Day 43 - ending near Conchas, NM - The Great Plains Trail - Sort Of

June 26, 2023

Day 43 - ending near Conchas, NM

Day 43 - Santa Rosa, NM to Conchas, NM

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Up this morning at 5:22am, early enough to get a sunrise picture on the highway in front of the motel. Packing didn't take long, since most everything was still on the bike. The front tire seemed a little soft, so I pumped it back up to 70 psi.

My destination today is Conchas State Park northeast from Santa Rosa. I had it figured as 48 miles away.

I was ready to leave this morning at 9:40am. Of course, I wanted to eat breakfast first. However the restaurant on the way wasn't open. I also wanted to see the Blue Hole, an attraction here in Santa Rosa. Since it was nearby and before the hill I'd have to climb, I went and saw it first. Since I was on a bicycle and just wanted a few pictures, they let me in for free. This deep body of water is spring-fed, and divers use it for practicing. I certainly see why they call it the Blue Hole.

I followed a bike path to get back to the highway. This morning I walked up the hill under the interstate. I was hoping to find someplace other than McDonald's for breakfast, and I did - Chico's Tortas. It was really cold in there, but still I had two glasses of lemonade along with the Chilaquiles breakfast. I wasn't able to finish it all.

Back riding at 11:43am. With a quick stop at a Pilot gas station for Gatorade, I was on my way. The GPT route leaves Santa Rosa on NM-156, which is south of I-40.

Time for the noon report: 3.4 miles.

There's quite a hill on NM-156, which goes straight east. I walked up half that hill also. At the top I needed a break so sat down at the edge of the roadway. When I got up I realized there was tar on my pants. Well, there's a lesson learned.

The highway leveled out and I made fairly good time. At 2:10pm, I left NM-156, turning northeast onto a gravel road which would get me to Cuervo. This gravel road isn't in good shape. I could tell that it had been an asphalt road at one time, but it's been covered it over with gravel. There were areas that I couldn't ride, so I walked. I had several miles to go, and walking wasn't going to do my schedule any good. Fortunately, there were areas where the asphalt reappeared and was in fair shape, so I could ride. And some of the gravel areas were fair also. This road is another great place to be out by yourself, especially if you're a hiker. Later I was falling asleep and that just wasn't going to work because I had to keep focused on the road. There was a tree-shaded area next to some good asphalt, so I laid down for a 10 minute nap at 3:55pm. These short naps, when I take them, seem to do me a lot of good.

At 4:27pm I arrived at Cuervo and rode underneath the I-40 overpass. Then a turn right onto a frontage road on the north side of I-40. I was on good payment now and making up time. The bike hit what I think was a small pothole in the middle of the road, which gave me a front flat tire at 4:59pm. I didn't like the looks of a crinkle in the sidewall of the front tire, so decided to just go ahead and use my other spare tire. All done and ready to ride at 6:01pm.

I still had over 25 miles to go, but it'd be on paved roads, and once I turn north it looked like I'd have a tailwind. At 6:28pm, I came to NM-129, my turn north. I'd noticed a gas station at this intersection as I approached. Cars from the freeway were pulling into it. It's a small place, but did have soda and snacks, so I bought supper there. Having this stop was an unsuspected surprise. The grape soda and Zingers I had sure tasted good.

OK, time for some serious riding. 24 miles to go. I started off at 6:49pm. The first miles included some gentle climbs to get around mesas. Nearing 8:00pm, about sunset time, I was getting sprinkled on. I covered the front basket, but not the rear. Of course, the sprinkles stopped as soon as I did that.

A big surprise to me was that the second half of this road, all the way to the state park, was seriously downhill. And I did have that tailwind. So it was great coasting, once again. It finally got dark enough that I turned on my headlights just to avoid hitting any bad bumps. I came to the junction with NM-104 at 9:00 pm. A few miles east on this road would get me to NM-433, the road to the park.

The furthest south campground is where I'd planned to stay, but it was barricaded off. So I headed on north to North Campground. They might have electricity there at the sites, and that would be an advantage. To get to North Campground I had to cross over the dam, which is lit with near ground level lights - sort of like night lights. Just as I got to the dam, I noticed an animal on the road in front of me. I couldn't make out what it was, since my headlights and the dam roadway lights were too dim. The animal was about the size of a small calf, it seemed. It was reluctant to come my way to get off the dam, so it headed across the dam ahead of me. It was an intelligent animal. After a little ways it stopped, put its front legs on the railing on one side of the dam and then on the other looking for an escape route. Not finding one, it continued on in front of me, somewhat slowly. At this point I was thinking it was some sort of large cat. It made its way slowly along with me following. I did ding my bell once to try to speed things up. That had no effect at all. Once clear of the dam it did climb over the guardrail and was gone.

I arrived at the pay station for North Campground at 10:16pm. Looking around in the dark and studying the check-in board, I didn't see where they had any sites with electricity. So I settled on a water-only site - site #N20 near the bathroom, which did have electricity. What concerned me more than no electricity was that there were notices on all the faucets saying don't drink the water without boiling it. This is going to leave me in a bind for tomorrow. Oh well, that's tomorrow's concern. I need to get set up.

Lots of hungry mosquitoes here, which had me moving as fast as I could. I decided to leave the rain fly off the tent to quicken things along, even though there were storms to the southeast.

I settled in for sleeping at 11:30pm, happy I made it here.

Jeff

Spent: $15.06 + $3.76 (breakfast) + $5 (Gatorade) + $4.76 (Zingers, grape soda) + $10 (campsite) = $38.58