Day 42 - ending at Santa Rosa, NM - The Great Plains Trail - Sort Of

June 25, 2023

Day 42 - ending at Santa Rosa, NM

Day 42 - Fort Sumner, NM to Santa Rosa, NM

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I woke up at 5:20am this morning and got started with what I normally do - get a sunrise picture, work on the report, eat breakfast, pack, and get going. This morning a nearby camper stopped by to visit. Tom Standley recognized my Long Haul Trucker, since he's a touring bicyclist. He rode the Northern Tier cross country route in 2019. YouTube videos of that trip are posted at Our Grand Adventure. I'll be checking those out when I get back home.

Today's ride for me was to finish up yesterday's route to Santa Rosa. The state map shows nothing between the west end of NM-203 and the south end of NM-91, which goes into Santa Rosa. I suspected the road between the two highways to be gravel, and it was.

I left the campground at 11:13am, connecting up with NM-203. At the county line is where the gravel road started. I was there at 11:48am. Fortunately it was rideable gravel. As with all gravel roads, it's a little bit of a challenge, but also a little fun, picking which part of the road is best to ride.

4.6 miles is today's noon report.

I like routes that make me feel like I'm in the middle of nowhere, and this one sure did. Only three cars passed me as the afternoon went on.

There was a windmill ahead rigged to pipe water into a tank. Very surprising to me was that there were minnows in the tank! I hadn't expected to have any fish pictures today.

The terrain started to change toward the later afternoon - to butte-like ridges that the road made its way around.

At 4:50pm I crossed over Puerto Creek, which is dry at the moment. Shortly after, there was an improvement in the smoothness of the gravel road. Then, at 5:31pm, I joined up with paved NM-91.

Shortly after 6:00pm, I was in the town of Puerto De Lune. There's history here.

I was still down in the Pecos River valley. Google Maps indicated I'd have a climb ahead of me, but it turned out to be gradual, weaving around those butte-like ridges. Around one of those ridges I met up with a fellow (Richard) walking south. Richard hikes between Puerto De Luna and Santa Rosa twice a week! His ancestors have been residents of the area that became New Mexico for 400 years. It was fascinating listening to all he knew about the area. As we were talking, his wife pulled up and gave me a cold Gatorade. It didn't take me long to drink that. She left saying that Richard ought to be able to get home before sunset. I wasn't so sure because I kind of delayed him. After best wishes both ways, he continued south and I continued north.

The climb ahead for me wasn't near as bad as I feared, and I made it to the city limit sign for Santa Rosa at 7:56pm. My at home plan had me camping out at an RV park, but I was thinking motel at this point. The first one I came to was La Loma Motel. At 8:18pm I had the key for room #8 in my hand.

Thinking I should get something to eat, I got back on the still-loaded bike to ride east to McDonald's. There is quite a hill getting there. That was the hardest part of my ride today. The coast back to the motel was fun, though. The rest of the evening was take a shower and work on picture selection. In bed at 11:45pm.

It took me over 8 hours to ride from Sumner Lake State Park to Santa Rosa today. If I hadn't had that blowout yesterday, I would have given no thought to camping at the state park, and would have just kept riding. That would have put me in Santa Rosa around 1:00am, if I'd been able to do that. It's hard to believe that a blowout could be a blessing, but it was for me yesterday.

Jeff

Spent: $47.95 plus $5 (motel room) + $12.58 (supper) = $65.53

Today's ride: 39 miles (63 km)
Total: 1,773 miles (2,853 km)

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