Stopped at the Bike Ranch in Hachita to see our good friend Jeff and get a couple of hours of sleep. Up at 3:30 am to eat something quick, drink some OJ and drive to Antelope Wells. When we got there right at 5am John M was walking his bike to the chain link fence in front of the Border Station.
Lined up quickly and rolled out. It was actually a little chilly, had my base layer on. John and I talked for a few minutes and I could sense he was a lot faster than me, so I dropped back and he gapped me by quite a bit .. then I needed to stop for a quick break and I didn't see him again.
As Gus who left at midnight said "the first 80 miles were great" ... I think I got to Separ better than ever before, I felt strong, wasn't winded. I got some drinks and sat on the porch with them, then got a bag of ice and iced up my Camelback and my bottles.
Started rolling to Thorn Ranch and that went well, then made that left turn off Gage Road and things got slow ... a headwind with about 100 degrees behind it just drained me. I stopped at a yucca tree for some shade, but that didn't help much. Used a couple of GU's which might have been the cause of my upset stomach later, but was able to get to highway 70.
And then the hard part started ... Gus and I met and switched places riding past the mine and on into Silver City, but we might have taken 4 hours to go 20 miles or so. It wasn't pretty. And when I got to that Chevron station the food mart was closed. Having thrown up by the mine, now I had the dry heaves.
Well, we got a mile down and found an open conv store and went our separate ways to find hotels for the night.
On Saturday morning I got up, hit Denny's for breakfast and decided to go straight for it rather than rest and recuperate. I did pretty good climbing up to Pinos Altos, stopped a petted the doggie at the museum and continued on. Someplace near the top I was getting pretty tired. Hit the other side going down and Iwas feeling fried. Stopped on a downhill in the heat. Then stopped on the flatter section going towards Lake Roberts. Finally made it to the general store and got 2 Cokes and went outside to drink them.
I may have hung out for an hour and a half there, just sitting outside in what shade I could find. Got some cold waters and 2 cokes to go. Made the climbs around Lake Roberts ok and then pretty much was out of "gas" by the time I got to Sapillo campground where the CDT comes in. I took a photo of the trees in the wind ... the Wahoo said it was 105, maybe a bit higher than was it was but I was melted.
I pushed the bike up Star Road, laid down again, got to the top and camped right there. Fixed a cup of soup and felt better and decided to sleep on it.
Got up in the morning and started up Star road again, and I had no energy. So I turned downhill towards Mimbres to look for food. The old Mimbres Cafe was closed, so hit San Lorenzo and waited an hour for them to open. Had a great breakfast, and then rode towards Silver City. Called home and let Susan know I was pretty much done.
I slept, sent a scratch note to Matthew. Got up this morning and went up a little hill and I was still weak. Don't know what I did maybe we'll be back to normal in a few days, but Tour Divide is done for me for this year.
