Bike Angels

Seminole Canyon Historical Park- we camped here and got a great tour of the canyon pictographs and cave dwellings from the Paleo-Indians. We crossed the beautiful Pecos River before reaching the park.

The Southern Tier has been hugging the Mexican border of Chihuahua and Coahuila. We had two experiences with Border Patrol visiting us at our overnight campsites. Always unsettling to have a flashlight shining into your tent, but once they know we are American cyclists they leave us alone.

The canyonlands were fascinating- harsh environment and much hardship and bloodshed for Spaniards, Native Americans, Hispanic, and pioneers. Historical markers line the roads- so we ride and read!

Temperatures are really heating up, so we were glad the route took us towards the Hill Country. Sheep, goat, cattle and hunting ranches abound. We have long stretches of no services requiring us to stock up on food and water. The bikes are loaded.

We are so grateful to the many folks who have helped us along our journey with water, directions, food, housing, and hospitality. Here are just a few of the "Biker Angels" we have encountered.

Cookie and Walt water us up near Three Way, AZ

Dave from Gila Bike and Hike in Silver City, New Mexico spent a few hours tuning up our bikes. We have had many flats due to goat head pricklers, cactus spines and tire wire so we stocked up on tubes too.

Father Robert from San Luis Church in Chamberino, NM allowed us to camp in the courtyard of the Catholic church

Sessy and Jorge let us take refuge at the fire house in Acala, TX, then filled our water bottles

Warm Shower hosts, Joni and Dexter Tooke, provided us a wonderful overnight stay. He has completed RAAM twice, which is a race cycling across America in 12 days. He hopes to be the oldest to finish it when he attempts it in 2016 when he is 66 years old!!!

Much appreciation to all the kindness bestowed on us. We will pay it forward upon return. Bless you all😇

Marit rides with the free roaming sheep near Kerrsville, TX. Tomorrow we should be in Austin.

Keep on trucking

**correction from last blog:

hotshowers.com bicyclists hosting site should actually be warmshowers.com

Three  three weeks out and we are still moving along. The days have been long though. We thought the Southern Tier would be fairly flat and biking from the west the winds predominantly tailwinds. Boy were we wrong! There are actually many mountain ranges to cross and being spring there is lots of WIND. Unfortunately many of our days with headwinds against us. We are trying to keep our mileage up, therefore we are out on the road longer when we can average only 6-7 miles per hour. But we are trying to keep our spirits up with gratitude for the amazing scenery we ride by every day and the fitness our bodies are providing for us. When you get into your fifties one is grateful to still be able to ride a bike!

This past week we experienced wild, enchanted New Mexico. One of our favorite days was riding through the Gila National Forest to the highest point on the Southern Tier up to Emory Pass at 8,225 ft. We had to bundle up with all of our clothes on the descent though. It was only 28 degrees when we got up and chilly all the way down.

Emory Pass - Gila National Forest

When down off the mountains we have been cycling through beautiful farm country- fields of chile, alfalfa, and pecan orchards. From the small town of Hatch down to Mexico City was the Road of Kings (now Rt. 25) following the Rio Grande and lush farms because of the waterway. Now the river is mostly dry due to damming and drought, but the farms have water sources with the abundant deep aquifers.

We have been riding by the Rio Grande for days with little water in sight.

Four days ago we left the lovely state of New Mexico, which we fell truly fell in love with, and entered Texas, via El Paso. Initially we gently transitioned from countryside to more urban terrain along the El Paso Bike Path, but once that ended we were in congested roadways with many construction projects. Yikes! That takes lots of concentration. But we made it and really enjoyed tooling around the University of Texas, El Paso and stopping by the Chamizal Memorial where the U.S. and Mexico made final negotiations on land disputes. 

Our route continues to snake along the arid border of Mexico and into the many mountain outcroppings of Texas- a geologists paradise. Yesterday we chose to take the more arduous route up towards FT. Davis to see the McDonald Observatory atop 6,800 ft Mt. Locke. As the day wore on the weather looked more threatening, but it was too late to take another path. At the top we were greeted with a rain/lightning storm and pelted with 3/4 inch hail. Our saving grace was a Warm Showers family (John and Debbie Kuehne) waiting to take us in after we finally found their home. This morning we got a personal tour of all the telescopes and McDonald Observatory area by John, a scientist employed by the University of Texas to tecnically support the telescopes.

John shows us the area from the catwalk on McDonald Observatory.

We pray to stay safe as we head southeast towards Del Rio and hope the same for you.

Where do we stay at night?

I

Wonder where a cyclist might stay each night while crossing the Southwest on the Southern Tier? For us it varies, but most nights we bike until it almost dark and then start looking for a camping spot. We are never sure where it will be, but fortunately we seem to always find something suitable. And often with a great view. We love the western climate because we can often just lay our our pads and sleeping bags right under the stars. One of our favorite places was west of Wickenberg, AZ. But the next morning as we pulled out onto the main road we realized we had rear flats on each of our bikes.  We pulled out the tubes to patch them- one culprit was a cactus prickler and the other was a bit of wire that went right through Mark's Kevlar tube liner. Must have happened on I8 the day before. Lots of blowouts on the side of the highway and not much room to avoid them.

Camping spot west of Wickenberg, CA

Fixing our flats

Another unique form of housing in the cycling community is a network called Hot Showers.com. Folks sign up to host cyclists in their home listing what they will provide- shower, bed, camping spot in yard, meals, etc. The cyclist looks ahead and gauges where they might be on a given night. Mark uses this app

on his phone and so far we have had 2 great nights with host families- Errin & Jonathan Heuberger and four children in Alpine, CA and Dawn & Gene Ziegler in Phoenix, AZ. I guess you could equate it to Couch Surfing or Trail Angels in the hiking community. We hope to do the same someday for traveling cyclists around Wintergreen. The Transamerica Bike Trail goes right by us.

Gene and Dawn with one if their two tandem bikes. They love to use Hot Showers themselves on their many biking treks. In return they host cyclists that come through their area in Phoenix

Two other overnight options are camping at fire stations and churches. We were very grateful two late nights when the light ran out and we had no where to camp. Fire stations in Pine Valley, CA and Apache Junction, AZ were amenable to us pitching a tent on their sites.

The next day leaving Apache Junction Fire Station

We have also camped at San Carlos Apache Reservation and eaten a great meal at reservation casinos. Thanks for the tip Rick Harris! Last of all hotels are an option, but we rarely go that way. 

So we have left Arizona on a very long day of climbing 6000 ft into the Lue Mountains to enter the Apache National Forest and make our way into New Mexico. Hope your spring is going well and in full bloom as the desert flowers are out here.

 

La Jolla, San Diego, and back in the saddle- ouch!

It was nice to escape winter in Virginia and fly to the sunshine of La Jolla, CA to spend 5 days with my daughters, Chelsea and Corinne. We stayed in a cool apartment above a local surf and kayak shop with free rentals of all the equipment. We found out paddle boarding in the choppy Pacific is not a good thing to do as a beginner though! But we did enjoy kayaking out to the local sea caves and biking the area, especially to the local farmer's market.

Mark Trail arrived on March 31 and we had the wonderful hospitality of San Diego friends, Rick, Holly, and Keelan Harris, including the use of their living room to put together our bikes, panniers, and other gear. Marit's new Surly Long Disc Trucker was sent out by bike mechanic and gear guru, Les Welch, from Harrisonburg, VA (recommended by David Ledbetter). If you have any need for a bike fitting - he is your man. We finally headed out for the Southern Tier route, which coincidentally begins 8 blocks from the Harris household  at Ocean Beach Park.  Mark was compelled to touch the ocean. Notice the shade hat and cooler. Function over fashion is his motto.

We spent the next two days climbing out of San Diego to the Laguna and Jacumba Mountains to 4000 ft elevation learning how to navigate our new fully packed bicycles and getting into biker shape after a long winter only skiing and the occasional hour on the Lifecycle at Wintergarden Spa. Needless to say, my rump, back, and neck were screaming.

We have already gotten to experience rain, hail, and snow in Pine Valley and hot, dry conditions in the Yuha Desert. As we head towards Arizona we have seen industrial scale produce farms and cattle feed lots of the Imperial Valley. Literally "food for thought" as we witnessed some of these controversial practices.

Camping in the desert is always an experience, as was riding by the border wall between Mexico and California. Another highlight was cycling past a beginning point of the Pacific Crest Trail. Brings back great memories from our long distance hike two years ago. There are pros and cons for both hiking and biking, but it sure is nice to be doing closer to 65 miles per day and riding to get authentic Mexican fare on a regular basis. Catch you in another week or two!