Epic Bike Ride Day 12 June 7
Epic Bike Ride Day 12 June 7
Thoughts from Kelly: We did not get awakened by cows last night, we both slept well and were on the road by 10ish. I decided to go for a ride, too. I am a novice at mountain bike riding so these roads scare the poopies out of me, but I tried anyway. I rode a total of 2.28 and 180 ft of elevation gain at 9,300 ft! It took me longer than expected to meet up with Mark after my ride, so he had to wait (and worry) for awhile. Once we did meet up we turned onto a section of road that was very rough! I was only able to go 3-4 MPH while Mark was way ahead of me. Luckily, he was ready for lunch and we were relaxing in the truck when a rain storm started, with hail! It was 90+ degrees yesterday! We were very thankful to be in the truck for protection, we hope the other riders found somewhere safe to take shelter. Some of the hail was pea size and sooo loud! After waiting a bit to make sure the storm passed and chatted with some forest rangers, we headed out again. All seemed to be going well when we came to an intersection that wasn’t on out map and the roads were not labeled. We did our best to figure out which way to go, unfortunately it was the incorrect way. We ended up seeing a sign that made us question where we were. While we were trying to figure out where we were and where to go, the same forest rangers from earlier rolled up to save the day! They were able to tell us how to get to Abiquiu, thank you US Forest Rangers! It turns out this misguided re-route
Was a good thing for two reasons, it was absolutely a gorgeous drive and we were closer to one of my favorite camping spots, Abiquiu Lake. I can’t even explain how beautiful this area is, please check our photo gallery to see a glimpse of it. After the thousands of feet in elevation and getting lost, we were thrilled to be at a beautiful camp spot. Oh, and we got to shower! What a great feeling!
Thoughts from Mark: Today was a very strange day (to me), and started out so badly (in my opinion). Kelly and I left camp together - both riding our bikes - and then she rode back to camp to pack everything up and start driving, while I rode ahead. After three miles, there was a “T” intersection (which was unmarked except for the road I had been on). I initially turned left, but quickly came to a gate blocking the road. This was the first time we had run into this, after more than 500 miles of riding. Thinking this wasn’t the way, I turned around, and turned right at the intersection. After riding about 3/4 of a mile, I started second guessing myself, and turned back around. I waited at the intersection for Kelly for what felt like a long time, I turned left at the same intersection again, and opened the gate (and closed it behind me, just as the sign instructed, so no cows could escape). I tried multiple times to call Kelly on our two-way GPS radios, but she didn’t respond. I made a sign for Kelly at the intersection from some broken sticks, telling her to turn left. I rode on for about one mile, and decided to wait for her. As time went by, I kept trying to radio her (we were out of cell phone service), and received no response. This was when a bit of panic entered into my mind. “What if she crashed while riding back to camp, and is hurt? What if the truck wouldn’t start after she got it packed up? What if she didn’t see the sign, and turned the wrong direction? What if she had trouble opening the gate (it was 4 posts with wire holding them together, and pulled so tightly that it sprang open when the loop holding one of the posts was pulled off. It was extremely tough to put it back together)?”
I decided to ride back to where we had camped, and as I got close, I ran into another bike rider, Dom (Domdoesyoga on Instagram). We talked for a few minutes, and I continued riding towards camp. After just a couple of minutes, I ran into Kelly, who was now driving the truck, and all was once again right in the world. We got through the gate, made it a few miles, and then the rain/hail storm began, and we enjoyed the cooler air once the storm passed. A short time later, a truck full of US Forest Service Rangers drove by, and we had a nice chat (foreshadowing). I began riding again, and eventually we came to another intersection. Once again, there were zero signs, and according to where we thought we were on the map, we needed to take a left turn. After riding 4 or 5 more miles, we came to another intersection with Forest Road 103. This intersection also showed the road we had been riding on was Forest Road 316, which was not on our map. Feeling a bit lost, we were trying to decide what to do, when our friends the Forest Rangers (the same ones) drove up. We chatted some more, and they were able to use their maps to come up with an alternate route to Lake Abiquiu.
This alternate route to Lake Abiquiu (which was about 35 miles from where we met the Rangers the second time), was absolutely gorgeous! After 10 miles of unpaved roads, we turned onto a section of freshly paved, downhill country road with zero vehicles on it for the entire five mile section, and I felt like I was flying! We eventually hit NM 96, and I rode the rest of the way to Lake Abiquiu staring at the beautiful red rock canyons and mountains that are at least as beautiful as the famous red rocks of Sedona, AZ. We camped at one of Kelly’s favorite campgrounds from her youth, and the sunset over the water was stunning. The end of the day was so much better than the beginning, and I am thankful we were able to turn a negative (getting lost) into one of the best (unplanned) adventures of the trip so far.
Miles for the day: 48.67 Feet climbed today: 2,966
Total miles ridden: 567.11 Total feet climbed: 33,628