Mon Sept. 5, 2016
Start - ~7871'
High pt 7871'
Lo pt 6600'
End Elv ~6600'
Climbing 1800' according to Google Maps
Miles ~43
Total time 5:00
Ride time 4:15
Day with BOB 33
Day 2 of my paved detour. I work up early to rain, again.... I have an easy day, so I roll over and go back to sleep. Besides, I checked my food into the office since I can't hang it here to prevent animal predation on my maple oatmeal and PB, and they don't open until 9 am.
I have a bagel and coffee while finishing packing, and watching the clouds and clearings in the sky, wondering which shall win the day.
l pack up a wet tent (again), and start the ride. It is mostly grey with an irritating head wind, but the temperature is pleasant and riding is okay on a wide shoulder as I exit Chama. On pavement with net downhill, the miles add up quickly.
After I ride several miles, it is clear the blue sky shall win the day in the Rio Chama Valley, but clouds will rule for a while yet in the mountains to east that hold the official off pavement route. I have made the right choice. I cruise down valley, and then start cutting over ridges and in and out of drainages, always a bit lower on the south side. The mountains become more mesa like, and the trees change from ponderosa to pinon, juniper and scrub oak. I can see evidence of summer is starting to loosing it grasp, as a few oaks are starting to fade and change color. The aspens showed a bit of this yesterday up higher, but only one branch yet on but a scattered few trees.
I reach the last long climb over a ridge and begin the long downhill toward the campground. The landforms are changing, rincons and cliffs manifest as guides to the highway. I stop at a little local roadside shrine to the Virgin Maria. A poingent space, and a manifestation of the old and deeply held culture in these lands.
As I am coasting down the 8 miles descent to the campground, I notice a new and unhappy noise eminating from my bike. It is the cadence of the turning tire. I stop several times to investigate. I think it is from my rear but will wait until camp to investigate. In camp, I diagnose it as my free wheel, but am not sure. If so, this is not field repairable, and I am heading into bike shop no mans land. Fortunately, tomorrow I am meeting Glenda for a few days, and it looks like one of those will be a trip to a bike shop in Taos or Santa Fe, as a field failure could leave me stranded.
Sooo, maybe the rain gods were doing me a favor, keeping from being deep in the backcountry with this issues....
The cliffs at the Echo Ampitheater CG are gorge-ous and the Ampitheater it does indeed collect and redirect sound. The little hidden vale it is in is a wetter micro-climate as well, with larger trees providing shade and an intimate retreat from the openness of the drier, sparser lands just a short walk away.
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