Day 66: Marathon to Marfa: Hell on Wheels

March 11, 2014

We were awakened by the sound of a wind roaring in (now normally a sentence like this would continue ïn the trees", but here there are no trees, except at the campsite we did have one, so..) the tree (above our tent). Our first thought, after "Oh, my", was Headwind or Tailwind? Someone got sent out to find out, and came back with the bad news. Later the weather network gave the direction as "W". None of this hedging with "NNW" or anything like that. And it gave the speed as 20-30 mph. That's 32-50 kph in Canada, eh!

The thought of sticking in Marathon briefly crossed our minds. Couldn't do that, though. If we would stick or bail in the face of every adversity, we'd still be in Key West. At least, that's what we told ourselves. So we dragged all our gear to the shelter of the adobe walled garden. Dodie found some embers alive from last night's fire in the fireplace, and soon we had a warming blaze going, with the stock of mesquite kept by the fireplace for the purpose. Dodie has admirably resisted my entreaties that we need to carry some mesquite home for the BBQ!

In the sheltered area we cooked our oatmeal and set off. The wind actually took an hour or so to work up to full power. This coincided with the sun coming up, I guess. By full power I mean that to move the bike forward in a low gear you have to really push, and probably wobble the front wheel a lot too. To move the bike by walking and pushing, you have to lean into it. That is probably the worst case description, because in fact we were managing to move at 3-5 kph. (For our American friends, that's about 2-3 mph!).

Our road in the morning. The blow you away thing about our ride these last days is the dramatic, wide open and arid landscape

Dodie appears to be heading for the hills but in fact we will be avoiding the Davis mountains.

The sun comes again behind us. Perhaps it brought the killer head wind.

The purple mountains hep make this a stunning place to ride

After an hour of full force wind, we asked ourselves, should we go back? Normally we could answer this as a matter of faith - Grampies do not believe in going backwards! Besides, there would be no escape from Marathon. And there is a train out of Alpine!

So we just slogged onwards. To increase our speed, we naturally did as much drafting as possible. Because the wind was basically dead on, it was feasible. It's difficult, though, to find the exact sweet spot for the person behind, since the wind varies and is never actually 100.0% straight on. A lot of the time, Dodie had to be behind me and to the left. To say the least, having her out there (though still on the shoulder) made us very nervous. She was in the Cindy Weber position.

Not helping our emotions was arriving at a white bike memorial for Rene Ulmschneider struck down by a drunk driver in 2012. This was twelve miles west of Marathon, the same distance that Cindy was East. You can read Rene's story in the local paper: Renes Story

As we struggled along, I finally opened the topic of whether we should see if we could get a lift. There was little traffic on the road, but up to a quarter of the passing vehicles were pickups that presumably could fit in the bikes. Dodie, the one feeling the pain most, is also the toughest. She said, well it's still early, too early to give up.

This photo of rene was affixed to the white bike.

By noon, we had done just 20 km, but the road direction changed a little and we quickly pushed that to 35. We came to the picnic site 13 km before Alpine and knew then that we could make it. However we were right back into the forceful wind, and would have to fight for every inch. After 40 km, a miracle happened. Chia, the so nice postmistress from Marathon who appeared in yesterday's blog pulled up in front of us in her pickup, and emerged bearing two oranges. Thinking back, it was almost unseemly how fast those oranges got snaffled! Chia mentioned that she lives in Marfa, and asked if we would like a lift. Yes! We had already discussed it. If we were to get a lift, Marfa would be the best destination.

Bird Mountain. This mountain was very slow to pass by on our left.

Tumbleweed. A few of these were shooting by us quite quickly in the wind.

30 km from Marathon is this pull out that could be used for wild camping

Chia took us through Alpine, and made a few stops, so we could see what we were missing. Aside from the college building and its longhorn steer statue, there wasn't much.

Then on toward Marfa! Here, we were missing something. We quickly passed picturesque and interesting mountain shapes, and the vegetation changed on us. Don't ask for just how it was different, it went past too fast to absorb. 16 km East of Marfa, Chia stopped for us to have a look at the Marfa Lights viewing area. These are strange balls of light that are periodically seen moving over the desert. Any search will turn up tons of information about this (and there is a link in the guestbook). What we noticed most about the spot was what a good wild camp it would make, even including restrooms, and shade, plus a poster dealing with the Chihuahuan desert, covering information we were missing otherwise.

Chia gave us a tour of Marfa, focussing on the available motels, and finally dropped us at the Thunderbird. We liked it because it is on the West end of town, and is near a grocery store, DQ, and Stripes. We later found that it is the middle priced of the three choices in town, but still was $130! The room, though, had several bang on touches. First was an old record player, complete with a small selection of records. More are available at the office. Our room came with Willie Nelson, Crosby Stills and Nash, and the Rolling Stones! The sound from the old records and player was surprisingly good.

Next the whole decor was rather European - spare but comfortable, and the bath area was large, with good shampoo and big big fluffy towels. It was still warm, so I got to use one of these and jumped into the swimming pool. It was surrounded by kids on Spring Break. It was fun chatting with these, who were mostly from the Austin area.

I got another Beltbuster at thre DQ, while Dodie made the careful choices of sensible items we would need for our assault on Van Horn. The forecast calls for heavy winds againtomorrow, but this time from the NE. This gives us half a chance to get somewhere. We will only target less than half way, before a wild camp. Then for the next day, there is a SE somewhere in the wind forecast, and we hope to use that to complete the (NW) crossing. But all that is in the future. Right now it's fluffy towels and Marrakesh Express!

p.s. We likely will not be able to post until after we reach Van Horn - but keep checking!

Weird new landforms on the way to Alpine

The longhorn statue by the college in Alpine

Look Sandra, a probably deer proof fence of Ocotillo!

Today's ride: 40 km (25 miles)
Total: 3,927 km (2,439 miles)

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