today, I just did not think it would be close to 5000 ft. I was just about to start the tough uphill for the day when I passed through Canon Plaza. My info showed nothing but houses. I passed through the houses and was almost to the start of the dirt road when I saw a couple dogs and a lady sweeping by a small shack. I got closer and it said it was a summer store. I stopped and to my surprise there was cold soda. I had a couple and talked with the owner, Sylvia. She has kept a journal since 1999 with the riders and racers of the Divide Trail. While I was there a racer stopped by and talked with us. He thinks the race is going to be huge in 5 years there will be 1000 riders, up from only 45 this year.

The above picture is of Hopewell Lake. It looks like a popular fishing hole.

I was beat and had about 6 miles to go to Hopewell, most of it still uphill. An ATV passed me and asked where I was from and going. She told me the campground is just a couple miles up the road. I have learned most people guess low so I knew I still had at least 5 miles to go. I must have looked tired by the end of the day, because of a couple of ATVers stopped and asked me if I wanted a ride and if I was ok. I just needed a picnic table to cook dinner on. I got to the campground and it was full, bummer.I road down to the dayuse area by the lake, cooked dinner and relaxed until around 8pm. I found a place near the lake that I could camp unseen.

Day 79

Miles 58.97 Total for trip 3068.01
Avg spd 7.34
Max spd 31.95
Climb 3803
Alt chng --88
I was looking forward to today's 25 miles of downhill and breaking the 10,000 foot barrier for the first time on the trip.

I had some tough road today. The road was so bad the driver of the VW abandoned their vehicle. It looked like it had been there a couple weeks. I was hoping when I turned on the road 27 the conditions would improve for my downhill portion. No such luck. The 27 was 18 miles of my downhill and I think I was standing up on my bike for 15 of the 18 miles. For part of the road I thought I made a wrong turn and got into a dry river bed. It was a hard limestone surface, but since it rains so much in the area the water flows down the road leaving rocks and little crevasses in the limestone. At one point I heard a strange noise on my trailer and I looked back to see my SPOT dangling on the bungee cord where my tent, tarp, and towel usually are. They had fallen off about 1/4 of a mile back.

I got done with the downhill portion at Abiquiu and needed a break. There was a nice store there and I found a couple huge breakfast burritos on sale for just .99, and they had free soda refills. I hung around there for about 1 1/2 hours. 3 motorcyclists came by the store and saw my bike. They said they were following my tracks for the last 40 miles and were glad they ran into me. They are going on the same trail I am up to Banff Canada.

I made it a little past the city called El Rito and found a campsite between the cactus and sage brush.

Day 78

Miles 33.49 Total for trip 3009.04

Avg spd 5.95

Max spd 30.95

Climb 3751

Alt chng ++1981



Broke the 3000 mile barrier. Nice.

I left Cuba knowing I had over a 2000 foot climb ahead of me. So I stopped at mini-mart read the paper, and found the location of the Rainbow Gathering to see if it was on my route. It happened to be right on my route. There was a lot of traffic on the way up the climb, but I had a 10 foot shoulder so the traffic did not bother me. The Forest Service had some of my route as a 1 way because of the gathering, but I figured a bike could go against the 1 way. On the trip up I had a couple people stop and ask me for directions to the gathering. It is a wide variety of people that go. I went by run down old buses to newer BMWs. There were cars parked on the side of the forest road for a couple miles. Some parked to close to the edge and fell down 10-20 feet, because of all the rain.

I wanted to get to the top of the climbs today, but decided since I had 25 miles of downhill tomorrow I could climb some tomorrow. I found a great campsite at around 9500 feet.

Colorado!

12:27 MST (7/4/2009) Aaron is free from New Mexico and its torment. A fitting activity for Independence Day.