Hot tubs and a 14er

Upon our success getting to Rainbow Hot Springs, all we needed to do was get to Del Norte to continue up to Aspen. The original plan was for Max to pick up Luke so they could hike Mount Elbert (the 2nd highest peak in the lower 48) and so we could continue our bike ride. We were pretty happy for an excuse to join them.

Late afternoon we loaded our bikes and BOBs into Max's truck and headed north! It seemed that our bad luck of driving in circles from the day before was over, but unfortunately Max got a speeding ticket AND the Aspen Brewing Company, our goal of the day, had moved. Not to worry, by the time we got there we were treated to several free drinks, a growler, and advice on hiking Mount Elbert from an Aspen Ski Patroller. Yay Aspen!

The following day it was snowing in Aspen, perfect for hot tubbing. We managed to go on a short bike ride on the Rio Grande Bike Trail and then got ice cream and the quality 1990s ski movie Aspen Extreme in town. About 6 people asked us where we had ridden, and we thought it was pretty embarrassing that we had only gone a couple of miles on a paved, flat bike trail. There were 4 bike shops in Aspen, and no one seemed to lock their full suspension mountain bikes. It is a magical place.

Max and Luke hiked their 14er on Monday, leaving the house at 4am and returning to the trailhead by 11:30am. They hiked up South Elbert, at 14,134' with an elevation gain of 5,000'. Check out their upcoming post on www.mountainbeering.wordpress.com.

Meanwhile, Sarah and I took our bikes and hiked up a snow-covered boulder field called the Hunters Creek Trail. We just got up to a flatter section where we hoped to be able to bike, when the guys called to let us know they had already gotten down. Our downhill was awesome, and a fellow mountain biker (except she wasn't wearing a helmet so I don't know if I can call her that), told us that we looked hot covered in mud. So success all around.

That evening we had our proper Memorial Day BBQ and Sarah and Luke went to a Yeasayers concert. They bought sweet outfits for the occasion. Incredibly, they were capable of showing off their dance moves (and outfits) to all of Aspen despite Luke's early morning hike.

[From Sarah: Before we went to the concert, we put on spandex. A woman at the concert, after admiring our awesome dance moves, asked us excitedly, "Are tights back in??" I should have said, "No actually pants in general are out of style."]

The following day we were dropped back off in Antonito, CO to continue our weird circle-y zigzag tour of the great divide. Woohoo!

-Cate

Warm springs

Well, as there was snow blocking our route, the only logical answer was to join Max and Luke in Aspen. As Max was already planning to pick us up in Del Norte in 2 days, we had to entertain ourselves. The first day required little planning, as we stopped at the nearest river (Rio De Los Pinos) and camped.

Camping in Rio de los Pinos gorge.

We were close to Antonito, CO, so I went into town to get booze and food. The river was flooding because of all the snow melt, and it took our yogurt that was cooling in it (but not our beer). Our first border crossing into Colorado was very anti-climactic, as we couldn't make it on our bikes.

Somehow I had it in my head that the ONLY thing to do if we had the day off was to go to hot springs. We looked up options the following morning and found Mamby near Taos, Sand Dunes near the Sand Dunes National Park, and Rainbow Hot Springs just south of Wolf Creek Pass. All were between 1.5 to 2.5 hours away. We started towards the Sand Dunes, and developed springs with guaranteed showers. We left the mountains and were in an aweful desert valley along 285. When we arrived at the Sand Dunes we saw dozens of tents in a state of almost blowing away. People crowded around a cement pool. This was better than the worst hot spring we had ever been to, but not by much (please see - http://dennygirls.blogspot.com/2008/06/sleeping-buffalo-hot-springs-mt-on.html).

So, after driving north, we decided to turn around and go to the Rainbow Hot Springs, which was still several hours away and a 6 mile hike in. At least it would be in mountains. And hooray! After eating cold hot dogs on Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, carrying our sleeping bags and water bottles in our hands because we didn't have backpacks, and no-pants hiking, we arrived at 8:30pm to a lukewarm spring. We decided it was a bad luck day, but looking back on it, it was very exciting and beautiful.

Too hot for pants!!

Carrying our sleeping bags and tent to the warm spring.

We had to descend down a steep cliff to get to the pool, and by the time we got there, it was already dark. So we scrambled down this cliff in the dark, and sat in the shallow pool next to this raging river and watched the stars. It was just warm enough to be comfortable, but not hot.

The next morning, we drove back through Wolf Creek Pass to Del Norte, where we would head on to Aspen with Luke's friend Max.

-Cate

Santa Fe to Lotsa Snow

Cate and I never thought we would leave Santa Fe. After the first day, when it snowed a little, we spent four more happy days in the sunshine. Staying with Luke at the Audubon Center was like a small slice of paradise, especially when they had food-related events, such as the Audubon Society open house, where live bluegrass bands played through the afternoon.

Bands playing on Luke's front porch. A beautiful spot.

After sitting in the sun all day, we managed to go bouldering, but not before meeting some guy with a hot tub and getting invited to his house for dinner.

Bouldering near Santa Fe.

The next day we went on an Epic Mountainbeering Adventure (FEMA) to Aspen Vista trail, where we biked 5 miles up to 12,000 feet, then hit snow, left our bikes, and continued up and along a ridgeline towards Lake Peak.

Leaving our bikes at the snowline.

Hiking across the ridgeline.

Unfortunately a storm looked like it was blowing our direction, so we didn't go all the way to Lake Peak to enjoy our beers, but it was still pretty awesome up there.

After 5 days of enjoying ourselves, we realized that we had to leave or we never would, so we asked Luke for a ride back to the route. We even convinced him that for his week off coming up, he should spend a couple days bike touring with us! We agreed to meet in a campground in two nights, near the border with Colorado. Before he dropped us off, we stopped at REI so Luke could buy a rack and some panniers. Little did we know these would be completely unnecessary.

We spent the next two days biking uphill, from Abiquiu at 6,000 feet to 10,000 feet the next day. Our first night, we camped in a narrow, green valley by the side of the road. Normally, this would be unpleasant; however, exactly one car passed us before we left the next morning, so it was pretty quiet. Oddly, as we were making breakfast, Cate heard a "Neyyyeigh!!" and looked up to find a horse had wandered over to us. He was eyeing us and running in circles, neighing! He seemed to be showing off. Finally he galloped off up the hillside. It was a magical experience.

Our magical fairy campsite by the side of the road.

The next day we continued onwards and upwards. We unwisely left ourselves almost 50 miles of mostly uphill to get to the campground where we said we would meet Luke, and eventually we realized this would be very hard. First of all, the morning was all uphill, on extremely isolated back roads.

Cate heading uphill through the aspen and pine forests.

Second of all, on one stretch of downhill, I managed to catapult myself off of my bike, cracking my helmet in several places and getting the usual road rash. Scraping myself up off the road took some time, and Cate and I finally made it 15 of our 50 miles by 1:30 in the afternoon. Not good!

This all would have been fine if we had a way of getting in touch with Luke to say we had to camp earlier, but we had no cell service and we didn't know what road he would be taking. We finally got as far as we could, the hardest 38 miles in our lives, and found a reasonable campsite by the side of the road. Just as we took our pants off to change, he drove by!! Thankfully we managed to wave him down and didn't have to bike after him. He brought us some well deserved Happy Camper IPA.

Luke brought beer!

The next day, we were going to get up to about 11,500 feet! We set out on a 12 mile uphill, after which the road steadily got worse and worse. First it had a stream flowing down it, an inauspicious sign that we ignored.

Biking next to a stream.

Soon after that we hit some snow, but it was easily avoided.

Soon the snow was not avoidable, but at least we could walk our bikes through it.

But soon after that, we hit snow. Not just drifts of snow, solid snow fields of snow. So, we had to turn around. We camped only a mile from where we had the night before. It was a sad day of bike touring when you end up back at your truck. It was sad for our trip since this snow was not about to melt if we waited for a day. We would have to go off-route, and miss the highest passes of the whole Continental Divide.

To cheer ourselves up, we decided to go to Aspen!

Grants to Santa Fe!

From Grants, we had to go up almost 3000 ft of elevation. Good thinng we had two days' worth of water, plus this baggied beer!

Flora changes a lot with altitude. Starting out in dry and dusty desert, we ended up in this beautiful pine forest.

After dropping elevation a bit, we camped with cactuses, overlooking the valley. Finally got to enjoy this beer!

Crazy volcanic mountains. This spike is lava that cooled inside a volcano, and then the outside of the volcano eroded away.

It is still unclear to us why some of these roads exist at all.

Terrified cows.

Back to the desert. Mesas and cool rocks abound.

Camping on a plateau at sunset, after a hard day that should have been flat, but the arroyos that crisscross the desert are surprisingly hard to cross without bridges: the road would suddenly and very steeply dip in to these canyons and then just as steeply emerge on the other side.

Third day out of Grants.

Cuba had wonderful Mexican food.

Leaving Cuba, NM on our way towards Santa Fe. This sign didn't tell us anything we didn't know already.

Steep climb out of Cuba, then steep hills all day.

We met some other bike tourists! This group from Albuquerque is on a seven day trip.

Luke came and picked us up about fifty miles from Santa Fe! we really appreciated not having to camp in the mountains, where it was raining and snowing. Instead, we got to stay in Luke's cottage at the Audubon society center. Big improvement!

On a hike up to Atalaya mountain. It was snowing!

Arabs and Wolves

On the 4th day of our trip we noticed that we hadn't spoken to anyone but ourselves since our parents dropped us off in Mimbres. We started a new language, a combination of German and cockneyed British, but eventually stopped having anything to say. Our luck was about to change...

The day started out normal- we spoke to some cows. After about 15 miles, though, things got weird. A government truck pulls up, and a man in military fatigues lets us know there is a drill going on ahead, so we may see some men dressed as Afghans with fake weapons up ahead. "Nothing for you to worry about!" he said, "I just don't want you to be alarmed!"

Somewhat alarmed, we continued biking.

Next a UPS truck stops as we are looking at our maps. "Lost?" she asked, friendly enough. We assure her that we are fine, and she lets us know that something VERY WEIRD is going on ahead. We asked her if it had anything to do with the military, and she said yeah! there are three Arabs ahead, just walkin down the road! She had already called the neighbors and the marshal. We let her know what the government vehicle told us. She appeared relieved, and wondered if she should call the marshall back.

The UPS truck encountering some "very weird" shenanigans on the road.

We passed the three "Arabs" with large weapons another mile down the road. They were walking towards us, and we passed without feeling too alarmed.

Next a game warden stops to talk to us. At this point, we are wondering if everyone thinks that we are stopped, as we are moving so slowly. Literally no one stopped to talk to us for 4 days before today! The game warden already talked to the UPS lady and heard all about the "Arabs" and put his bulletproof vest on for the occasion. He was tracking a wolf in the area, he said very proudly.

About ten miles along, the state police pulls up. He asks us if we saw anything "unusual" that day. We told him the whole story- why the military wouldn't tell the state police about this is beyond us. He asked for directions, explaining that he was not from around here, and we, feeling like experts of the area as we had literally talked to EVERYONE that passed us that day, explained where to find the VERY WEIRD situation.

We never found out whether the State Police arrested the military, or the military declared war on the UPS, or what. We could only hope we were not invaded by "Afghans" and no one had told us.

That evening, the night before going to Pie Town (our first town), we arrived at a campsite with picnic tables and another camper! The other camper offered us cold Deschutes Organic Ale! We spent a night trying to remember English and playing cards with Eric, who works mapping the Continental Divide Hiking Trail for the CDTA. It snowed on us.

-Cate

Dusty First Week

Here are some pictures from our first week on the Continental Divide route! It has been a strange and interesting mix of desert landscapes, mountainous pine forests, and volcanic lumps on the horizon. Enjoy!

Leaving the pavement! Signs say "no services next 120 miles" and "expect delays of up to four hours." But, we continued anyways! Our first week has been tough but beautiful. So far this route has been very remote but social. We have met a good amount of Continental Divide through-hikers. There is very little water and CDT hikers have to average around 20 miles a day, so we are very happy to be biking. The roads are unpredictable- rocky, sandy, steep, but definitely not muddy.


Our first campsite at Black Canyon Creek. We went a really tough 25 miles the first day. No, but really, it was tough.


Beautiful rock formations throughout the Gila National Forest. Our only company the first 4 days were the cows.


Our second campsite which turned out to have poison ivy.

Rocky roads.

A very windy day. this is after getting through ten miles of the most amazing headwind I have ever encountered. 70 mph gusts! We rode through a lot of dust storms...eyeballs, teeth, and between the toes (as well as everywhere else) was coated with dust.

The only windmill or cattle trough with water so far. Don't look into these, lots of animals get over-eager and drown in there.

On the way to Pietown, NM.


The Toaster House in Pie Town. Nita, our host, raised (and birthed) 5 children in this house, and now lets through hikers and bikers stay there. She stocks up the fridge with beer and frozen pizzas, and asks only for donations. A very nice spot.

Pie Town has two pie shops, but no groceries, convenience store, or other services. Only pie.

The Toaster House has lots of toasters. Go figure!

Where did my tire go?

Lava Falls in El Malpais National Monument.

La Ventana in El Malpais.