Life at 9,000 Feet

There is no reason for two people to be carrying five boxes of cookies and four bags of candy. But for whatever reason, the Roswell Halloween sales got the better of us. So here we are, now 7,000 feet above the city, hauling enough cookies to feed us for a week. Nice planning.

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Day #23: Cloudcroft to Las Cruces, NM

Luckily, camping at 9,000 feet was not nearly as cold as we expected. The decent down from 9,000 feet? That was pretty cold. Better news - the bears and mountain lions stayed away from all our food, so we even got to eat breakfast.

The plan for today was to see White Sands National Monument. Not knowing what exactly a huge expanse of white sand dunes actually looked like, I was not very excited. When we finally got to the Visitor's Center and the ranger told us we had to bike six miles just to see the sand, I was even less excited.

Alas, we ditched our baggage at the Visitor's Center and went searching for sand. And look what we found! Although it looks like snow, don't get too excited...you can't build snowmen out of this:

After a six mile ride, we found the trail head:

Wait...there is no trail. We did have a pretty fun time frolicking in the sand though.

As it turns out, White Sands was actually pretty cool, and well worth the detour. Two things of note - the sand is made of gypsum, which doesn't absorb any energy from the sun. We did our whole "hike" barefoot, and the sand was nice and cool. Also, White Sands was the site of the first atomic bomb explosion, although that happened a lot further north. There is still a missile testing facility there though.

 
Luckily, no bombs exploded when we were on site.

Back on the bikes, we still had a few miles left to ride. About 30 miles of flat ground brought us to a (tiny) mountain pass. TJ was not excited for this, which was too bad since I love mountains.

TJ also had another false flat - thank you Stan's for saving the day. The dirty New Mexican desert left him looking like a baboon:

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Although we had lots of great climbing ahead of us, the road was unfortunately pretty terrible. At some points, we were riding on a five lane highway, with a terrible shoulder.

Soon enough we were at the top though, greeted by some views and a setting sun:

Wait...the sun is setting? But it's only 5:00! We quickly shot down the mountain, and started working our ways towards Las Curces, perhaps the last place you want to be riding a bike after the sun goes down. Case in point: I got a flat (#4?)

After some milkshakes and trip to the bike shop, we stumbled upon the local fire department. Thankfully they let us setup camp behind the station, where we slept surprisingly well for being surrounded by 100,000 people.

Miles Crushed: 105
Mountains Descended: 2
Mountains Ascended: 1
Flat Tires: 1.5

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Day #22: Ruidoso to Cloudcroft, NM

Camping at 6,400 feet is cold...really cold. No snow yet though.

Today marked another day of continuous climbing - 6,400 feet up to Cloudcroft at 9,000 feet. Who in their right mind builds a town at 9,000 feet?

We started off the morning climbing about 1,000 feet to the top of a mountain pass, where TJ got another flat. Luckily Stan's saved the day this time, so it was a quick fix. While he was fiddling with the tire, we watched an eerie looking storm blow over the mountains in the distance. Suddenly things got really cold (well, colder), and eventually we got hit a bit of snow and rain.

Oddly enough though, the whole thing passed within a few minutes and it was clear skies before we knew it.

MOOSE

The ride up to Cloudcroft was absolutely beautiful. We took Route 244, which is a really quiet and isolated road that winds through the Lincoln National Forest. Tons of pine trees, tons of climbing, and tons of mountains. What could be better?

Well, we could have done without the headwind. For the last 15 miles the road shot south west, which meant we were heading straight into some pretty beastly wind. Coupled with an 1,800 foot climb up to town, it was a tedious process at best. 

Finally, we arrived in Cloudcroft! And to our surprise, there was a bike shop there. With all the flats we've been getting recently, this was a welcome find...we bought some more tubes and Stan's, and got directions to a short trail run right outside town.

Cloudcroft:

After stopping in a cafe for some tea, we headed out to the Osha Trail. At 2.2 miles it was pretty short, so we did two loops in order to maximize the views:

That night, we found a random spot within the National Forest to camp, and dreamed of all the bears and mountain lions that were probably eating our food.  

Miles Crushed: 45

Pine Trees Seen: Billions

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Day #21: Roswell to Ruidoso, NM

Touche, New Mexico. You win.

The ride out of Roswell was a 75 miles, gradually climbing from 3,200 feet to 6,400 feet. As we slowly inched our way higher, the land began to shift dramatically. What began as a flat, desert expanse that was all too reminiscent of Texas, slowly transitioned into a lush and hilly landscape.

The road suddenly dropped into a canyon, which left us surrounded by beautiful fall foliage:

After a relaxing lunch with some stellar views, we continued on. Mile after mile, the air got cooler and the trees got larger. Soon we found ourselves surrounded by stunning pine forests, and huge mountains rising up around us.

What could be a more appropriate stop in such a beautiful area than a farm stand? Boom...we found one. We couldn't resist trying out some cherry cider, so we bought an entire half gallon and sat down to enjoy it. Well, "enjoying it" may be a bit of an overstatement. What we learned was that cherry cider tastes sort of like a cross between rotten apples and Koolaid Punch. Also, it was unmarked, undated, and originated somewhere in Mexico. A half gallon might have been overkill.  

The only setback of the day: TJ was too engulfed in the foliage to see a gigantic fish hook laying in the road. It punched right though his tire and unfortunately caused a flat.

That night we strolled into Ruidoso Downs, which is a tiny town at the foot of Lincoln National Forest. We got a super cheap dinner at a local Mexican restaurant, and made camp in a quite park. 

Nice, New Mexico. Notice the Miller Lite box...

Miles Crushed: 75

Gallons of Disgusting Cherry Cider Consumed: 0.5

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Day #20: Roswell (Rest Day #10,000)

Today we had two options:

1. Bike 20 miles (in the wrong way) to Bottomless Lakes Sate Park
2. Continue biking on to Ruidoso

Naturally, we did neither, and just bummed around Roswell. As it turns out, when people in the city are actually awake, they are incredibly nice. All day, wherever we went, people would just come up and start talking to us. We literally sat outside a grocery store for an hour eating Oreo's and made about 10 new friends. It was great.

So what do you do when you're living out of a bike trailer and have nothing to do? Well, after we ate all the cookies, we went to see Captain Phillips. Great movie, and of course the people working at the movie theater were nice enough to let us keep our bikes inside.

After the movie, we decided to put something to the test...a few weeks ago we heard a tale of a guy biking across the country who would go to Pizza Hut, tell them what he was doing, and somehow procure tons of free pizza. Conveniently there was such an establishment right next to the movie theater, so we walked in, sparked a conversation, and walked out with TWO FREE PIZZAS! Great success. We couldn't even finish them, so we saved some for breakfast.

Look at these deals!

More weird stuff only found in Roswell:

That night we wandered over to the local fire department and met some really nice firemen who let us camp in the backyard. Great nights sleep, back on the road tomorrow.

Miles of Biking: None that Matter