Up at 4:35 this morning. It’s amazing what a good nights rest will do. Besides wanting about another 12 hours of sleep, I feel recharged and ready to go. Only about 60 miles today to Abiquiu if the weather gods are good to me should be able to knock that out by lunch. Then have a good afternoon to rest, recover, catch up on the blog, and maybe do some laundry and get clean again. According to the weather I may be dodging thunderstorms all morning though, so we’ll see.
Rolled out at 5:35 this morning nice cool morning
6 AM and 4.4 miles in turned off on 96. nice morning but a lot of rain clouds in the area I have a feeling I’m gonna get wet again today
6:32 AM 9.3 miles in for today climbing a hill and just came upon a field full of elk probably eight or 10 of them. They saw me before I can get a picture and took off for the trees. Starting to climb now over 7,200 feet and things are getting green lots of pine trees. It’s really nice this morning everything’s perfectly still and there is a strong smell of pine trees.
7 AM 12.2 miles in just finished a big climb stopping to takeoff my jacket is still nice out but lots of climbing it’s getting me warmer.
7:30 and 17 miles in came to a junction with a big sign warning of extreme fire danger and the Santa Fe forest being closed. This is what I’ve been having to detour around for the past couple days. hopefully I’ll be done with it after tomorrow.
8:45 AM and 26.3 miles in was on a big climb for about 30 minutes—exhausted—and then I get charged a pack of the at least 20 dogs. I mean they didn’t look too vicious but could’ve been bad. two cars pulled up between me and them while I was walking the bike past. Now I’ve never even had that many dogs chase me while riding through Appalachian Kentucky. Will try to get the video off my GoPro and load.
9:40 AM 36.4 miles in stop for a water break I can smell the forest fires and see some smoke coming up over from my right. I think the first rain in weeks was yesterday and they’re calling for rain for the next few days so hopefully that’ll help.
Arrived in Abiquiu at noon. Stopped at a little food stand, Fire and Ice, and had a raspberry milkshake, Diet Coke, and 3 tacos. Checked into a hotel, got cleaned up then went to the restaurant. Ordered two southwest cheeseburger meals with fries, large unsweet tea, water, and a Coors lite. Then ordered another cheeseburger and fries, a large unsweet tea and two more Coors lite to take to my room. Done some bike maintenance, planning my day for tomorrow, and finishing up my blog posting while I have good WiFi.
A nice moderate 60 miler today. I feel like I could do more, but I’m gonna take this opportunity to take a half day off and do some recovering. Only been on the road a week and already done to centuries—Don’t wanna push it too much this early. I’m getting into some high country now, things are getting green, I’m seeing water for the first time. I’m starting to feel strong.
Weather is calling for thunderstorms all day tomorrow so that’ll be interesting. It’s storming here at 6 o’clock this evening while I’m finishing up this report. I had hoped to make it into Colorado tomorrow, but weather may dictate I spend one more day in NM with another 60 miler or so…either way, I think I’ll be using my rain gear tomorrow. And I have looked up what to do when I’m open country in a lightening storm…basically it’s crouch down, stay away from tall stuff, and hope for the best 🙂
Pics and vids:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bi2xjez86rnp5du/AACh33hrNESTMc5ltt8XluJ6a?dl=0
