Grants, NM to Silver City, NM
KatieHighlights:
-Biker house in Silver City
-Toaster House
-Pie town tour
-Divide Crossing #30
-Varied landscapes of New Mexico
Low points:
-Were in New Mexico and nights are still cold
This week we've been going through many small towns of New Mexico that I've never heard of before. I've been fairly surprised at the varying landscapes of the land that I thought was supposed to be all desert sand and cacti.
We've had the privilege of staying at 2 well-known bike houses in Pie Town and silver City. In Pie Town Nita is so kind to leave her old home open to hikers and bikers and this place has become known as the Toaster House, which can't be forgotten due to all the toasters lining the fence. While in this town we got a tour of the town of about 60 and were surprised at all there is to see in Pie Town. This included the large radio telescope, the windmill museum, Nita's lovely home with a labyrinth, and the pie town cafe which had delicious food and treats.
The last sizable town we passed through is Silver City which is one of the bigger cities we've been in. We were able to stay at the bike home of Jaime and had the pleasure of staying in his puppet room. He makes and uses large puppets in parades and at schools all over town. We awoke to a lot of eyes staring at us. In Silver City we went to a highly rated burrito shop where we each purchased burritos that were far too spicy so we had to go and get large blizzards to chase down the heat.
We are now about 2 days ride from finishing our ride and it's starting to settle in that we will be home soon. Mixed emotions, but glad we are going to make it to our destination.
Laura:
New Mexico is a hidden GEM and this past week showed us evenmore of her AWESOMENESS!!!!! It wasn't until this week that the New Mexicanslogan, "The Land of Enchantment," really made sense to me because IHAVE BEEN ENCHANTED. True story. The miles this week have been cake sauce whichwas a welcome surprise just as the PRIME towns we visited this week were apleasant surprise. I am SO EXCITED to share a bit about the week....via bulletpoints!!!!
- not sure if this is a highlight or not but we had service in the middle ofNOWHERE New Mexico a couple times this week. Probs not a highlight but was sucha surprise that I had to say something
- New Mexican sunsets are UNREAL
- leaving Grants we biked into this random neighborhood and then popped outinto an EPIC canyon. Unforgettable
- Windmills are beautiful and genius and New Mexicans have them figured out. Werode by lots and lots and lots of them this week
- PIE TOWN. Need I write more?!
- Ok I'll write more because Pie Town was just THAT AWESOME (via differentbullets)
* First and foremost, THE TOASTER HOUSE. As we rode by the Toaster House weheard a greeting from our fave German, Ralf, who was chilling on the porch
* We were blessed to be in the company of Ralf, Paula and Nic while at thetoaster house. Paula is walking around the United States on a "happinesswalk," interviewing people on what matters most to them. Nic joined her inPie Town and will be biking as she hikes. I'm excited for them and felt solucky to have had such rich conversations while together
* We got to use the wood burning stove and with the masterful skills of veganRalf we cooked a DELISH dinner together
* PIES. Delicious
* NITA LARRONDE aka Pie Queen aka Toaster House owner aka Trail Angel!! Shegave us an AMAZING tour of Pie Town as well as of the house where she livesnow. WOW. Such a beautiful soul
* If you want to have your mind BLOWN go and visit Pie Town and spend some timein the local cafe talking with the locals. Such an interesting group ofpeople!!!
- I saw the BIGGEST bull elk I've ever seen in a herd of elk!! It was GINORMOUSand I couldn't figure out how it was still standing and not doing a permanentheadstand
- Had my first wash out while biking...lesson learned was not to look at themap while descending in a rocky canyon literally called Rocky Canyon. The goodthat came out of it -- I can now say that I've crash tested the Kitsbow RGShorts. After shaking the gravel out of my pants and cleaning off thedirt/blood there is no way to tell that they slid across the bottom of RockyCanyon. Props Kitsbow. Quality #obsessives
- Best candy combo = 1 Hot Tamale + 1Milk Dud. Try it. Your welcome
- We ate our way through Silver City (burritos, sodas, DQ blizzards, Frenchfries, burgers, more fries, brownies and ice cream)
- Jamie and the Bike Haus!!!!! And sleeping in the puppet loft!! SO AWESOME!
- Biking from Silver City to Hachita you finally get to the desert part of NewMexico WHICH IS THE ENCHANTING PART
- There is a long stretch of dirt road where you're surrounded by so tallyuccas of all shapes and sizes. As I was riding I had a fun time playing thegame where you see a so tall yucca and instead of it being a plant you see someother shape. For example, I saw a llama, ostrich, man with a gun, dinosaur,unicorn and many other random things
- The trading post in Separ where we got distracted by cold drinks and snacksfor two hours en route to Hachita :)
- HACHITA! Long story short (for long story long go to my blog rideaswe.space)we ended up spending a few hours hanging out with some locals on their porchwhile waiting for the community center to open. They wouldn't let us campoutside because of the many rattlesnakes that they'd seen recently. We ended upstaying with Jeffrey at his ranch house which was SUCH A BLESSING and he hassome AWESOME stories from all the hikers/bikers that he has shuttled
- Shoutout to John and Cammie (5th and 6th grade) for letting us see their rockcollection and ginnie pigs
- Water coloring!!!!!!
- Props to Jeffrey who let us bake most of his boxed cookies/cakes
It has been fun hanging out in Hachita before we roll on over to the border. Weare SUPER CLOSE, like a half days ride away, so some might say that it's odd totake a rest day but we've got our rhythm to rest on Sundays which has workedreally well for us. The plan is to hit up the border tomorrow and then bikeback to Hachita before biking over to Tucson!! I'm glad to be extending ourtrip by a few days and got even more excited after hearing folks talk about theEPIC BEAUTY of the southern border of Arizona to New Mexico.
MEXICO HERE WE COME!!!!
- IMAGES OF THE ROAD -
Gear List
- My Ride -
- My Favorite Blackburn Gear -
- Complete Gear and Bike spec lists coming soon! -
- FROM: East Palo Alto, CA
- DOB: 2016-01-01
- N/A
- OCCUPATION: Arborist/Mechanic and Social Media Communications
- What was the genesis moment or inspiration for your upcoming adventure? When Laura called me on the phone and said, "Hey I found this Ranger program while I was on the train today and I thought that you'd be a good PIC (partner in crime)."
- Have you traveled by bike in the past? Yes -- a couple of smaller bike packing trips
- What is your goal for the route? Our goal is to morph all of our random outdoor skills into a successful ride of the Great Divide!
- What do you hope to get out of this journey? I see this as a soul-searching adventure for 2 months. I want to be able to get away from my normal 6am-3pm job and be on an adventure that separates me from life's distractions. I want to share my experiences with various biking communities along the route and hope to learn from them as well.