Hachita to Ridge Park Campground on route 90

Strava: 102 km, 863m, 6:08, 139 shifts, 46.4 kph max

After a decent sleep, we got up around 5, ate a big breakfast and packed up. The weather had changed quite a bit, with the road wet, cool with some rain in the air. We headed north with gorgeous views in all directions. We stopped for pictures at our first Continental Divide crossing. Before the rain started we were treated to some amazing lightning and super loud thunder. Once it was maybe a quarter second between them!

The first 30 km today was paved and it wasn’t really cold so the rain just made us wet and cool. It let up as we finished the paved section and headed west on a gravel frontage road along Interstate 10. We rode with our tandem camping partners, Brad and Kristen. Soon we got to the one town of the day, Separ. It has just one building, the Continental Divide Trading Post. We bought lots of snacks and drinks but skipped fireworks. We took a break eating outside, very nice.

We headed north on dirt roads, and soon the rain started up again. Daniel has low clearance in front and had a little trouble but the tandem was completely shut down by the sandy mud. They had to take a break to wait for drier conditions. We persevered and loved the varied weather and views. I got to try out my new rain jacket which worked great, the first time I’ve had a hood while riding. Up and down, about 70 km of dirt. We stopped for lunch at noon but had already been riding for four and a half hours.

There was a fair amount of climbing but nothing steep. Finally at 95 km we popped out onto state highway 90, paved and smooth. We took it a little way to a campground and checked in. It felt good to have a 100 km day under our belts and it was only 2:20.

I was very happy to see trees with shade in the tent area. We set up, had showers and did the daily laundry – we each have only one set of cycling clothes.

Some lounging occurred then we made dinner, cooking up the second meal bought at the Dollar General in Columbus. The pot only holds two liters so first I put 8 servings of instant mashed potatoes and a can of tuna into a liter of boiling water. Stir and it’s ready! Andrew and I enjoyed that and agreed it was just the right amount. Later I repeated for Daniel and Wytze. No leftovers! Dessert was candied pecans. We worked on route plans for the next few days, then cleaned up.

It was forecast to rain in the night so we put on our rain flies. Our plan is to get up at 5:45 (luxury) then ride into Silver City for breakfast and shopping. Sure enough, as I wrote that the rain started!

For me it was a little hard this morning, saying goodbye to Katie for 8 weeks. But Andrew and I had a good time doing some final prep, then my old friend Scott drove us from Santa Cruz to San Jose airport. There was literally no waiting to check in and American Airlines didn’t bother to weigh our slightly overweight boxes, which just count as regular baggage.

The plane was on time, we had lunch and changed planes in Phoenix, then made it to El Paso a little after 6. It was amazing to see both our bike boxes come out on the regular baggage conveyor belt so quickly.

After we put the bikes together and loaded up, we pulled up the course I had made to the Airbnb and took off. It was an easy ride, mostly downhill for 5 km, under 15 minutes. The house is very spacious with four nice bedrooms and a modern kitchen. There are guitars, music albums and posters everywhere.

We unloaded our bikes and rode over to a nearby supermarket (the biggest one Andrew had ever seen) for dinner, breakfast and beer. Back at home as we ate we received some fun messages from the other guys as they arrived in El Paso. Daniel sent a video of two maintenance guys properly disposing of Andrew and my bike boxes from three hours before. Wytze later sent a photo of Daniel’s box captioned “Leaving your trash. Disgusting!”

Sometime after 10 pm they arrived together and the beer and snacks flowed as we caught up. So fun! We talked for a couple of hours then called it a night. So far so good!