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