Texas really tells it like it is. Hill Country, The Pecos (wait, what's a Peco?), and now, enter the Mountain Trail. The moment I've been waiting for...enough of these rolling hills, now we're getting into higher ground. TJ isn't so happy about this, probably because I've beaten him to the top of every mountain by at least 15 minutes...I think biking through all that flat ground made his legs even smaller.
On top of that, I have even better news - we've officially traded Texas for New Mexico! The mystical land of ranches, six wheeled pickup trucks, and gigantic spiders are behind us. So what wonders does New Mexico have in store? Well so far...the exact same thing.
With only one day in New Mexico behind us though, its certainly been pretty eventual. We saw some caves, the beautiful Lake Carlsbad (a grossly exaggerated river), and a pizza buffet. What more do you need in life?
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Day 17: Guadalupe National Park to Carlsbad, NM:
Two national parks in two days? Now we're talking! 40 miles downhill of Guadalupe National Park lies our next destination - Carlsbad Caverns National Park.
We got up nice and early into order to (hopefully) get into Carlsbad (the city) before the sun goes down. The best way to start the day? A hefty 40 mile decent down to White's City, a small town located at the foot of the National Park road, with a tail wind to boot.
Finally - welcome to New Mexico! (Most anti-climactic state welcome sign to ever have existed):
Waiting for me in town was a package filled with tons of delishiously festive treats - thanks Mom!
The road up to the Caverns involved a 7 mile climb to the top of a canyon:
I loved every bit of it.
TJ did not.
We opted for a self guided tour, aided by an audio stick that we picked up in the bookstore.
After seeing Mammoth Cave in 2011, I didn't quite know what to expect from Carlsbad. It's reputation certainly precedes itself though - it could very well be the most beautiful cave in the world.
Into the darkness:
Enjoy my camera hopelessly trying to cature the unbelievable underground beauty that is Carlesbad Caverns:
After seeing the sights and climbing out of the caverns in record time, we departed once again to Carlesbad (the city).
Always having food on our minds, we of course located the nearest pizza buffet and headed straight there. 20 miles to dinner!
This may have ben the fasted the 20 miles anyone touring has ever ridden in their lives. Slight downhill, huge tailwind...how about an average of 27 miles per hour?
Needless to say, we at all the pizzas. All of them.
It turns out that finding a (free) place to spend a night in a large city is a lot harder than we thought. We ended up at a small park on the edge of town, right on the Carlsbad Lake (not a lake). Shy of a really bright street light that blinded us the whole night, it would have been a pretty awesome location.
Miles Obliderated: 75
Miles of Caverns Explored: 4
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Day #16: Van Horn to Guadalupe (AKA Texas' Last Horah):
If you look at a Texas DOT map, there is one marked mountain pass - Guadalupe Pass. So of course we planned to go over it. The pass is also the gateway to New Mexico, which makes today our penultimate bike ride in Texas.
The plan:
1. Bike 66 miles to Guadalupe National Park, at the top of the pass
2. Hike 4.2 miles to the top of Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas
3. Heckle Texas from said peak
4. Hike 4.2 miles back to campground
5. Cook delishious dinner, and dream of New Mexico
We started our day on the very isolated Route 54, which would shoot us straight north to the base of the pass. The road was awesome:
Although we did see a strange sight:
Planes? in this part of the country? Must be a
spaceport.
Could it be? Guadalupe, we found you!
Enter: Mountain Time
After 55 miles, Route 54 ended and the fun began. How could we tell New Mexico was looming? By some miracle, Texas actually left a road free from the horror that is chipseal. Ask anyone - chipseal sucks. Cars, motorcycles, bikes, it doesn't matter. Basically, in order to improve the life of their roads, Texas covered them all in tiny rocks. They destory your has milage, waste your watts, and make for a terrible and bumpy ride. Welcome to Route 62/180 - miles of smooth riding.
We turned right onto Route 62/180, which would lead us over the pass 11 miles later. Topping out at only 5,424 on a busy road, it wasn't much to write home about. That's not what we came for anyway though - we had our sights on the peak.
The top at last:
After TJ arrived (fashionably late), we strapped on our hiking shoes and began the acent up to the peak. We caught some pretty steller views along the way:
Life at 8,749:
Heckling Texas, as promised:
We had to make quick work of the decent since the sun was setting, and arrived back at that campground just in time.
That night, we devoured a loaf of bread, a pound of pasta, a can of beans, and a can of tomatoes. We were so full, we had to roll into the tent. Commence the best nights sleep I've ever gotten in my life (if I only could have slept in the hammock...)
Guadalupe National Park may be Texas' one redeeming quality. It's dark, quiet, and the air was a perfect temperature. What a wonderful night.
Miles Crushed: 66
Mountain Passes Conquered: 1
Peaks Bagged: 1
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Day #15: McDonald Observatory to Van Horn, TX:
What a beautiful day for bicycles! John and his family cooked us a scrumptious waffle breakfast before TJ and I set off. Thanks again for the hospitality!
The first 30 miles of our ride took us through the beautiful Davis Mountains, giving us some awesome views along the way:
Sawtooth Mountain:
Mountain goats!
Soon we reached the end of the line, and we were dumped out of the mountains and into the valley beyond. This downhill was definitely a welcome shift, but ended with an all too familiar sight...back on Route 90:
Thankfully, the next 60 miles of gradual downhill made for pretty easy riding. There was even some interesting scenery along the way, like this pecan farm:
Wait...how exactly do you grow pecans in the desert?
After a long day of riding, we finally made it to Van Horn. Lying on I-10, this was a pretty bustling town. The upside - Route 90 terminated there!
After a pretty deserted 90 mile ride in the desert, I dragged TJ to the grocery store to satisfy a craving - a half gallon of milk and a box of Recess Puffs. Delicious!
Searching for a place to camp for the night, we found the Van Horn Community Church, who opened their backyard to us. One of the guys even brought us a ton of homemade chili, banana pudding, and an entire loaf of bread, which made for a pretty fantastic night.
We had plenty of interstate and train noise to keep us company throughout the night, but that made it even easier to get on the road in the morning. Next stop -
Guadalupe National Park!
Miles Crushed: 0
Mountain Goats Seen: 10, at least
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Day #14: Rest Day (McDonald Observatory):
Meet John:
John is one of the smartest people that I've ever met. It seems that he can talk for hours about any subject - history, geography, astronomy, and (of course) the observatory. So when he invited us on a private tour of the facility in the morning, that was a deal we couldn't refuse.
After breakfast, we drove up to the Otto Struve Telescope, which has an 82 inch mirror. This telescope is John's specialty, and he was generous enough to share all the intricacies with us. Look at the size of this thing:
TJ and I even got to walk up the dome to get a birds eye view when John turned it on:
Next up was the Harlan J. Smith Telescope, which has a 107 inch mirror:
We passed through the dome and onto the catwalk, where we got some incredible views of the Davis Mountains:
Back at the house, we ate a huge lunch, did some much needed laundry, and lounged around for the rest of the day.
Miles Ridden: 0 (do we even ride bikes anymore?)
Telescopes Explored: 2
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Day 13: Alpine to the McDonald Observatory:
Sitting on the summit of Mount Locke (6,790 feet) in the Davis Mountains lies two telescopes owned by the University of Texas at Austin. This would be our destination for the night - and our first ride on the aptly named Mountain Trail.
We rolled out of Alpine to begin an easy 24 mile ride to Fort Davis, a town situated at the base of the Davis Mountains. The ride into town was beautiful, taking us through a canyon and past another taste of crisp, fall air.
Once we reached Fort Davis, we enjoyed a delicious peanut butter / banana / honey / jelly lunch and geared up for the acent to the observatory.
The cool thing about mountains in Texas - there aren't any trees, so you get a really cool taste of the geography, and where the road is taking you.
The bad thing about mountains in Texas - they're so tiny! The 18 mile climb was over all too quickly, topping out at the observatory visitors center. 15 minutes later TJ caught up, just in time to relish in the views of the Davis Mountains.
That night, we planned on staying with John, one of the research technitions at the observatory, and his family. We had a bit of time to kill before he arrived on the scene though, so we played some cards, cooked some dinner, and starred in awe at another breathtaking star-filled sky.
When we connected with John, he welcomed us into his home. At that point all we wanted to do was sleep though, so we rolled out the sleeping bags and drifted off.
Miles Crushed: 42
Mountains Crushed: 1
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Day #12, Part II: Rest Day (Alpine):
Since Regina was nice enough to let us stay in her yard for a prolonged amount of time, TJ and I decided to explore the city's night life. Soon, we learned that this was a mistake. As it turns out, we don't belong in Texas after the sun goes down. Apart from the ridiculously cheap beer, we neither understood what two-step dancing was, nor had any desire to learn it. In fact, the bartender had to explain to us what on earth was going when she saw the
bumfuzzled look on our faces.
Not too long after we awkwardly left the sea of dancing cowboy hats behind, we leaned what the real attraction in Alpine is at night - the McDonald's drive through. Forcably dragged into the spectical by a "slightly intoxicated" TJ, we became swallowed alive in a line of six wheeled pickup trucks so long that it could only exist in Texas.
After devouring some ice cream, we returned to the tent, and fell asleep in a confused stupor.
Miles Ridden: 0
Dualie Pickup Trucks Seen: We lost count after 10,592
'
