Day 45- Lake Lagunitas (New Mexico)

This was one of the first days where I decided to begin the ride with others. Sean, Hamish, Jess and I left Platoro and followed the beautiful Conejos River downstream. Another beautiful morning, and it would start off with a glorious downhill section along the river. I think this would be a beautiful place to visit when the Aspen trees change color.



We stopped on the small town of Horca to pickup some more food supplies for the more remote days ahead in New Mexico. The only store had some limited supplies, and no chocolate milk! The shop owner took note of that and promised to have more of that important drink for future GDMBR riders. They did however have homemade Amish banana nut bread, so I bought a whole loaf to take along. Interesting that there seems to be an influx of Amish in the area..

The route out of Horca took a much steeper uphill for a while. The temperature had also risen quite a bit and the sun was burning away. Part of it was that we were at a lower elevation, and getting closer to New Mexico. The land of enchantment and unknowns to most of us. Finally the route got off the pavement and onto a dusty dirt road leading into the Carson National Forest. There were signs posted about a wedding further on, and we saw many nice cars/SUVs get dusted going in that direction. I thought it was an interesting place to hold a wedding. Maybe the invitation stated that 4x4’s and dust friendly attire was recommended. We never saw where the wedding took place, otherwise we might have dropped in for some wedding cake. 🥳

We did eventually get official notification that we had crossed into New Mexico. Let the fun begin.. It was still hot and dusty, so mud never entered our minds at this stage. The route did get progressively more challenging, to the point where we all had to hike-a-bike up a steep, loose rocky climb. Dirty Dan had warned me about this one. It took a while to get to a place where we could pedal again.

We were close to the campground when a couple of new riders caught up to us. They were going at a pretty good pace and they were also planning to camp at the same place. When we arrived at the campground, Sean was already there and directed us to our spots. There was nobody else there other than the couple that just passed us. We set up our tents and started our dinners. Hamish and Jess have a much more organized (and healthy) meal setup with many pots and ingredients. Mine is very simple (and not healthy) for the most part. Ok, I will try to eat at least a fruit a day.

The other couple dropped by our site to say hi. Turns out they are Dutch, and are both teachers at the University of Groningen. Nice!

Anna & Geert from Groningen

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