March 2, 2024
Day 11: El Paso to Columbus, NM
After a good night’s sleep in a hotel bed, we were ready for a hot hotel breakfast. Unfortunately, they only had to-go bags, so we went back to our room and warmed up our breakfast burritos in the microwave. I downed all 4 of our apple juice boxes and we hit the road for a nice climb out of El Paso. At mile 14 we stopped at a Chick-Fil-A for a proper breakfast then at mile 23 we stopped at a Pilot gas station for our last services for 62 miles. Thankfully, the majority of the climbing was done for the day and we headed out on SR9 for another day into the wind.
We followed the border fence all day through the Chihuahuan Desert. The Potrillo Ranch owns just about all the land in this area, but we only saw a handful of cows the whole day. The road made several gradual turns, so it felt like we were tacking back and forth with the wind. Sometimes the draft would be over Jude’s left shoulder, sometimes over his right shoulder. At one point we can around a bend and over a rise and could see about 20 dust devils across the desert. Two of them smacked us right in the face with sand and some of the mountains in Mexico were completely obscured due to the blowing sand.
We worked well together and Jude again got stronger as the day progressed. The last 15 miles were directly into a headwind and we grinded it out, talking frequently and taking our breaks as soon as we needed them. Lunch was at mile 45 at a small entrance with a cattle guard. The border fence was absolutely 400 yards away and a couple trucks were doing maintenance. One of them stopped and made sure we had enough water. Most of the cars passing us had Chihuahua plates, the state immediately over the border, presumably coming from the Columbus/Palomas border crossing as it’s much less hectic than the El Paso crossing.
Jude pulled us into town where stopped at a small Valero station and then headed to Pancho Villa State Park. The park worker drove by and was very helpful, pointing out the best tent site. We also met Laura and Doug, the camp hosts. We set up the tent with the same agave stem and rock system we used in Pine Springs to secure it from the wind gusts.
I cold-soaked my dinner and we left our panniers in the tent while Jude led us the 3.5 miles to the border. We walked right through and biked a few blocks down the Boulevard before turning around coming back. The US crossing had much more security. We talked to the border guard who took our passports and our picture. He couldn’t believe Jude had ridden here all the way in his bike. He kept asking us where our car was! Back at camp, we readied our things for the next day and Jude was very surprised to discover that cold-soaking dinners still worked and tasted good (but we also agreed that anything tastes good after a long day)!
We headed to bed early after planning our next 3 days of riding. We were tired but not exhausted. Were looking at an early start to get to church and hopefully getting some miles in before the wind picks up too much.
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Today's ride: 93 miles (150 km)
Total: 782 miles (1,259 km)
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