TAT Day 17 – Riding into the Rockies

Clayton, NM – Blue Lake Campground, CO

Miles Ridden – 192

Total Miles – 2,392

Today’s Travel Time – 11.5 hrs

Animal Totem – Prairie Dog

What I learned today – Double check campsite elevations when you’re in Colorado!

Only a few debacles today. After a stop off at the post office where we mailed home 20 lbs of stuff we didn’t need…

   
 we finally pulled out of Clayton and rode through the beautiful NM high desert. 

     
     

After an hour or so we took a break in the only shade we could find for miles around. 

     
Shockingly a rider from Arkansas pulled up behind us (we hadn’t seen one other vehicle on the road), and then when we were about to pull away the two other TAT riders we had met in Oklahoma rode up! 

 

Riding up some washed out switch backs I took a spill, but luckily I was OK and so was the bike, and Stef caught the whole thing on his GoPro!

     

       When we got to the top of the switch backs we rode for miles on an amazingly beautiful high plain. We paused at the unmarked Colorado border, and saw the Rockies in the distance. 
     
After coming down off the plain we stopped for a side of the road snack in some more shade we found in an abandoned little town. 
   

      

Since it was in the 90’s Stefan finally felt the merits of airing out his butt. 
  
One more short break before filling up on gas in Trinidad, CO, 

   

  

   where I discovered that my bladder was leaking – don’t worry- just my camel back bladder. 

  
We had about 70 miles to go until the campsite so we decided to press onward. We saw more beautiful scenery, an unfortunate bridge outage and a field full of prairie dogs. 

        

The sun began to set as we climbed in elevation, up and over Cordova Pass at 11,248 ft. The air turned chilly as we rode up into the mountains.
    

  
Coming down off the pass and back onto pavement, the sun had just gone behind the mountain top and we were about 15 minutes from our campsite. 

   

Pulling off onto another gravel road we started to climb again. Up and up on the winding road next to a beautiful creek. Closer and closer to the white peaks until we were in one! 

Fortunately we reached camp with a wee bit of daylight left. Unfortunately the campsite was at about 10,500 feet. Cold, windy and complete with snow on the ground. I immediately went to the bathroom and put on every piece of clothing I had with me! Then set up camp, ate, and climbed as quickly as possible into my sleeping bag. I wanted to stay up to see the full moon, but even at 10:30 it was still hiding behind one of the mountain peaks. After our full day I fell right asleep despite the chill in the air.