Today we rode from Abiquiu, New Mexico, US to dispersed campground 22km before Cuba, New Mexico, US. Sunny weather with little clouds, thunderstorms building up in the afternoon (no rain for us). Road conditions mostly very difficult. Highlights of the day include riding a 20km climb on the most difficult road so far, pitching tent in forest before Cuba (probably last forest of the route).
Riding statistics: on Monday September 5, 2022, the 36th day on the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route route, it took 12:32h (09:59h moving time), between 07:22 and 19:56, to cover 102 km (64 miles), including 2225 m (7300 ft) elevation gain, with an average speed of 10 km/h (6 mph). During today's ride the average temperature was 28 °C (86 °F) with a minimum of 11 °C (52 °F) and a maximum of 41 °C (112 °F).
Totals: So far, it took 10 days, 16 hours, 50 minutes and 2 seconds of cycling time to cover 3690 km (2293 miles), including 45312 m (148669 ft) elevation gain, with an average speed of 14.7 km/h (9.1 mph).
Leaving Abiquiu
We did not set an alarm but wanted to get up around 6:30am, the time the sun rises. So we did, and we left the Retreat at the River around 7:30. First we rode back to the gas station / Bodies convenience store for some extra breakfast snacks and water. We needed extra water on top of what we bought yesterday at the Dollar Family store. We ate all our breakfast at the parking lot and already enjoyed the morning sun.
The difficult climbs of today
When done at Bodes, we left Abiquiu and immediately started our climb on a gravel road. This first climb was about 10km long and had an elevation gain of around 600m. Only at the first few kilometers we could see in the distance and the valley where we started today. After that it would be a day with much forests and little views in the far distance. Shortly after the long climb we had a few shorter (very) steep ones. One of the we had to hike-a-bike, so steep on bigger gravel, just like cycling on marbles and therefore no traction. Our ride continued and slowly we got to a 20km climb on which we had to gain almost 900m of elevation. That in itself was not even too bad, because with such a long climb, the steepness would be OK. However, New Mexico had a new surprise for us. One of the most difficult road surfaces so far, the entire climb. It changed from very rough gravel, into more rocky and boulders, and eventually the trail was based on giant boulders. So we had to ride from giant boulder to boulder, and in between there were patches of very loose sand. This type of road surface continued for many kilometers. Eventually the surface changed again, in loose rocks. Big rocks, so still no easy progress. You have to plan a route through the rocks. Loosing balance, is either a correction, or falling, or (did not happen fortunately) a broken bike. I once lost my balance but could jump of the bike in time. But for the first time I had dropped my bike. Fortunately all OK. At a certain moment the rocky road also got very steep, dried clay, sides. You could ride on those, but you had to be careful not to slide down to the rocks. If you braked just to hard, your wheel would block, and you immediately glide down to the rocks. I had it once and could fortunately correct and find a path through the rocks on which I could hold my balance and not damage my bike. As you can read it was quite a challenging uphill today. But it was different then we already had previously so it was also quite nice in a way. It was already 2pm after that second climb and we needed a lunch break. By the way, we hardly saw any other people during those climbs. A few other cyclist were behind us. After our lunch break we continued. From that moment onwards we were chased by thunderstorms. It always start with thunders in the distance and some lightning. Then there starts a very hard wind, and eventually you would get rain. All happened each time, but we were able to ride away and there was no rain all day. At a certain moment we decided to try to reach Cuba, the next small town. There was one climb to go, and then it would be a downhill to a paved road, followed by a 15km ride into town. We have been riding hard, did a climb of 6km and quite some elevation gain in 45 minutes and were very satisfied on our progress. Now it was time for the downhill. Unfortunately not so much. It was down, up, down, up, etc, etc.
Dispersed campsite
It took way more time then expected, and we were running out of daylight. Eventually the sun was gone and it got darker and darker. We were mainly riding in a westward direction so that helped a little, but eventually it was too dark to ride safely. We saw a mile marker showing what we still had about 8km to the paved road (which we had to follow for 15km). So we decided to stop at the next possible camping spot. Not much later we saw a flattish section and there was a fire ring (of rocks) so we knew people have been staying there. We decided to check it out (with the help of the torch function on our phones). All OK. We pitched our tents (now with the help a headlamps), ate some snacks, hung our food, got cleaned, and went to bed. I already heard an animal around our tents and had no idea what it was. At some point it jumped and it even sounded as big as a cat at home. I bet it was just a squirrel or something. We slept great.
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