It would have been a good night’s sleep if it wasn’t for loud music coming from cars parked nearby, a crying baby in the room next door and a touch of food poisoning that had my up much of the night.
It wasn’t the best start to the day from a bike perspective either. My new rear tyre and a new inner tube, flat.
As I’m getting quite good at replacing inner tubes through the practice over the past two days the rear tyre was off in a flash.
There was no sign of anything that could have caused the hole on the tyre, but sure enough, there was a pinprick of a hole in the inner tube. With a new inner tube in and the wheel back on we packed while eating a hearty breakfast of cookies and yoghurt.
We check out of the hotel, only for Deborah to realise she had a flat before we even left the car park. Deborah’s first flat… EVER!
Two inner tubes later and a need to have a puncture repair workshop tonight scheduled we were off.
The plan was for a reasonably short day of 45 miles to a campground outside of Albuquerque, following the Turquoise Trail off Route 66, as suggested by the Adventure Cycle Association. To follow Route 66 would mean 30+ miles of cycling on the hard shoulder of the I-25, which would be no fun.
With only one town, Madrid, and a couple of service stations on the route we were loaded down on water to see us through to Cedar Crest.
The sun was out and the day was warm. After navigating our way out of Santa Fe, which was all downhill, losing some of the altitudes that we have gained on the past couple of days, Santa Fe being 1.4 miles (2.2 km) above sea level.
The enjoyment of downhill without wind pushing us back up was short-lived, with the first ascent of the day.
While none of the ascents were extremely steep, they were long, some going on for up for 5+ miles. This was then rewarded with a long downhill, followed by another long downhill… and repeat.
The scenery throughout the day was spectacular, which I will leave to the photos to demonstrate as best a photo can.
There seemed to be a lot of driving up and down the Turquoise Trail today, making the road relatively busy when including the local traffic too. We were stopping on a regular basis, either at the scenic pull-offs or just at the side of the road, but appeared to be the only ones doing so, as we recognised plenty of cars and motorcycles heading south, then coming back north in a matter of an hour or so.
We did meet a couple of young ladies, AlHonda and Pat, on holiday from Texas, doing the full trail and actually stopping. In fact, they were stopping so much we met them several times during the day as we plodded overtaking them.
The single town of Madrid we passed through didn’t seem to have a store for Deborah to get her brain freezer for the day but seemed instead consist entirely of shops selling handmade crafts, everything from pots to jewellery to stained glass windows.
Travel the scenic Turquoise Trail and experience the village of Madrid nestled in a narrow canyon in the Ortiz Mountains. Once a historic coal mining town and ghost town, Madrid is now a creative community with over 40 shops and galleries, several restaurants, a spa and museum. A couple miles north is the quaint village Cerrillois that includes a state park with hiking paths and horseback riding.
The town folk fail to list the freak show tent on their website, which seemed a little out of place, but I guess everyone needs to make a living somehow.
About 15 miles from our destination for the night Deborah spotted she had another flat tyre… her second EVER!
Rather than replace the inner tube we pumped in air, which give us about three miles. Another pump up to maximum pressure give us 5 miles, then another got us to the campsite.
A big white pickup truck passed us at speed just as we were cycling off the main road onto a dirt track, kicking dust into the air making it difficult to see the road or even breath.
We were welcomed by Jane at reception and had the paperwork ready waiting for us. She explained she had seen us coming up and off the road after dropping her daughter off at a friends house and assumed we would be staying at the campsite, so prepared the paperwork in advance. Yes, there s a big white pickup parked outside.
We had the choice of the entire tent campground to ourselves, so selected a spot close to the toilet block, pitching up on a flat gravel plot.
By the time we had set up our site for the night and chilled for a while it was already getting dark. As there was nowhere to eat within walking distance diner was the dried pasta meals we had bought a few days ago. I must admit they didn’t look that great, but they hit the spot.
With a choice of a shower or a puncture repair workshop we opted for the latter, preferring to go to bed in the knowledge we would be setting off tomorrow with enough inner tubed to deal with anything New Mexico’s cacti population can throw at us, literally.
Five patches and one discarded inner tube later we settled down for the night after another session of night sky gazing.
We are in confirmed bear country now but were assured the campsite warden that the bears would check out the dumpster before the tents, so we have nothing to worry about! 🐻
The local dogs do seem to have some sort of distributed choir practice going on at the moment, so hoping that isn’t going to go on for too much longer!
I have been wondering when the tires or tubes would give out. Given your safety concerns I earlier thought you’d opt for me tires and tubes before the trip. And, having lived in CO with “goat heads” I’d consider tubeless tires.
I had a sleepless night which involved doing this ride. Think I’ll do it in a couple of years. Leave some marks so we can connect.
Hope you like Santa Fe. It’s an unusual but special place .
And, no repairs to deal with. I need a class. Rear tires are daunting to me.
We did 1600 miles last year without a problem, but I guess the UK doesn’t have so many spiky things out to get you. My new Schwalbe Marathon Plus are about as good a tyre you can by for a bike tour (with inner tube), so hoping for no more problems now.
Our wheel rims are built for touring, ie. 40 spokes on the rear and a USB charging hub on the front. As they can’t take tubeless, the expense of going tubless was never a consideration. I also understand that while they reduce the risk of a flat, if you do experience on its a pain to fix it.
Santa Fe was great. Felt a little like the Bay Area to be honest, but I’m sure there us much more to the place than we saw.
Route 66 is special, but is hard work. There are a few others that I would like to do too, such as the TransAm and the Northern Tier. Intetesting you are going to do it too… everyone should!! 😁
We are learning bike maintenance as we go… no worries, just new challenges. That goodness for Google and YouTube!!