Day 31
Distance: 120km
Climbing: 1926m
I slept better in the motel in Chama as I wasn’t listening to rain and thunder like the night before. The morning was pleasant and we set out for 70km of pavement to rejoin the trail. We were trusting that the reputation of New Mexico’s peanut butter mud to dry up in a matter of hours was true.
Unlike a lot of this trip’s pavement riding, today’s was quite pleasant with sufficient shoulders, little traffic, and very few big trucks.
Once we rejoined the trail there was a Forest Service campground where we had hoped to fill our water bottles, but it looks like the season is over and the water had been shut off. Fortunately the camp host’s site had a container of water out for hikers as the CDT passes right through the same spot. There was plenty so we felt we filled a few bottles.
Most of the road was dry but several sections that hadn’t dried yet demonstrated what a good thing it was that we hadn’t tried these dirt roads yesterday. In addition to being soaked and cold we would have been covered in mud and not able go anywhere. It’s truly amazing stuff and entirely easy to see how it will gum up a bike’s wheels and drivetrain completely. Fortunately the wet sections today were fairly easy to bypass and didn’t last long.
It’s interesting how quickly New Mexico becomes clearly distinct from Colorado. The trees and general scenery shifts and the Mexican and Catholic influence shows up almost immediately in the architecture and roadside shrines.
I think we were in “mission” mode a bit today as we passed up some nice opportunities for photos that we might not have normally.
The more mountainous parts of New Mexico have beautiful pine forests and we found ourselves a nice spot off the road for the night.
Today's ride: 120 km (75 miles)
Total: 3,470 km (2,155 miles)
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