Mon Sept. 12, 2016
Old Abiquiu BB to Polvadera Mesa campsite
Start - ~6000'
High pt ~9900'
Lo pt. 6000'
End Elv ~9900'
Climbing ~4400'
Miles ~27.5
Total time ~8:00
Ride time 5:10
Day with BOB 38
Mesas, sand, fire, lava, and rain
Up, up, up, down, up, up, up, up, up
Day started sunny and warm as I got up early to packup under a massive old cottonwood at the B&B. Wonderful Wanda offers me very fresh and tasty coffee while I pack up, and it is most welcome. I want to hit the road for the big climb on challenging roads. It was not over sold in the guidebook as it is a relentless grinder up, up, and up. Adding to the challenge, I am carrying over 2 gallons of water, as the route follows a high ridge for most of the 2 days to Cuba. BOB has put on some weight lately and I feel that gravity is holding him back a bit more than typical.
I start out following Abiquiu Creek and twist my way to the top of a low mesa. After I leave the creek, it is the last water I see today, at least flowing in banks. Even on that mesa plateau has some stiff little sections to negotiate. This road is "all weather" gravel, and in some places I am again visualizing having my special conversation with the local road dept.
After crossing the low plateau, the national forest service road is steeper and less maintained. I am forced to my first hike a bike of the day to gain the ridge around the back side of Cerro Pelon. I am rewarded with a couple mile rocky down hill to the base of Polvadera mesa and am treated to some fine overlooks. The riding is getting a bit technical and I have to pay attention. The mesa is not flat, rather ramps upwards until it is lost in the forested flanks of its namesake peak.
So then I again start up, up, up for many miles. The road starts firm with some sand, for a while, then one strikes the lava sheets that are the bedrock of the area and of this slab of a mesa. I take numerous breaks, interspersed with sections of riding and pushing the bike up sections alternately too steep and sandy or too steep and rocky for me to negotiate with the BOB. I start having serious mental conversations about BOB'S recent weight issue. My solution? Dilution is the solution, as I drink plenty to not dehydrate.
A good portion of the road is broken slabs of lava, which are mostly rideable, but require techical negotiation, gearing and maneuvers. The going is not quick.
At one stop along the route I see the smoke from the 6 week old ground fire burning on the adjacent mesa, maybe 200 or 300 feet across the valley seperating the 2 mesas. I saw smoke from this fire yesterday and earlier last week and had been concerned. The smoke is nothing to worry about though as it light and I can hardly smell it. It is the lightning started 6 week old Cuerno fire and is burning on the ground on Mesito del Canoncito Seco and is being managed to clear out fuel and underbrush. It is clear the ponderosa forest I'm riding through had a similar healthy fire not too many year ago as well.
As I progress up and up the mesa, the clouds follow their own progression. For a while I think that they will not coalesce, bit alas, I am too optimistic. I again have to hide from the rain as lightning and thunder rumble around me at over 9,500 feet of elevation. It eventually slows down and I continue for an hour or so, desperately looking for a campsite. I find one just as the sun breaks through, with an amazing rainbow right at the site. Who am I to deny such a sign?
The site is in the open on the edge of a dell and both ends of the rainbow are on the dell. So close, so close, I could have gotten the pot o' gold!
The sun warms me as I set up camp and cook dinner, good enough to dry out much of my riding gear. But clouds to west head my way and rsin chases me into my tent after 3 beautiful hours of sunshine and warmth. It rains multiple times in the evening, but I am serenaded by a bulging elk during the breaks, and then a musical coyote, both voices enhanced by the local echos.
