Taos, New Mexico

It's been a while since our last post, we've just been to busy and far from any computer to really keep up.
We'll try to summarize the past couple weeks as best as we can without leaving out too much.



After Mt. Magazine we rode to Fort Smith, on the Arkansas/Oklahoma border, where we stayed with a friend of my mom's, Elizabeth. She took us out to a great mexican restraunt, fed us some stellar strawberry shortcake and we got to catch the Will Ferrel special of Man Vs. Wild which was pretty funny to say the least. Again, it was great to sleep in real beds and be in the company of familiar folk, especially before our long stretch of the Oklahoma plains. The next morning she gave us a ride to the border and we were off.
During our first night in the Sooner State we stayed in a city park in a small town called Stigler off of highway 9 and slept in two of those concrete construction tubes that are normally used for storm drains. They were placed on a sandbox near the lake as some sort sorry attempt of a playground for the local kids I guess. The shelter they provided was actually pretty convenient and cozy though and kept us out of the rain. We lucked out being only a mile or two away from a sonic that night when it happened to be free root beer floats after 8:00 so that was a nice morale boost as well. The next day we rode north towards Oklahoma City, unknowingly passing through Okema, OK, the birthplace of Woody Guthrie, and got to stay with relatives of a neighboor, Dr. Bill and his family. We rode on the old route 66 which was cool and all but the traffic was terrifying with no shoulder at all. They also took us to an awesome mexican restraunt, Pepe's, and followed the meal with a huge helping of frozen yogurt from the Orange Tree. We truly hope one opens in Orlando in the future... a buffet of delicious cold goodness of all flavors.
The next day we left for Lake Canton and stayed the night near the dam. The huge body of water was a nice change from the flat dry land we had previously traveled through. Ft. Supply lake was our next destination and we then rode up into the panhandle, entering No Man's Land.
There was truly nothing on the stretch, for real.


Nothing.



The next few days can only best be described as surreal and unworldly. We felt as if we were on another planet, with it's only inhabitants being cows. The wind seemed to mock us and blew from the west, slowing down our pace tremendously. At the end of one hard day, with nothing in front or behind us for several miles, we found comfort and shelter from the petulant wind beneath a bridge along the highway. Once we went beneath the road the scenery seemed to brighten in the surrounding fields and we were grateful to have one of the best campsites of the trip so far, sleeping on the cement cross beams that ran beneath.


The next few days were uneventful, we traveled through, guymon and boise city where we stayed in an abandoned rv park for free which was kind of cool. We left for black mesa state park and found the first signs of the west in some decent rock formations in the surrounding canyon. Although we had planned to take a few rest days there the facilities were in pretty rough shape, the lake was dry, there was no food and the dinosaur tracks were covered in mud. Our next day proved to be much more adventurous.
Mesas greeted and welcomed us at every corner as we crossed into the land of New Mexico. We were headed for Clayton. As we approached the town, which we could see from miles away upon a hill, volcanic mountains to our west, thick storm clouds grew ahead of us. About five miles out of town the sky opened up above us and dropped it's worst.
"Dude, these are huge raindrops!"
"Caleb, that's not rain, it's hail."
Ping pong ball sized ice struck and pelted us, in a painful shower.
Just as it seemed all hope was lost, a white pickup truck was waiting just over the hill and took us in.
They yelled for us to get in the truck, speaking in very broken english, and we did.
They asked where we were headed and we asked them to take us to the nearest pizza place in Clayton. Once we arrived they asked where we staying in town and offered us a place to stay in their home.

" You stay with us, no woman here, mi familia in Texas."
We decided to pass on pizza hut when there was an offer for homemade fajitas and a place to sleep. The dinner was great and we told them our story as best as we could. We found common ground with music and Roberto, the man who had saved and brought us to his home, invited his uncle over who jammed with us playing some mean flaminco guitar. We retired around 9:00 and woke to an 4:30 sunrise as Roberto had to leave for work early. Our next destination was springer, to the west following the highway. The road was another long stretch of no real towns, the only store being a closed mercantile in Gladstone. A mammoth wind whipped and beat us with 53 mile an hour gusts as we rode and it took twelve hours to cover only sixty miles. As we rode into the setting sun more dark clouds formed ahead of us, violent and full of electricity. We stopped beneath a small bridge and waited for the first string passed over and kept heading west, finally finding shelter beneath a roadside metal pavillion over a picnic table. We set uop hammocks just beneath the roof and were glad to be dry. The lightning came closer and closer until we finally had to resort to huddling beneath the concrete table and insulating the space around us, as we were on the highest point in the area, just east of Abbot, with an elevation of 6,300 ft. Never had we been so close to lightning in such a high place, not to mention the open plains surrounding us.
We finally had the chance to crawl in our hammocks and sleep after the storm had passed, waking the next morning to leave for Cimmaron.
The change from plains to the Rocky mountains was drastic and beautiful. We were glad to see pine, and any vegetation at all, dropping into Cimmaron Canyon, home of the Philmont Boy Scout Ranch and Cimmaron Canyon State Park. We found a camprgound along a mountain creek and set up for the night, sad to have another night with no shower but excited about the rock faces and mountains surrounding us. The campsite was one of our favorites and the temperature drop was nice. We even got to see some local wildlife as a skunk wandered into our campsite, undeterred by our presence. It was a bit worrisome but after exploring the site and finding nothing of any interest he meandered his way back towards the creek.
Next we we traveled up the canyon through eagles nest with an elevation of 8,000 + ft., we continued to climb towards Red River along the enchanted circle over Bobcat Pass, an elevation of 9,833 ft. where we got to see a black bear run across the road. In Red River we found a map of Wheeler peak and decided we would climb to the highest point of New Mexico the following morning. As the sun set behind the rocky mountains we pedaled another 6.5 miles to the dirt road that led to Middle Fork Lake, our planned base camp for the night and the trailhead. The road was rough with gravel and the creek wandered over it several times. walking our bikes with all our gear was rough but we finally reach the trail head parking and found a satisfactory place to hide and lock our bikes to a sturdy tree. It was nighttime as we made our way up the mountain towards the lake for another three miles and we had to cross a decent sized creek in the dark, but the hike was worth it as we reached the top and the saw the most stars we had ever seen since the grand canyon. The sky was so filled there was no need for a flashlight as we set up camp and quickly fell asleep.
The next morning we woke at 5 am packed and hid our tents and left for Wheeler Peak as the sun mad the mountains above us glow a firey orange. The temperature at this altitude was extremely cold but when we looked around the lake in the daylight we were surprised to find snow still lying on the ground.
The trail was in such bad shape and eventually was nowhere to be found so we ended up having to mountaineer our own way with photos of a map we had taken with one of our cameras. We followed the creek and a set of trustworthy looking footprints through scattered snowdrifts to an open alpine basin. We then continued to climb to our right up the side of one of the surrounding mountains. It's hard to describe the beauty comeing to the top of the ridge. We could see for miles on end, the whole enchanted circle surrounding us and the Colorado rockies in the distance. We continued over steep snow plains and ridges towards wheeler peak seeing Mule Deer, Elk and Bighorn sheep in the valleys below us. Marmot ran in and out of the rocks as we lifted above the alpine tree line. Finally around 9:55 am we reached the peak. 13,167 ft. above New Mexico we enjoyed a much needed lunch of peanut butter tortillas and granola bars. There was a book to sign encapsulated in a tough iron capsule drilled into a rock and we rested in the shelter of a small rock pile from the extremely cold and violent wind. Alpine lakes and pine dotted the landscape and rocky cliffs were blanketed with snow. We were reluctant to leave as we headed down the mountain in order to avoid any storms that could hit in the afternoon. We continued to follow the next few ridges planning on making a loop to our base camp in order to avoid backtracking and to see some of the lakes below. We rested next to lakes deep blue from snow melt and continued going off and on from a trail we found as it was covered in snow. Gray clouds came in above us and we began to get anxious, any kind of storm at our altitude would have been miserable. We were also frustrated to find that the trail we had ended up on took us a mile below where we had left our tents earlier that morning. It seemed to take forever to get down and we could see the rain coming towards us over the valley below, getting a little bit of sprinkle everyonce and a while. we had to do the same hike from the previous night and recovered our bikes from their hiding place, riding the 6.5 miles back and getting to town around 8:30.

We were tired.
More tired than any of our riding days from the trip, and boy were we hungry, but it was one of the most beautiful hikes and experiences ever we have both agreed.
We both ate huge dinners of chicken fried steak and headed into Carson National Forest to stay the night. It was rainy and cold but luckily we only had about two miles to ride from town and the rain had stopped by the time we got there and slept next to the Red River.
The next day's ride to Taos was only about 40 miles and dominantly down hill most of the way. We roded through the Carson National Forest for a good portion of the trip and winded through the Rocky mountains and some of the most beautiful landscape of the country.
Riding into Taos, we were filled with excitement to see the first real and somewhat big town in a long time. Not only is Taos a big town, it's an awesome one, with art galleries at every corner and delicious restraunts in between. Adobe houses run all along the hills and neighboorhoods and the feel to the area is one of peace over all. We're staying in an RV park just on the edge of town only three miles from the main plaza. Last night we ate at the Guadalajarra grill, and the best Tacos and Enchiladas we had ever had in our entire life. Soooooo goood!!! We both agreed we had to try dessert if their dinner was this good and we were not let down. The Flan and Bunuelo were rediculous. This restraunt blew our minds and we are definitley going back. It's also conveniently loacated just across the street from where we're staying. This morning for breakfast we ate at Michael's Kitchen, which is notorious for it's good food, and prices, serving breakfast all day. We again had one of the best meals of our life with a huge spanish omelet and breakfast burrito followed by some delicious cream pastries. This town is awesome to say the least and it's definitley our favorite so far. Well, we're tired of sitting in the library typing this and we're going to go enjoy our stay here while we can.

Peace!