Day 51

Left Chama under better skies headed for Cuba, a 77 mile day, but no huge climbs. Traveled through some country that was really beautiful, across a dam, and into sagebrush country with eroded plateaus beside the road. It reminded me of the old westerns I watched as a kid. Back in those days you didn’t think about the true history of Native Americans, but I’m more conscious of that now, of course. An interesting juxtaposition of childhood Cowboys vs Indian movie visuals in my brain and more culturally sensitive values I’m conscious of now. 

Arrived Cuba 430pm, checked into the Frontier Motel. A nice bike friendly lady runs it, recommended for cyclists, and gave me the senior rate which with tax was about $60, very very reasonable!

Great Mexican food nearby at the kind of nicer restaurant you wouldn’t expect to see in a town this small, but obviously it’s well known as eating there two evenings ultimately, it was never empty. 

Heavy rain fell overnight, making me think that another rest day waiting for better weather was likely here. 

So an unusual occurrence with the Kiwi gals that I met earlier, Danell and Haley; based on our discussion in Chama, I knew they were ahead of me and had departed Cuba the morning of my arrival there, so I didn’t expect to see them again. But around 5pm as I was walking out to dinner, I saw their bikes parked at the front office of the motel. That was strange, as they had intended to leave that morning before my arrival continuing along the great divide route. I walked into the motel lobby, there they were chowing down on some McD’s, and of course I ask how is it that they were back here? Well.. quite the unsettling story of them riding out on the recommended trail some 30 miles toward Chaco, having tire flats, getting hassled by some drunk guys, and ultimately getting a ride back into Cuba from a helpful woman who had recognized the situation with the drunk assholes. According to what they told me, this was really the first negative experience with assholes that I had heard on the trip, and it wasn’t giving them a good impression of New Mexico… nor were the huge huge tarantula-like spiders you see crawling around… makes the idea of camping seem sketchy…

Anyway I continued on to dinner, as I was planning a rest day tomorrow for weather anyway, I knew I would see them in the morning…

Day 52

So my day off in Cuba started with finally being serious with myself about what I wanted to accomplish for the rest of this trip. I had ridden well over 2000 miles along the great divide trail, through storms and rain, and plenty of spectacularly nice days as well. But at some point, I felt like the trip is coming to a conclusion, I really was just sort of getting over it all, if you know what I mean. I’ve been away since August 15th!

So I started looking at the shortest route to the Mexican border versus continuing through relative wilderness on the great divide trail. Especially from Cuba south, there was another big stretch of waterless desolation that didn’t necessarily thrill me with weather that continued to be unsettled. So, I thought it through… and decided to take the shortest path to the Mexican border: Columbus. 

The mantra for my trip then, somewhat changed from “doing the great divide trail from Canada to Mexico” to something more like “having a cold beer in Canada, cycling across most of the great divide to Mexico, and having a cold beer in Mexico!” The official end of the great divide trail is in antelope wells, a border town with absolutely nothing else there except the border crossing. An alternate official ending is Columbus, New Mexico, and there is a small Mexican town directly across the border that will facilitate the multi-country cold beer conclusion of this trip! 

So I changed Bridgette’s airline tickets so that she will arrive in Phoenix a full week earlier than originally planned, and I’m very happy with that to get back to my Portland life a week sooner. 

I did full laundry in Cuba as well, that’s always nice to get everything cleaned again! Talked to Danell and Haley about my intention to shorten the trip, I offered if they were interested to shorten their trip as well, we could coordinate things at the end. 

They are both very nice and good riders, coming to the end of their one-year visa after spending most of their time in Banff, Canada, they’re in their mid 20s, younger than my daughters. 

Later that same day in Cuba, another couple, Amy and Hamish, also doing the great divide but starting in Jasper who’d been on the road for couple of months taking many sidetrips, also checked in the frontier motel. Very nice folks, they both quit their jobs to do the great divide ride, planning 4.5 months of cumulative riding.

All of us ended up at dinner together at the same Mexican place, an enjoyable group dinner to hear about everybody’s perceptions about the trip, of the U.S., their cycling experiences, other people they’ve met, etc.

Danell and Haley told the story about their bad day out of Cuba, being hassled by the drunk guys, and their jaded experience with New Mexico so far. Amy and Hamish offered to ride with them on the official route for the rest of the trip. That was very nice of them. I had already shared my plan to simply finish the trip as quickly as possible.

With Danell and Haley, it was unclear what their intention was at this point, either they were going to travel with me on the shorter route starting at 8:30 the following morning, or they were going to ride with Amy and Hamish to finish the trip with them; at that moment I really didn’t know what was going to occur in the morning, except I knew what my plan was!

Day 53

I was ready to roll at 8:30 AM after a tasty green chili smothered breakfast Adovado burrito at Chaco Taco! 

Got to talking with Amy and Hamish as they were assembling their gear next to my room. Danell and Haley came out of their room ready to roll and would ride with me at least as far as Rio Rancho. Funny, they were still a little focused on going to Pie Town, a rite of passage for many great divide cyclists, but I figure I can get pie anywhere! 

So the day started cycling out of Cuba with Danell and Haley, a full 70m day to Rio Rancho. They had one flat each! (Realistically, they should have replaced the rear tires at least 500 miles ago. On the official great divide trail however, that’s easier said than done…)

In our discussions during the riding day, they said they’d like to join my ride plan to the end, and coordinate their departure from the end of the trip back to Phoenix with Bridgette and me which makes total sense. They will fly to Vancouver, then to New Zealand. I welcome having some nice folks to finish the trip with after many many days solo.

Along the way to Rio Rancho, on a divided four-lane State Highway, I came across a ghost bike memorial. For those of you who don’t know what that is, where cyclists have been killed by cars, there is a movement to place white bicycles there as a reminder of the frequency of cyclists being hit by cars. Unusual to come across one, certainly of the first one I’ve seen on this trip, though there have been numerous other roadside memorials. 

We made it to Rio Rancho at a reasonable time, but the bike shop I had targeted on Google maps wasn’t there!! Frustrating! Saving grace was that a brewpub is right next to where it used to be. Had a nice very late lunch there.

After the brewpub lunch, they continued to bike shop for new tires and the nice guy kept the bike shop open late and gave their bikes a tuneup and replaced the rear tires. I continued to the motel after two beers, adding to the adventure… 

After quick sink laundry and a nice hot shower (NHS), I walked over to Albertson’s grocery and got some beer, some Ramen, and though there were some restaurants around, since we had such a late lunch, I didn’t plan on going out for a meal again. But the ramen noodles were a great nightcap!!

Later after Danell and Haley showed up at the motel from the bike shop, we conferred about the plan for the next few days, pretty much made a list of which towns we’re going to stop in vs camping with tarantula fear, and ultimately getting us into Columbus on the 14th. 

Day 54

The Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta is going on this week, hundreds of thousands of spectators each day for the mass ascent each morning. And while I thought we might perhaps ride by it on our way out of town, apparently the only activity is from 5 AM to 9 AM, when all the balloons ascend in the morning, so scratch that idea.

From the live-action shots on the morning news, it almost seems Disney-esque, balloons depicting caricatures of all kinds of popular cartoon movie characters and such. 

Fixing flat tires has kinda been the theme since I joined with the Kiwi women, even though they got two new rear tires and tubes last night, Haley woke to a flat on her front. That made for a later departure, and somehow our 50 mile day which seemed reasonable after doing 70 the day before, turned into a long long day, part of that precipitated by us riding many bike trails in Albuquerque to get out of town which was really nice, but slooooow. The cycling amenities in Albuquerque seem very well-developed, I must say!

Also very unusual on most of the cycling route this entire trip, we had the option to stop at Subway for lunch and so we did and that took quite a long time to get out of there. Eventually we made it into Belen to a motel. 

Speaking of flats, most of them today were caused by the goat head thorn, a thorn that falls off of a low groundcover plants, and they are powerful and strong, easily puncturing a bicycle tire. (I’ll include a photo below.) There were two more flats during the day, presumably both of them goat head thorns, I even had one in my front tubeless tire, but when it was pulled out the tire thankfully self sealed. 

Eventually we got out onto the highway, the shoulder was good for a while, then completely disappeared so that was an unpleasant 10 or 12 miles.

The hotel is nearly a mile from the small town Center, but there is an interesting diner across the street built in an old rail car. Ballin is apparently a crew change out town for some of the cross country rail lines that run through here. There is a large former hotel that is not strictly housing for railroad personnel.

Anyway the diner is a classic greasy spoon that serves large portions of pretty tasty food! I enjoyed a giant burger with green chiles, and a mudpie coffee ice cream dessert that was awesome!

Back to the hotel for an early sleep, hope to be rolling by 9 AM tomorrow for an early afternoon arrival in Socorro, New Mexico. 

Hope to be done with the trip and having a cold beer in Mexico either on the afternoon of the 14th or early on the 15th!