CDT Summary and Outtakes

Our total "on trail" mileage for the trip was 2,725 miles. We did the trip in eleven riding days, which in hindsight was a bit aggressive. Adding a day or two of riding to the agenda would make for a more relaxing trip.

We all enjoyed the diversity of terrain we traversed and the fact that we did it on 450 - 500 cc dirt bikes.

For tires, we recommend running the Pirelli MT43 DOT Trials tire front and rear. We all had these on the rear and they worked great and lasted the entire trip. If the weather in the Southern section of the route is projected to be wet, you may want to opt for a knobby. On the front we ran the Pirelli Scorpion Pro as well as the MT43. Both worked well, though we favored the MT43 for the route.

Now that we are done riding and mothers and wives are no longer worried, here are some outtakes from our ride. Ed won the prize for most crashes, though we all had a couple minor spills and tip-overs along the way.

The following link will take you to a picture show featuring nearly all of our pictures from the trip (16 minute duration)

Here are some outtake pictures:

First injury - pinched pinky from a tire pump. Notice the cleanliness of the nurse's hands :)

Tommy tip-over. I pulled up to park, put my foot down, and found the road height was much lower than I anticipated. Over I went.

This was a very difficult section were we had to drive in the forest to get around a bunch of downed trees. We all had tip-overs in this area.

This was in a section of New Mexico that we went through after a morning storm. This was a slow speed crash where I came around a corner and found that the road within my path was not there. Nothing I could do, but brake really hard. No harm; me and the bike were fine, mainly due to the soft sand.

Rain water had eroded this section of road significantly. I was not looking for this particular hazard and did not see it until it was too late.

Day 14; CDT 11: Silver City, NM to Antelope Wells Port of Entry

Today we woke to rain in Silver City, NM, but the rain ceased at 8:00 AM and our route was expected to be clear. We left the campground at 8:15 AM with a destination of the border of Mexico and New Mexico.

We rode 166 miles today with only ~25 miles on dirt, the remainder of today's miles were on asphalt. I have to say that after days of fun dirt roads, the asphalt was a bit boring.

The terrain today is what we expected of New Mexico; flat desert with short trees, cactus, sand, and not many people.

We arrived at the Antelope Wells Port of Entry at Noon. The end of our adventure was a bit anti climactic, mostly because we had another 50 miles to ride North to Hachita, NM where we were to meet Dennis.

Hachita is a small town with no services. As we were driving through the town looking for the truck and trailer, we came upon a very tan man wearing nothing but shoes and shorts. I thought, "well, that's how they roll here in Hachita". The man started waving us over and I realized it was Dennis :). We pulled over and began loading the bikes and preparing for the trip home. It is worth noting, that we all found Dennis's outfit to be the best thing to cope with the heat.

Our total mileage for the trip was 2,725 miles.

Here are pictures from the day (order of pictures is random):

We made it!

Pretty large mountain in an otherwise flat area.

Old church in Hachita, NM

Old Adobe Building

Rose Valley RV Park in Silver City, NM

Day 13; CDT 10: Grants, NM to Silver City, NM

Today we rode 272 miles, hit a peak elevation of ~8400', and spent 9 hours traveling from camp to camp.

The first half of the day was sunny and warm. We rode fast on well groomed fire roads that took us through terrain shaped by lava flows, wide open plains, and forests of Pine. After 130 miles, we stopped in Pie Town, NM for lunch and pie. When we arrived, we found that the CBS Sunday Morning crew was there filming Bill Geist interviewing the owner of the restaurant. The producer asked if they could film us ordering pie and if Bill G. could come talk to us. We agreed and CBS bought our pie.

We were filmed ordering pie, eating pie, talking about the pie, and talking about why we were there. They also filmed us leaving on our bikes and asked us to drive them back into the parking lot and enter the building. The segment will air sometime in the fall, so we hope that not all of our footage hits the cutting room floor.

The second half of the day was spent on a combination of fast gravel roads winding through fields of wild flowers, and tight twisty gravel roads winding up and down the mountains of the Gila National Forest. The weather turned cooler and actually rained on us for a brief period.

Highlights from the day: Contrast in terrain from Cactus to Lava rock to Pine trees and fields of wildflowers, big bugs, large ant hills (everywhere), not many people, Hawk Moths, Herds of Elk, Pie Town and the CBS crew, the Santa Rita Copper Mine, and no mechanical problems.

Tomorrow will be our last day of riding. We have a relatively short ride with mostly asphalt roads that will take us to the Antelope Wells, NM border station. From there we will pack up and head home.

Please scroll to the bottom for videos and a link to CBS Sunday Morning Pics

The following are a sample of pictures from the day:

Lava Rock - Leaving Grants, we saw lots of Lava rock and lava formations,

No rear rack today. The rack failed in two places, so it was removed.  It is fixable and will be redesigned to last more than 2000 miles.

Typical of the terrain around Grant's

Celebrities!

Bill

Aliens 

Hawk Moth - flies like a hummingbird

Old abandoned reservoir

Wild Flowers - we saw a lot of these today

Large herd of Elk in this field, these are just some of the more than 2 dozen we saw

Elk

Lance

Santa Rita Copper Mine

VIDEO

Pictures from CBS Sunday Morning (we are in one picture)

CBS Sunday Morning Pictures

Video Segment from CBS Sunday Morning

Day 12; CDT 9: Chama, NM to Grants, NM

Our ride started at 10:00 AM today, even though this was planned to be our highest mileage day of the trip. We were scheduled to do oil changes on each of the bikes last night, but we arrived late, so decided to change the oil this morning, hence the late start.

The ride was fun and it may have been the best day of riding yet. We covered 320 miles in 10 hours. The terrain varied drastically, from lust forests of Pine and Aspen, to sandy soils full of cactus and scrub brush.

The forest land near Chama was beautiful. Our ride during the first half of the day consisted mostly twisty dirt and gravel roads, some of which were extremely rocky. We experienced sprinkles of rain during the first half of the day, but nothing significant. We came across a small group of motorcyclists that had just started the Great Divide Trail in Mexico and were working their way North. They told us of a very challenging section ahead of us after Abiquiu, NM.

We made our way down to Abiquiu, NM for lunch at a gas station that was the town grocery store as well as one of the popular restaurants. When we arrived, the skies were threatening rain, so we parked the bikes under shelter and rested while we ate a nice lunch and chatted with the locals. Whenever we stop at a town we always get people asking about the motorcycles and where we are going, but in Abiquiu we felt like celebrities. Many people stopped to speak with us and were genuinely interested in what we were doing. All wished us luck as they left.

Once we left Abiquiu, we were in the desert. Sandy soils, flash flood warnings, and roads that are impassable during a storm. We were lucky that the storm had passed though the area because it received quite a bit of rain that morning. In fact, that is what the motorcyclists on the trail had warned us about. Apparently, the roads in the AM were barely passable and some of their heavy bikes got stuck in the mud. When we went through, the roads had dried up some and only minor mud bogs existed, We were able to navigate our way through, though it was challenging at times. One other hazard we had to watch out for were large washouts in the road that you could not see until you are on right up on them.

Due to our late start and challenges along the way, we did not make it back to camp until 8:00 PM. Afternoon thunder storms are common and we were skirting several storms as we rode through the evening for Grants, NM. It was impressive to see the lighting striking the nearby mountains.

Note: If I were to do this ride again (and I hope to), I would spread this day of riding over 1.5 days. The combination of mileage and technical terrain were a bit much for one day of riding.

Today's ride took us to an elevation of 10,400 feet and we logged approximately 320 miles in 10 hours.

Highlights of the day included:
  Stark contrast in terrain between Chama and Grants
  We saw the largest buck deer we have seen on the trip near Chama
  Experiencing thunder and lighting as we skirting a storm
  We did not see any bicyclists or hikers today
  We saw some wild turkeys
  We had our highest mileage day at 320 miles
  Cactus and rattlesnakes
  Ed's rear rack broke due to metal fatigue

Here are some pictures:

Super sized bee