- Joined
- Dec 8, 2014
- Messages
- 1,297
- Reaction score
- 4,588
- Location
- San Marcos, Texas
- First Name
- Steve
- Last Name
- Pylant
Here go JMZ
And so it begins. Pretty good day. Early in my planning I was expecting this to be somewhat of a necessary day vs. a great riding day. These Texas boys were a little cold, it was 28 this morning. The pavement was nice as far as pavement goes, some decent twisties.
We were hacking it out of town and then had issues 30 miles out the gate, lost a chain. Had a spare master link but it wasn’t right for that chain. Worked well enough to get us 40 miles to a shop back into town, lost several hours. New chain and more master links purchased.
After that, got back on track. We deviated from the BDR Dell City express route at Claunch and got in some forest, went up to a lookout and passed through Redcloud Campground area. This was really nice dirt riding through the pines.
After that we picked up the Shadow of the Rockies route east of Corona. Somewhere in here my brain definitely transitioned from necessary to adventure. Epic wide open rolling prairie land with the mountain backdrop. We made some good time through here, 70 and 80 country.
KTMCarhart can seriously out ride me, if there are no hill climbs, sand, mud, river crossings, ditches and/or until he crashes. So I am the pace car generally, and the medic. What do you call the guy that pulls thorns out of another grown man’s butt? Just curious but either way as it turns out, I am not that guy. KTMCarhart has thorns in him from a cactus dance he did three years ago in Big Bend. He doesn’t go for the little jumping cactus to tango with like you or I might. He is patient and waits for the larger Saguaro looking ones, I think they call his name like the girls down by the river on Oh Brother Where Art Thou. For fun on subsequent rides when we take breaks on the side of the trail, he still digs out thorns and lets everyone know he got one, some type of sadomasochism lottery for him. I digress, point being these bikes like to boogie and eat the desert up, we have to make sure we don’t get swallowed. Also had to install an ABS dongle on my bike, I don’t like brakes that think they are smarter than me, had to put a stop to that.
The highlight today so far has to be Capitan Pass area. Rugged mountains and rough semi technical riding. Went from fighting the cold to sweating quickly. Neat to know that this pass is where a bear cub was rescued in 1950 and became the USFS mascot, Hotfoot Teddy. They later named him Smokey Bear. He lived out his life for 26 years in a zoo in DC (is that redundant) and I thought it was cool they brought his remains back to Capitan. These “tweener” bikes are doing good, transitioning from 70 to rocky technical.
We are eating in the town of Capitan at Reene’s that is functional. We will stop at an icehouse as we leave town, 72 ounces heavier, that will be intentional. Hoping we get camp setup in Nogal Canyon, in the dark for sure, sun just went down. 291 miles so far. Will give you more updates a couple hundred miles down the road. Go To Sleep Little Babies.
Hey there my riding friends. I am running a day behind on the ride report, sorry about that but actual riding takes priority. This will take a couple uploads. First pics below are from Lincoln NF/Nogal Peak area and our campsite night before last. We did 309 miles the first day and didn’t get to camp till 8pm. Made camp, had a fire and some beverages, stayed up a little late star gazing. All was well, till sleep time. About froze in the tents. Frost was heavy. Had to be in the 20s, it was a long night.
Sorry, WiFi isn’t exactly smoking out here, could probably hammer and chisel it faster. Had to move down the road to find better. Back to the report. Next morning we dropped down from the mountains and were quickly out of the pines. Got gas in Carrizozo and did some nut bolt tightening. Then we chevy chased it at the Valley of Fires Park, a “young” 5000 year old lava flow 45 miles long, back to the ride and into some desolate ranch land.
Pretty good day, classic wide open lonely desert stuff as we went west. Pic above has an antelope that just crossed my path. As we headed south we skirted the White Sands Missile Range, had lunch. This area is very Big Bendish. Our lunch spot below.
Don’t know why everybody likes that atom bomb so much, it’s just an old crapper tank people. Both our GPS were useless again that day, like others have said about the missile range area. Wasn’t a big deal to pick our way through. They started working again in TC. The first day of riding we weren’t so lucky, both were useless much of the day. But we are both pretty good at picking our way with a regular map.
Eventually made it by Elephant Butte Reservoir. Special shout out to KTMCarhart’s wife, we thought of her as we looked at the Butte, she absolutely loves this dam area, and elephants.
After that we hit Truth or Consequences. According to the map we only went 4 inches, felt more like 4.5. We hit wally world to grab some steaks/potatoes/cold ones for our camp later. We were tired but pushed to Cholride Canyon and setup camp right in the canyon. Lesson for me so far, don’t second guess the BDR folks so much. My thoughts of pushing harder and accomplishing more was starting to turn this into an iron man marathon. If you want to do 300-400 mile days doing dirt like this, not realistic if you are setting up camps and cooking your own food. Couple pics of Chloride Canyon below.
Will update more later. We are eating a real meal right now in Reserve, great day so far, more to come. They’re not gonna catch us, we are on a mission from God.
Ah...Poor sleeping, flat tire, not as many miles as planned. Sounds like a good trip so far. I constantly wrestle with the knocking out miles vs being on vacation thing.
How much water were you carrying and how for camp and how? Did you carry it with you all day or try to fill it at last civilization to limit weight all day?