Bike Ride to Las Vegas (New Mexico)

This morning we started out on our almost century ride with the promise of some great views and a canyons which we would bike into and then back out of.

For the second morning in a row, and after a long hot day of riding, everyone was on the struggle bus to get out the door. Holly, Alex and I rode out together and for the first time on the trip I, like many other people, felt like I was going to fall asleep on the ride.

The first portion was not too bad with rolling hills the entire way to the town of Roy. As we approached the town we saw signs for Mills Canyon and started our descent. The hill down was nothing special, but we were pleased enough that we did not have to peddle too much and could just coast. Little did we know at the time that this was not the descent we were told about. A few miles down the road we saw a sign warning us of an 8% grade down into the Canyon. One by one we handed off. At first the rate was not too bad, but once we got going we were going. I hit a max speed of 43mph which is the fastest I have ever done on a bike before. The view down was great and had I not been traveling down so quickly I would have tried to take some video.

 

Now the one thing we have learned on this bike trip of ours is that what goes down, must come back up. The view up and out of the Canyon was no as bad as the hill from yesterday. It is funny how easy biking out of a canyon can be when you have not done 70 miles in 110* weather. The view from the top was equally as amazing.

From there it was all aboard the struggles bus and twenty miles down the road we came across the first gas station we have seen in miles. Holly and I decided a nap was a much needed order of business so we headed to the islands between the pumps and passed out for a solid nap. Feeling slightly energized post nap we were able to get some good miles under our belt before the rain hit and the wind picked up. There were some serious rolling hills we had to conquer before second lunch.

 

After second lunch it was a whole different story. The winds had picked up tremendously and we were biking up hill into a headwind and a crosswind. Alex very kindly volunteered to pull us through the wind. We might have been going a max of 7 mph which goes to show you how windy it actually was out there. The one good thing about this was that we had tons of time look around. The mountains were all these ray shapes of blue and no joke there were amber waves of grain underneath them - so Americana.

 

Unfortunately after our super long ride we were all looking forward to getting to the host and eating dinner. Once we arrived we learned that dinner was not provided by the host and we only had five pizzas and a tray of Mexican lasagna i.e. not enough food for super hungry bikers. There was a bit of a mutiny, we all ate one slice of pizza and then and then headed off to Sonic to grab some much needed dinner. The people there were great and offered us the service discount, something they usually give to police, firefighters, etc. The walk back seemed wicked long, even though it was just down the road. When we arrived we were happy to see the final few riders had arrived - it was every person for themselves.

During the day I came to realize that my tire was in bad, bad shape. After 2800 miles the rubber had worn down pretty badly and in some sections all that was left was the hard case. As a result Holly and I decided to duct tape the inside of our tires with the hopes that we would be able to arrive to Santa Fe without too m any flats.

A lot of us were pretty done after our ride and turned in early. With the 6 am wake up call a lot of us would be able to get in a solid eight hours which would be a game changer and help get up to our next host.

 

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