It got pretty cold last night. Someones thermometer read 37 F. I wore 2 shirts to bed and had my sleeping bag liner in and was still a little cold. My sleeping bag is a 40 F down bag that packs really small but was marginal last night. I started today's ride with all my cold-weather/rain gear except for my rain shoe covers. My feet got cold during the first hour or so of riding so I wish I'd put them on too. It was 16.5 miles to "The Bean", a local bicyclist hangout in Mozilla, NM which is just past Las Cruces. Being Saturday morning the place was very busy with local cyclists and some who had ridden from El Paso for a morning round trip. The ride from Las Cruces to El Paso went through huge groves of pecan trees; mile after mile and as far off the road as you could see. I arrived at the El Paso hostel in downtown El Paso about 2:45 pm. City traffic was intense at times because of the sheer volume of cars/trucks, though most all were courteous and gave me plenty of room - no close calls. Once we all arrived and got cleaned up we did laundry. For dinner we walked a couple of blocks to a Chinese restaurant. When we got back I checked out college football scores on ESPN then turned in.
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| Heading into Las Cruces, NM |
October 9 - Sunday; El Paso to Fort Hancock, TX; 55 miles.
The El Paso Hostel stay was fine though not my preferred type of accommodations. Everyone assembled in the lobby in the morning and we were off to an 8:00 am ride through the rest of El Paso. We traveled as a group today at a relaxed pace as we only had 55 miles to cover. We stopped at a Mexican restaurant that had a breakfast buffet on the way out of town. The weather today was perfect; upper 50s to begin with then lower 70s by mid-afternoon. I only wore my jacket for a couple of hours in the morning. The road to Fort Hancock was great too; wide and flat. We stayed at a church across from the high school which opened up for us to take showers though they they only had cold water! It was Gary and my turn to cook so we headed for what had been described as the better of two local markets. It seems every time it is our turn the only market available is a food/hardware/auto supply place with very limited food. We ended up with ham sandwiches, chips and cooked a single box of mac-n-cheese we had left over from another meal. One of the church members brought us a cake for desert. The accomodations were nothing fancy - but it worked. From the windows looking south you cold see a border crossing and town in Mexico. We found out later that there are kids now in the Fort Hancock schools who used to live in the Mexican town just across the border but who came over after a drug cartel took over the town. Reportedly these kids saw some attocious things.
October 10 - Monday; Fort Hancock to Van Horn, TX; 75 miles.
I didn't sleep well on the floor of the church. The dust must have affected my sinuses and I was "stopped up" all night. I finally took a Benedryl which put me to sleep. Anyway, the ride today can only be described as "mind and body numbing"!! I left Fort Hancock at 8:00 am which was just before sunrise, but light enough to ride safely. The only stop available for the day was a restaurant in Sierra Blanca, 40 miles into the day's ride. There was a mild uphill grade for most of the day with about a 10 mph headwind - just enough to make the going tough. After Sierra Blanca was a 22 miles stretch that was STRAIGHT, UPHILL, next to I-10 and with the headwind. I could see the mountains in the distance and was headed for an interchange onto I-10. It just seemed like I was never going to get there!!! For the most part I only saw the road 4' in front of my bike for about 2-1/5 hours. The last 5 miles into Van Horn were on I-10 and downhill with a little tailwind - so the ride ended pleasantly which is always good mentally. RJ and I stopped at a DQ on the way into town for milk shakes - REWARD!!. We stayed at a KOA with very nice facilities and a great spot for pitching tents. We had dinner at the small KOA cafe. I had fried catfish which was surprisingly good. There were photos on the wall outside the cafe one of which was of a 97 pound rattle snake!!! The thing was huge!
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| Early morning sillouette while riding out of Fort Hancock, TX |
I didn't sleep particularly well again last night. A pair of roosters began crowing at about 4:00 am! It was a nice night for camping; cool but not cold and nearly a full moon. We ate a quick breakfast at the KOA campground cafe where they were gracious enough to let us in 15 minutes before they normally open. With 91 miles to cover and only about 11 hours of sunlight we were trying to get out as soon after it was light enough to travel. We left the KOA at 8:00 am. The first stop was a Pilot truck stop near the KOA to stock up on supplies for the long day's ride. The map showed the only facility available for resupply was where we were supposed to get back on I-10 21 miles down the road. Given that some of the facilities on the map have been closed, no one wanted to risk it not being open so we stocked up for the day. From Van Horn we road the I-10 frontage road for 21 miles. It turned out the truck stop/restaurant were open. Some had a second breakfast but several of us just got an extra Gatorade and snacks then hit the road again. The next stretch was on I-10 for 17 miles. The emergency lane was wide and free of the debris we has seen on early stretches of interstate highways. The traffic was also very light making for a pretty enjoyable ride. We got off I-10 at the Kent exit. Nothing is still in business at Kent. We had a snack then started climbing from 3,800' to 6,300' on a gradual grade with a slight headwind. Occasionally the headwind would gust and cause you to almost stop. It was a grind from the 38 mile mark to the 61 mile mark. Then the grade steepened and there were a series of ups and downs, both steep. I'm like RJ, one you climb you hate to give anything back, especially after you've already ridden 60+ miles. I passed the UT McDonald Observatory at about mile 75 but it was already 5:00 pm so the visitor's center was closed. From the observatory it was mostly down hill the next 16 miles to Fort Davis - well deserved after about 4,000' of total climbing and 10 hours in the saddle. I arrived at the Stone Village Motel at about 6:30 pm and everyone was there by about 6:45 pm. Today's ride was a character builder for sure!
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| Scenery at the top of the climbing near McDonald Observatory. |
October 12 - Wednesday; Fort Davis, TX; Layover Day; 0 miles.
Today is a layover day in Fort Davis. It has been 6 days since the last one in Silver City, NM and will be another 9 until the next one in Austin, TX. It is 12:30 pm and I've done my laundry and after the blog will perform bike maintenance and begin packing up for tomorrow's ride. From Fort Davis it is pretty much down hill to Del Rio (1,000') and the end of the ST Section 3.
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