Real Life Bike Trip 2009: Sacramento Mountains and White Sands

Finally a picture together!

We have a few hours to spare today so I guess I'm going to try doing my Sacramento Mountains blog. Right now we're staying at a surfer's house in Las Cruces, NM. His name is Greg, and he has been very hospitable and generous. Wow, two surfers in a row! We have run into some good fortune that last couple of days. After several days without showering I can only imagine the putrid smell that radiates from our dirty bodies. I sincerely take pity on our hosts. Today will probably be a short riding day, but hopefully we will be in Arizona by Saturday. From there we might do a short blog in Tucson, but after that it's going to be 5 days of riding until San Diego. Of course this is assuming we have decent riding weather and our ambition is high enough to keep doing 80+ mile rides.

Sunset outside Tularosa over San Andres Mtns.

The Amazing Scenery

Danny has taken so many amazing pictures the last couple of days. The pure scenic beauty of the Sacramento Mountains has been breathtaking. We've been so spoiled with scenery we had to stop and take pictures several times the last couple of days. This has been the most beautiful spot in the southwest I've seen thus far. Ironically enough we had to stop riding the last couple of nights near sunset because of my ungodly amount of flat tires. I'm beginning to think my back tire is cursed. I told Danny if I get another one today I will probably cry, but I can't do that because real men don't cry. I took a loot at the treads on my tire and they're beginning to get pretty worn down. I'm definitely going to have to get a new set of tires once we hit the coast.

Anyway, back to mountains and stuff. I think the landscape is best described by Brad Neely in Wizard People Dear Readers when he said, "The landscape is literally peppered with painters working out masterpiece after masterpiece". Unfortunately I have to rewind for a minute, because as we began our climb through the Sacramento Mountains it wasn't quite as beautiful. Coming out of Roswell we had wonderful riding conditions and minimal wind. The area was similar to east of Roswell but it stretched on and on for many, many miles. Very flat, lots of dried up plants and plenty of assorted cacti. I'm not really a horticulturist of any kind but I wish I would have brought a field guide with us. All of the plant and animal life is so distinctly different from that of the midwest, I often wonder the names of the plants and animals we've been seeing. So many animals living in such an extreme environment. Coyotes, foxes, lizards, rabbits, squirrels, snakes, and so on. Oh, and the birds, the beautiful birds soaring above our heads all day. One of the most amazing moments of the trip was on a small stretch of road in southwest Oklahoma when a flock of small birds followed me across a bridge, chirping the whole way. They looked like little marshmallows and made high pitched squeaks.

The Safety Corridor

Taking a break during the downhill

Finally we started to climb. It was about a 2,000 foot uphill into the safety corridor, which is a 36 mile stretch of road where the speed limit is decreased and fines increase because of the windy sharp curves. There was a 6% grade downhill descending into the Hondo River Valley, which was a lush green oasis amidst what was mostly desert a few miles before. Again I wish I knew the name of the towering green trees we saw going through the valley, but I don't have time to research exactly what they're called but they are very tall and very beautiful. There were a few people living in the valley but it was mostly sparse. The stretch of road we went through was called the "Billy the Kid Scenic Byway", and later that night we stopped at a historical marker about 10 miles south of Lincoln NM, which was the center of the Lincoln County War of 1876, and the historical home of Billy the Kid. The stretch of road passing through Lincoln was dubbed by Rutherford B. Hayes as the most dangerous stretch of road in the United States! That night we camped out at about 6,000 feet above sea level, and there was minimal light pollution. Danny and I were tracing constellations with our finger tips, the sky was flooded with sparkling diamonds on a black cloth. I have never seen so many stars. I almost had forgotten I was sleeping on the ground next to a park bench where Danny was sleeping.

The Apache Summit

The next day we continued our climb through Ruidoso. This is when my flat tires started getting out of control. We stopped at a Subway for lunch and passed Ruidoso, which is about 6,500ft above sea level, and then ended our climb up Apache summit. We were actually riding through the Mesalero Apache reservation, so there were a couple of casinos near the summit which was weird. The higher we climbed the more green it became and the hills were scattered with pines. When we finally reached the top we took a picture break. I wanted to take a picture of Danny but he insisted on not being in the photo. He later regretted his decision to not be in the photo so we'll have to photoshop him in later.

Highest elevation of the trip

Beautiful stretch of road into Tularosa

The Downhill and Alamogordo

After reaching the summit we had an incredibly fast downhill for about 20 miles in the basin of the Sacramento Mountains. Where you could begin to see the White Sands Missile range just outside of Tularosa. It was a great place for a picture stop. This was hands down the best day of the trip thus far. We covered 20 miles in just over 40 minutes, clear skies, everything was in it's right place. It was one of the happiest moments of my life and the definitely the best moment of the trip thus far. I got another flat going into Alamogordo but it worked out well because we got to watch the sunset over the San Andres Mountains. The stretch of road into Alamogordo was slightly downhill, so we had a fast ride in and ate at Applebees with a surfer named Verna. She told us the story of how she fell in love and we spent the night in her beautiful home in Alamogordo.

Danny's Silhouette during sunset

Dangerous Ride Into to Las Cruces

The next day we stayed on 70 and headed towards Las Cruces. It was supposed to be a 70-80 mile ride but it ended up being a slow ride due to heavy winds. The white sands national monument was blindingly beautiful. In fact, it was so bright we couldn't take pictures because the camera couldn't handle the light properly. I was literally squinting even with glasses on. I was getting tired rather fast from breaking the gusts so we stopped at the White Sands Missile Range HELSTF (High Energy Laser Systems Test Facility) for water. There were a ton of sites where they test crazy technologies in this range. We kept riding for a while and of course I got another flat, but luckily it was just before another great sunset that we would have missed otherwise. The picture of the sunset is in Danny's previous post. So we started the climb through organ pass, which was an 8 mile uphill, and Greg, our surfer for the night, came and picked us up so we didn't have to deal with the down hill. There was also a stretch of road with no shoulder going up the pass so it would have been extraordinarily dangerous with our minimal lighting. As fun as the downhill would have been, I owed Danny 36 miles for taking us the wrong direction in Houston, MO. So we hitched a ride to Greg and Kenny's place, which was about a 23 mile drive. I think him and I are even now, but even I didn't want to finish the ride because we probably would have ended up as road kill. We ate a delicious casserole last night and are taking a short break this morning before our ride today.