A GREAT Divide Pandemic Adventure

[Grissom]

We need to have more of the report

 

[Grissom]

Popcorn went stale

 

[GreenHornet]

haha oops life got in the way

 

[GreenHornet]

Day2 Silver Springs to Apache Creek

The day before my scheduled departure I ended up snapping the brackets for my upper crash bars. I had to remove them to fill may coolant reservoir. I tightened them to the torque specified by the manufacturer. I called Alt-Rider and notified them of the issue and they were adamant on shipping some new brackets ahead for me, to rectify the situation. However, when I called FedEx from the hotel I was given the runaround.
I had seen signs for the Gila Cliff dwellings since Hachita and in Silver City I saw a sign saying they were only 40 miles away. So, I decided to go visit the cliff dwellings then check again with FedEx on the brackets.
On a side note I've wanted to visit the Chama site for several years.

 

[GreenHornet]

But first nipples from heaven. I lost my nipple at about 100mph fighting traffic between AZ and NM.

 

[GreenHornet]

The route to Gila

The park entrance.

 

[GreenHornet]

 

[GreenHornet]

I should have stripped down to my shorts etc considering it was about 0.25 miles up and 0.25 miles down from the cliff dwellings but, hind sight is always 2020. I ended up doing the hike in my riding gear.

 

[1962siia]

Wow! Awesome pics! I made some fresh

 

[GreenHornet]

The fastest way down was the ladder

It was amazing how well preserved the dwellings were. Also, the caves were pervaded by a cool breeze even on the warmest of days.

 

[GreenHornet]

At the monument I spoke with an Adventure Cycling guy and he pointed me in the right direction to get on the CDT. But first I wanted to top off with some gas etc..
The Post

Got some home made ice cream and some gas.

puppies puppies everywhere

Turns out this guy was not only the ice cream man, the gas man, but also the local reverend. God works in mysterious ways

 

[GreenHornet]

Giving up on FedEx

This is where I made a critical error. Even though I got directions from the Adventure Cycling guy, I went the wrong way. I had uploaded the GPS Kevin tracks to my garmin and converted them to a trip but I was still the neophyte.

I'll try to explain the circumstance within which I became mired.
The BMW Nav6 is essentially a Garmin Zumo. You can't just follow tracks like you can using a Garmin Montana. The advice I had thus far was to convert a track to a trip then I would just start the trip. This had worked fine on my Lost Coast Ride.

So I loaded the trip from Silver City to Grants, and just blindly started following my GPS.

Long story short, I ended up camping at the Apache Creek Campground.

The first time I pulled out my bear gun

 

[GreenHornet]

At this point I realized something might be wrong. Where was the dirt? Luckily I brought along my surface pro, loaded with the basecamp software and both the Canonshot and GPS Kevin GPX tracks. I was able to figure out where I went wrong, and realized that I'd have to backtrack to Silver City if I wanted to get on the dirt to ride the true CDT route. I figured out that the real route began near the Santa Rita copper mine just outside of Silver City. The ride between the campground and silver city was actually super awesome, and it turns out I'd ridden this area way back in 2014 when I met my friend in ABQ to pick up a bike he bought off of Ebay.
Anywho I went back to SilverCity.

I suppose I might as well just describe it here. If you convert a track to a trip and you aren't extremely close to the start of the track the BMW Nav6 will just route you on streets to the end point. That's why I hadn't seen any dirt yet.

 

[GreenHornet]

Day 3 Silver City to OOPs!!!

This was the plan again as this was the plan before.

Poor Mother Earth or the Santa Rita Copper Mine

 

[GreenHornet]

Finally found the dirt!!!!! W00t W00t.

Just past the mine was the start of the true CDT route from Silver City.

Trying to follow the Canonshot tracks.

So purdy!!

Could this be the infamous New Mexico mud?

 

[GreenHornet]

Along the way I crossed paths with another rider traveling north to south. He said some guy landed a small airplane on the road and that he assisted the pilot with tools etc and that I'd probably run into the pilot up ahead. For some reason (probably due to my almost running out of fuel twice already on this trip) I was experiencing some range anxiety. I asked if there was gas at Pie Town and was told that there wasn't. But about 30 miles away I could get some gas at the town of Datil. So, I figured better safe than sorry and when I hit the pavement I turned right and headed for Datil. I found the gas station and the attendant was doing something with the pumps but I paid no head and pulled up to a pump. The attendant had gone inside by the time I was ready to pump some gas but the pumps weren't working. I tried to get the guy's attention but he kept ignoring me. Eventually, he answered my knocking at the door and told me they were closed. They close at 5:00pm on Sunday, and no matter how much I protested he was unfazed. No gas for you. He told me the next closest gas was in Magdelena 30 more miles off my route.

At this point i had to go to Magdelena because the round trip to Datil was 60 miles and I was definitely going to run up against my range. So I felt I had no choice but to go another 30 miles out of my way to Magdelena. This, in effect was going to net me zero range increase but the alternative was to most likely run out of gas. I passed by the Seti dish array but was too pissed to take any pics, also , it was raining and getting dark
By the time I got back to the CDT it was virtually dark.

I realized I probably wouldn't make it to Grants. I had some kind of half brained scheme to make it to Pie Town and either camp or find some kind of accomodations.

Just as I was deep in thought regarding my predicament I heard a commotion to my right. It turns out I was somehow engulfed by a heard of dear. There were dear on both sides of me, so I decided to slow down, when a doe thought she could somehow out accelerate me and pass in front of me, at which point she ate shit and started sliding in front of me. I really didn't want to hit her and was on the brakes. Luckily she slid across the road in front of me and we never made contact. At this point I was riding in pitch black and I had several huge slides, there were muddy spots on the trail, but I was able to keep upright and made it to pie town probably around 8:30.

I couldn't see shit. Some lady was concerned for my safety and asked if I was ok. I said, I didn't really feel like trying to set up camp for the night and asked about lodging in the area.
She told me there was a motel in Quemado about 22 miles from pie town. Ok on to Quemado. I got there around 9:00pm but the hotel looked like it was shutdown for the night. I went down the road to a B&B which was full but was told that if I rang "the bell" i could get a room at the motel in Quemado.
I guess I made enough noise to wake up the owner, but I never found any bell.
She wasn't happy about it but she gave me a room for $105 (the cheapest so far). But I think she was pissed cuz the AC in the room she gave me sounded like a diesel freight train. It was impossible to run the AC and sleep.
I truly think I was being punished for waking up the old lady that ran the motel.
[Youtube]EpDsM9nkQoI[/Youtube]

I really should have just gone straight to Grants rather than take a 2 hour detour, as I had plenty of gas in retrospect. I could have made it no problem if I hadn't gone to Datil.

 

[GreenHornet]

Day4 Pie Town to Grants

This is the day I decided to try the GPSKevin tracks, and I never went back. They were much easier to follow than the Canonshot tracks. This is for at leas two reasons. The first being that they are newer and have more datapoints, and second they are organized as one set of tracks per day. This would be the first day I finally got the hang of following the tracks converted to a trip on my Garmin. Provided I was near the start of the route it was easy to follow the track. If I were too far away it would try to route me on pavement to the endpoint. I got on the road bright and early, with a full tank of gas and a heart full of optimism, and rode the 20 odd miles to Pie Town.

Hmm a different kind of town

The pie was decent, but not sure it warrants naming a town after it.

 

[GreenHornet]

Yes I read the sign, and to me, it looked dry. Shrug. I started the day with my 2.5 liter hydration pack full of water and a 16oz Powerade. Plenty of fluid right?

A few minutes later

I'm not too sure how long it took me to get upright but my guess is about 45 minutes. Not too bad. I was actually able to lift the bike with all my gear still attached. Feeling quite smug I was back on my way.

A few more minutes down the road. Back in the shit.

This time, I was really struggling. I couldn't seem to get my bike upright because I couldn't get my footing. I'd get her partially lifted, then I'd just slip in the mud. I couldn't get any traction. Hmm. What to do.
Oh, luckily I had the foresight to have purchased and brought along the Best Rest Motorcycle Recovery System. Now if only there were some kind of anchor point. Oh wait, the myriad of lava rocks might be just the ticket.

Success!!!. Of course, I had to completely unload my bike to right it, and this took no less that 2 hours of effort.
Looks like rain is coming

 

[GreenHornet]

At this point, I think I need to explain a little about the New Mexico mud. This mud is like no other. I'm not sure it's mud so much as clay. It's impossible to ride through. I'm sure there are some gods out there who may be able to ride through it, but I'm not one. When it's wet it's super slick. I've ridden in mud before but this stuff is different. I think it's imbued with oil or something. Every time I tried to ride through it I just fell over. Then, when it dries it turns into glue. I found that my front tire wouldn't steer and my engine was straining to push the bike forward. I had to clear the mud from my front wheel and between my engine case and my front wheel by hand before I could continue on.

Some time later I came upon this. No way around it seems.
I went to the left of the tree and got through

Nature's reward

I thought I could ride through this one but ended up on the ground yet again. Uggh

At this point I'm beat, and pretty much out of water. This would be the last time I hit the trail with less than 2 gallons of water.
Finally, another human. He was super nice, and helped me get upright. I asked him if he had any water, and he said no, but he had some Bud Ice. He gave me a couple and boy Bud never tasted so good.

 

[GreenHornet]

Thank God the worst was over. I was bound and determined to make it to Grants. Mind you this was supposed to be a one day ride and I was on my second day. But to be fair, I don't think I actually hit the dirt until around noon outside Silver City.
Covered in mud and under cover of night, I finally made it to Grants. After 12 hours of "riding" my trip meter informed me I had only actually run the engine for 4 hours. Oh boy. Maybe I should quit and go home.

Sunburnt, dehydrated, and exhausted, I was never more grateful for a hotel room.
TV dinner courtesy of Walmart never tasted so good.

Every ounce of my soul was caked in mud