• Day 3:
• I (Dennis) tried to hitchhike back to our Transport Vehicle, but with no luck. There were only two vehicles all day. One vehicle was only going 6 miles (to the home of the people inside the vehicle), they did offer to take me that far, I declined. They apologized for not being able to help me. The other vehicle's driver saw me and deliberately accelerated and exaggeratedly steered away from me (an older man, by himself, in an empty green 4x4 pickup truck). I would see him coming back the next day, I distinctly saw 'Disdain' in his face (again). At 1430, I walked back to our temporary camp.
• DECISION: We had decided to unload everything not needed, pack everything into the tent, and pedal back to the Transport Vehicle on the next day, in a long one day ride.
• Night 3:
• In the middle of the night, we woke up to a diesel truck motor and a spot light on our tent (we were on National Forest property). I opened the zippered door a crack. A man by the name of Bill King introduced himself, asked if we were OK, and then asked if we were the one's that broke into a house of his and stole some food. We said that we were not OK and that we did not break into his house. He then told us to see Jack Diamond and explained some details about maybe getting a ride. He added that he had some break-ins before and that he suspected field hands at a nearby ranch but it was reported that my wife (Terry) was seen walking by his property - she went for a walk while I was trying to hitchhike. [He had to check it out, but I think that both of us could read the trail sign on that issue - Terry's foot prints clearly never left the road].

Above Left: Our campsite, we're next to the road but there is virtually no traffic. The ground is too sandy to support a bicycle kickstand.

Above Right: Our Food, Hygiene, Pharmacy and Medical supplies (anything with a scent) is stored in our Bear Vault.

Above Left: A picture of our burned out canister bottle, it completely discharged all of its propane - This is NOT the Problem.

Our Problem is that 'We are Running Out of Food'. We are traveling so slow that we will not reach our food re-supply point before running out of food. I have to go back to the Transport Vehicle (which has the food for our second travel-leg).

Above Right: That is Terry returning back to camp on the tandem. I have been dropped off at the intersection of Hwy 59 and NF 150. I will try to hitch a ride back to Hwy 35.

Above: As I try to hitch a ride, I watch a Vaquero round up some cattle form the breaks; he's moving the cattle to another pasture. I get to watch this for about 6 hours.

Above: At about 1400 hrs, having only seen 2 vehicles, I realized that no more vehicles were going to come by today, I walked back to our camp. Earlier, one vehicle stopped but was only going a few miles; the other vehicle's driver would not have stopped if I were on fire.

Decision: We will have to bike out vehicle, we have no choice; our fate is in our hands. I feel that if we can get closer to Hwy 35 (50 miles back, where our Transport Vehicle is parked) then our odds of meeting a helpful vehicle driver may increase (and that is how things will turn out).

Later: Terry agrees. We decide to leave the trailer and all extra supplies at the camp. We have made our bike supper light, we even left 2 of our 4 panniers at camp (we put everything inside the tent).

Day 4 - We Decided to Go Back 50 Miles to our Transport Vehicle

• Day 4:
• We went to Jack Diamond's Ranch House (as in the Bar Diamond Ranch HQ). Ranch hands told us that he would not be in for 2 more hours. We decided to start pedaling; it was a good call because we would only see one vehicle all day.
• We had traveled about 35 miles, backtracking our previous route; we were heading back toward our Transport Vehicle. BTW, it was a lot easier pedaling in the opposite direction, the slopes were gentler. Meanwhile, Terry heard the one and only vehicle before I heard it (she has much better hearing, the cost of having been a helicopter pilot). It turned out to be Bob and Jim (the same guys that found and returned our water bottle 3 days earlier). We asked them if they could give Terry a ride to the end of the dirt road (where our transport vehicle was parked). They said sure, but they expressed that they could probably take both of us and the bicycle too. We agreed to the latter choice, they rearranged their packs and gear and tied in our bicycle with cordage that they had picked up as trash on one of their hikes. I had a flash of 'This was no coincidence that they found and picked up just enough rope to save our Keisters, the other side is at work'. Bob and Jim saved our fannies again, they drove us and our bike to our transport vehicle. We thanked Bob and Jim and we thanked our Travel Spirits.
• After loading our bike onto our transport vehicle, we then drove to Silver City to buy a new stove (we were OK for food and we were OK for water). Our immediate destination was the combination Cycling and Camping Store. Unfortunately, it had closed about two minutes before our arrival. We had just seen people riding away on bicycles earlier but we did not realize what was happening at that time. We, then, went to Wal-Mart and bought the smallest camp stove and fuel bottle that they had, a 16 oz propane fuel bottle (about the size of a 2L Coke Bottle) and a burner (about the size of Grandma's Prize Iron Skillet) - We had no choice.
• Night 4:
• We spent the night at an Inn near Lake Roberts and avoided a long night's dangerous drive.
• Driving by automobile is still a slow moving process and it's still problematic in the rough and hilly terrain.

Above Left: Pea Fowl in a tree (Peacocks and Peahens - they are effective as watch dogs).

At the suggestion of Bill King, we are at Jack Diamond's Ranch Compound at 0630 hrs; we were even told which house to go. However, on this day, the proprietor would not be in until 0800 hrs (1.5 hours from now).

Decision: We decided to start biking, too many things can go wrong and we have a long ways to go. The decision turned out to be the correct decision, only one vehicle traveled down NF 150 on this day and it was not a ranch vehicle. Our friends Jim and Bob would show up (much later).

Above Right: By 0930 hrs we pass by the water at Wall Creek. We do not need to supplement our water load.

Above: The big view on one of the topouts. We have already figured out that the travel terrain favors southbound traffic more favorably than northbound traffic (gentler slope angles); this helps our speed as well as us being light weight.

Above: Elk Herd at the south end of the Wall Canyon's Valley.

Above: The topout just before entering Black Canyon.

Above Left: We mix some Gatorade.

Above Right: Entering Black Canyon at about 1120 hrs.

Above Left: Interesting Grass Lay Pattern which probably resulted from snow pack.

Above Right: Wild Turkey.

Rescue: Shortly after taking these pictures, who other than Bob and Jim show up in their Toyota Pickup and they offer to take us and our bike to Hwy 35.

Thank You Bob and Jim!

Above: On our drive out we see these deer when overlooking Lake Roberts.

Above Left: Deer.

Above Right: Overlooking the town of Lake Roberts at Sunset.

We Drove to Silver City: We already had extra food in the vehicle. We drove to town to buy a camping gas stove or two. We arrived at the Camping Store 2 minutes after closing time. The owners had already departed. We then drove to Wal-Mart (open 24 hrs) and bought their one and only non-backpacking stove choice with a burner the size of a skillet and a propane bottle the size of a 2 liter soda bottle - it would suffice. We topped off the vehicle fuel tank and then found an Inn near Lake Roberts (Spirit Canyon Lodge - a wonderful place). Thus a tumultuous day ended with NO further stress, we had a good night's sleep.

Day 5 - Pack-Up our Camp, Drive to Valle Tio Vinces NF Campground (on the GDMBR)

• Day 5:
• We drove our Transport Vehicle, Bike, and Transport Trailer to our Camp (near Baeverhead) and packed up our camp and made ready for Bicycle Touring.
• We had a Flat Tire on the Transport Vehicle. We now carry two spare tires. The flat tire was easily replaced. We kept with the New Plan B and drove to 'Valle Tio Vinces'.
• PROBLEM: Our Shuttle Vehicle (a motorcycle) was still 140 miles away (in Pie Town) and we now only had one additional day for Bicycle Touring - There was no way that we could pedal 140 miles in a day.
• DECISION: We decided to drive the Transport Vehicle to a Camp near the Continental Divide Pass #23 which is called 'Valle Tio Vinces' NF Campground, thus leaving us with 30 Miles to Mountain Bike and end this Travel Leg where our Transport Vehicle awaited us. Any other Decision Conclusion would involve more logistical shuffling and we only had about a 4 Hour window remaining to act on any Decision Choice.
• 'Valle Tio Vinces' Campground was a dry camp but we still enough water from our Beaverhead water fill-up (including about 1 Gallon in a 2 Gallon Bladder); we have plenty water.
• Night 5:
  • We camped and serviced the bicycle with no incident, but somewhere in the past few days, we bent the port-side stoker crank inward just enough to hit the port-side chain stay. I adjusted the concentric (crank bearing assembly) about 3 mm to the outside in order for the pedal to clear the port side chain stay (easy-peasy fix). That would suffice as a field solution.

Above Left: We setup camp.

Above Right: Zee Doktor ist in good spirits.

Above Left: A major bike cleanup and servicing is about to take place.

Above Right: We go for a walk at Valle Tio Vinces Campground. The road surface is awful but it is only in the local area that the road has been re-conditioned from winter damage. See the sign for the Spring, we head in that direction.

Above Left: An old water tank is no longer serviceable.

Above Right: The Spring is Capped but no water is running. The hose from this spring goes to one or two horse trough tanks back at our campsite, about 400 yards/meters away.

Above Left: We see Wild Turkey.

Above Right: We see a bone yard (a deer kill site).

Thus Ends Bicycle Adventure #45. Because we drove and skipped about 70 miles (112 k) of the GDMBR, we are listing the next GDMBR Segment as Bicycle Adventure #46. We will complete the passed-over segment at a later date.