BIKEPACKING w/Jerry
Accident and part of The Continental Divide Trail
NEW Rig
Accident and part of The Continental Divide Trail
First bikepacking rig that was eventually destroyed when I was run over by a Jeep on 9/12/13
9/12/13, 4:00 am, the guy broadsided me then drove across 6 lanes on Oracle Rd before stopping. He only stopped then because my bike was trapped under his Jeep.
- Bike - Niner RIP 9, XTR/XT/X0, 120mm, 2x9, platform pedals
- Bags - Revelate Designs and Nuclear Sunrise Stitchworks (seat, tank, sweetroll, 2xfeed), backpack
- Electronics - Garmin eTrex GPS, iPhone, Mophie brick, SPOT tracker
- Camping Gear - 30 degree down Mummy bag, tarp/tent/bug netting (depends), pad (nice air pad or car sunshade), Titanium cup, purification tablets, medical kit
- Bike repair/maintenance - tubes, pump, lube, multi-tool, patch kit, Gorilla tape, fiber spokes
- Hydration - 4x24 oz bottles, 100 oz bladder
- Food - depends, but lots of it :-)
Continental Divide Trail - Pie Town, NM
Aug 2-6, 2013
My brother, Tom and his wife, Janet, dropped me off at their cabin about 25 miles outside of Quemado, NW around 10:00 on August 3rd. From there I rode into Pie Town and stopped for a slice of terrific pie before heading down the Continental Divide Trail toward Silver City, NM.
Never made it, blew out a tire and had to detour through Apache Creek, Reserve and then Glenwood where my brother picked me up on his way back to Tucson.
Teva's were terrific for wet weather riding.
Rained for 3 days straight, sometimes pretty hard. Probably should have tried this in June, not in August. The Pie-O-Neer in Pie Town is a regular stop for those doing the Continental Divide Trail, especially those riders on the Tour Divide Race.
Heading south from Pie Town the FS road is well maintained with some large ranches and an occasional abandoned building like the stone church. Notice the clouds, it rained off and on for 3 days.
Camped, Aug 3, in a beautiful, wet forest with virtually no one within 15 miles. Stormy, dark, creepy and wet. Woke up very early, 1:00 am, and decided to jump on the bike and ride out of the forest. This turned out to be a large mistake.
Cut a sidewall, stopped to boot it and put in a tube but . . . . . broke BOTH of my tire levers and couldn't get the tire off to boot and fix. Damn, 15 miles away from anything, tire that wouldn't hold air (longer than 2-3 minutes), rain, wet, cold, dark . . . . . sucked big time.
Pump up the tire, ride 3 minutes, pump up the tire, ride 3 minutes, pump . . . . you get the picture.
After around 5 miles of this I heard a rumble and felt a vibration. A large herd of Elk ran right in front of me, scared me more than half to death. I'm thinking "humm, what would make them all run like that?" You can imagine what was going through my little pee brain.
Eventually limped into Apache Creek and it's only building (general store). Of course it isn't open at 5:00 am and probably wouldn't have had anything I could have used to get my damn tire off anyway.
Pump, ride 3 minutes, pump, ride 3 minutes . . . . .
Finally make it to Reserve, NM, find an open place for breakfast and also get some much needed help with my tire. Used a couple of kitchen knives to get the tire off, boot it and put in a tube. Good to go!
By now my original plans are shot. Decide to just ride to Glenwood and have my brother pick me up on his way back to Tucson.
As it turned out, Glenwood, NM is a pretty cool place.
Very cool Trout Hatchery in Glenwood with a friendly staff.
Most impressive part of Glenwood is the CATWALK. Fabulous canyon with all kinds of catwalks over the stream. Very narrow, steep sides and beautiful. Problem is that the place is/was closed due to flooding.
No problem for a mountain bike, just rode around it and had the place to myself.
Another bonus was finding a bar in Glenwood. Definitely locals only but buying a round loosened things up considerably. Cowboys, loggers, ranch hands and me with my bike.
By the time my brother picked me up, I was on a first name basis with all the folks:-)
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