Great Divide Mountain Bike Route (GDMBR) - Segment:
New Mexico - Bicycle from Cuba to BLM Wild Camp near Ojo Frio Spring,
to Felipe-Tafoya Land Grant Wild Camp, to near San Mateo Spring Wild Camp,
to Grants, NM; October, 2016
Objective:
Ride as much as allowed by the Weather for a 4 Day Adventure.
We Actually Planned on 3 Days of Riding with a Spare Day of Supplies.
We ran into 2 days Bike Pushing Due to Long and Deep Dry Sand Beds.
Highlights
Day 1:
Easy Start along US-550 parallel to the Rio Puerco (Pig)
All Dirt, Hard Pack, or Sand after turning onto CR-1102
We only saw standing water once after US-550
Semi-Arid or Arid country, all day.
Ride over the San Luis Mesa
Ride by Cerro Cuate, Rabbits and Birds
Find water and top off at a BLM Well (they're rare)
Wild Camp between BLM Well and Ojo Frio Spring
Day 1 - Cuba to Wild Camp near Ojo Frio Spring
Above: "Crows and long shadows greeted us this morning".
Above: This was our first crossing of the Rio Puerco; it does have some water here. We will ride parallel to the Rio Puerco (Pig River, named for the Wild Javelina in this area) for most of the morning but a mile or two away.
Above Left: We just turned right (SW) from US-550 onto CR-1102.
Above Right: We will generally head southwest on the same hard dirt road all day, but the counties change once or twice a day and the road becomes unnamed.
Above Left: Nice road.
Above Right: Time to double check the map and our position.
Above Left: Beetle.
Above Right: Rain Wash.
Above: The bain of all cyclists, Goat Head Spurs, tens of thousands of them.
Above Left: Good road.
Above Right: Two big millipedes made the line tracks. I see a possible Deer or Antelope track and perhaps a mix of mouse and bird tracks - It's sort of a busy area.
Above Left: A variety of sun flower.
Above Right: Bad road, sand.
Above Left: A rain wash, probably a week old.
Above Right: Purple daisies and the only butterfly around found them.
Above Left: Cholla Cactus still in bloom in October.
Above Right: Rugged country.
Above: I believe that we were on Mesa San Louis looking south or southeast toward the Rio Puerco River Valley.
Above Left: Water - we're always remembering where we last saw water.
Above Right: When we ride at the base of hills, mesas, or mountains the road was always firm.
Above Left: I believe that is Cabezon Peak (Head [looking] Peak) and Cerro Cuate (Mount/Mountain Buddy).
Above Right: Ignored Erosion over time (This was not new erosion).
Above: We get to ride on a paved road for about 4 miles; it is an Oil/Gas Pipeline Service Road. We will turn right just before we run into Rio Puerco.
Above Left: Still on the Pipeline Road.
Above Right: We turned off toward Ojo Frio Spring.
Above Left: Cabezon Peak.
Above Right: Cabezon Peak puts us at the 32.6 mile map point from Cuba.
Above Left: Terrain transition.
Above Right: Suddenly we have transitioned from Semi-Arid to Arid terrain.
Above Left: Arid Terrain...
Above Right: ... And back to Semi-Arid Terrain. We were approaching the Rio Puerco again (higher level water table).
Above Left: We entered BLM land. We were within a mile of a BLM Water Well with public access.
Above Right: The Artesian Well is at the top of this ridge (work work work).
Above Left: The well's faucet.
Above Right: The 10 Liter Water Bladder was full (on top pf the rear rack) and all 7 of the 1 Liter water bottles were full. I calculated the weight once at 45 pounds of water with a full load of water. We will be looking for a place to camp at this point. There was a notice that states No Camping at the well site.
Above: We rode about a mile to find a nice piece of earth to camp upon (for a wild camp).
Above: We camped at the top of a hill that had cedar trees and the camp had been used before us. We had a good camp setup and everything went splendidly. We slept well this night.
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