Day 18: Taos to Raton

Today we left the mountains and entered the high plains. The ride can be summarized by the quote "It was the best of times and the worst of times". The first 50 miles of the 94 mile ride was the best of times. We headed out of Taos on Highway 64 East and soon began a long, but not overly steep, climb through beautiful early morning mountain scenery. After reaching the top of the pass at 9100 feet we had a steep 5 mile descent into a broad valley which we pedaled through for another 10 miles. After another short, but steep, climb we began the 20 best miles of biking I have ever experienced as we descended through the Cimarron Canyon. The descent is gradual enough that you can coast at 20mph without braking or maintain 25mph with some easy pedaling - I did a mix of both. The road was heavily wooded on both sides providing a wonderful display of fall colors made even better by the stream that flowed along side the road the entire way. We exited the canyon at the Cimarron Canyon Historic pullout where we had lunch and raved about the first 50 miles of our day.

Things started changing for the worse when we passed through the town of Cimarron and Highway 64 turned towards the northeast following the old Santa Fe Trail. The gusty winds we had experienced when descending through the canyon suddenly turned into steady 25-30mph winds from - you guessed it - the north-northeast. We battled the wind all the way to our hotel - draining every bit of energy that I had stored up from yesterday's rest day. Even through our heads were bowed into the wind most of the time, we did see some pretty neat stuff - a big herd of buffalo and hundreds of Pronghorn Antelope. But in the end - the wind won.

The final portion of our journey was on I-25 north into the town of Raton. You might notice that I am giving more details as to the route we followed. That's because I am giving up on my Cyclemeter App and the daily tweets. It seems to get messed up almost everyday and is simply not worth the hassle. I'll try to give you enough details about each day's route that, if interested, you can easily follow my progress with a road map.

Tomorrow we begin heading across the Great Plains with a 94 mile ride to Clayton, NM. I note that our route will take us very close to Des Moines - not the real Des Moines where I grew up, but an imposter out here in New Mexico.

Steve