Beautiful high camp to Horca, Colorado
Strava: 88.2 km, 1533m, 7:03, 265 shifts, 74.4 kph max
I slept eight full hours straight which was great. We got up at 6, made a breakfast of oatmeal with pecans and other stuff. There was some peanut butter and bread and maybe some more too. We headed out, knowing we had to go pretty far to get to Colorado and Horca where luxury awaited. Or dry camp for the 4th night in a row and then ride in the same unwashed clothes for a 5th day. It was Horca or bust, even Andrew agreed with that!
It was mostly climbing in the morning, up and up, sometimes rough sometimes more smooth. We had a couple of nice encounters with people driving, offering us water and food. It was a little cloudy and rained a bit. Andrew was a little behind and got snowed on. But in general it was a perfect riding day.
We met our first SOBO rider from Canada! He was solo, started mid May, planned to finish at Antelope Wells in a week[!] and would not think of parting with his bear spray. He pushed his bike through 8′ of snow, the real deal. The world needs more people like this, self-confident and so strong. He was aiming for Abiquiu tonight, amazing!
We had a couple of lunch stops and when we got to the top, we were over 3300m for the first time. But we have even higher passes to traverse in Colorado. Descending was beyond comical. The road down from the top was so rocky, definitely the craziest I’ve ever done loaded, and I haven’t ridden terrain as crazy many times period. We made it down, although Wytze was covered in dirt, maybe he had an undocumented crash?
We missed the exact State line but high fived a little later. Eventually around 5pm we came out onto a paved highway and we took it down to the tiny town of Horca. My bike was basically unloaded with hardly any food or water, and I was happy that the extended time over 70 kph felt so solid.
Down in town we went straight to the Red Bear Haus, a “welcome center” that lets bikers pitch their tent for $15 which includes that wonderful thing, a hot shower! And laundry! But first it was cold beer and a massive dinner on the deck as the singer warmed up for the big Saturday night live show. He looked like John Denver and played quite a bit of his music.
After multiple beers, showers, ice cream, dinner, people started showing up and soon it was a huge gathering. Out on the deck in the evening, gorgeous view in all directions, everyone happy. So fun. We had the bathroom plugs charging our power banks, Garmins, SRAM batteries, etc.
Today was quite a milestone for us, completing New Mexico, hitting a new high point and finding a luxurious place to stay. After two full weeks on the road, we feel like we’ve hit our stride. It’s a big big ride but if we can make it to Del Norte tomorrow our reward will be a rest day in a decent -sized city. We’ll see…
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