It ended up being a peaceful night despite thoughts of us being caught trespassing on private property. Our tents were well hidden, and it looked like the locked fence had been that way for a while now. We took our time packing up, letting the morning sun help dry our tents, and eating some breakfast. There was a lone bull in our pasture who let us know that we were on his domain. Lots of grunts and strange sounds, but in the end he just moved on to the other side of the hill.
Our illegal hideout
We rode down to the locked gate, lifted our bikes over the chain, and were back on the road, but this time it was sunny and pleasant out. We rode up the big hill only to discover a parking area to the side of the road with some lovely picnic tables that were covered, and garbage cans too! Wow, had we only gone a little further up the hill yesterday, we would have avoided all the hassles and worries. It has been very rare to have had something like this on the route so far, and we certainly would not have expected it in New Mexico. It was situated on a nice bluff overlooking the valley way down below where we ultimately be later in the day. We at least got rid of the garbage we had accumulated and put it in the trash cans.
Valley below
It didn’t take us long before we were on the glorious downhill into the valley. This downhill had a nice easy grade that let us coast down for at least 10 miles without needing to use our brakes. Those are the best downhills in my opinion. The scenery changed from pine trees to more scrub oaks as we got further down. It was a very pleasant scenery with some occasional ranches along the way. It sure started to make up for yesterday. The route we were on was an alternate one in the event of rain and that PB mud, which we were sure still would be there.
We eventually coasted into the town of Tierra Amarilla. We went to the center of town, but there were only clean and new looking local government buildings. No people around and no place to buy anything either. Strange.. We rode down the road a bit further and there were mainly abandoned houses, and maybe some that used to be small stores or restaurants. We did see a lady in her sleeping gown outside her house watering some plants. We spoke to her for a while and asked where we could buy some groceries. She was super nice and pointed us towards the Family Dollar store, which apparently is the only store in town. That seems to be more common with small towns these days.
We got most of what we needed at that store, but it was very disappointing that they didn’t carry any fresh food, only packaged stuff that wasn’t the most healthy items. Ok maybe if you are like us on a long distance bicycle trip, but certainly not for the average person. I guess this town would qualify as a “Food Desert”.
The next stretch of road south towards Abiquiu, had very little to no shoulder for us to ride on. I took the rear, put on my flashing light, and kept a close eye on my rearview mirror. Luckily there wasn’t too much traffic out, but still not the safest roads for bicycles. The drivers here were good to wait until it was safe to pass, and we acknowledged their good deeds with lots of waves. We got some friendly honks and waves back. The road did have a much wider shoulder a few miles up, and we could relax a bit.
We came up to a Forest service sightseeing attraction after a while and pulled in to see what it was all about. There were these amazing sandstone cliffs with a large concave amphitheater called the Echo wall. Very nice layout that included lots of picnic tables, restrooms, and fresh water taps. Perfect for us since it was lunchtime. Apparently they have folks come into the Amphitheater with their instruments and play some music. There wasn’t too much a guy there playing his bongo drum that sounded amazing. A very nice cultural stop that we often don’t have on the route.
Amphitheater
Our destination today was the campground just 9 miles short of the town of Abiquiu where Georgia O’Keeffe had her home and studio. It would have been a nice visit, but it was also 18 miles off route for us and we were getting tired. We pulled into the campground which sits above lake Abiquiu as a man made reservoir. The camp host was super nice and an apparent expert on hummingbirds. She had a few feeders out and you could watch the birds chase each other around to protect their space. Very territorial and amazing birds that migrate thousands of miles each year.
Lake Abiquiu
No comments:
Post a Comment