Day 58 Abiquiu NM to Fire Road 144 NM

Abiquiu Inn

The route out of Abiquiu quickly became a climb up a sandy road through an area of town where the less fortunate live – a million miles from the Inn. Chased by dogs, on one occasion I had need to give a short squirt of bear spray to fend off one dog snapping at my ankle.

Shots of the initial climb

Finally – high point 29 miles in!

Todays ride included a 29mile climb back up into forests & 10,200ft.

The main feature of today’s ride were the roads. For me they were often very challenging – ruts, sandy, rocky, bouldery & on occasions far too difficult for me to ride. Because of the difficulty, the Divide book had set the day’s ride at only 29 miles. I managed 42miles – achieved only by riding until dusk.

Shots taken at dusk – immediately above, for just a few seconds the sun lit the road bright gold

Pulled off the road set up camp & used my earplugs to lessen the noise from the rain on the tent.

Today, a few things went wrong. I now have two cycle boots falling apart, my head torch stopped working, the Rohloff gear shifter fell away (leaving me thinking it broken), and, allowing a few spills, ok am now nursing a painful leg. – maybe I should have taken the road?