Recovery week and rude neighbors.
Well…there they go again!
I’ve talked about it before, but not every week is a great topic for a blog. Sometimes it’s like a long bikepacking trip….just turning the pedals and getting from week to week.
And so it was this week. After two substantial training weeks and coming off our Monumental Loop ride and going into the week before the Easter Holiday, it was time for the body to re-build and recover.
As a result, Ray and I did multiple early morning rides up Soledad Canyon, one on a particularly windy (horribly, insanely, crappy wind!!) morning with training partner #3 shouting in our faces! Still, miles and days all count toward training.
With Ray and Lauren out of town for some well-deserved rest, I decided to meet up with Dave Rutledge early Saturday for some extra miles before we met up with our ZiaVelo Cycling team ladies and guys. It has been over a year since I have ridden with a group due to COVID restrictions (many of which are still in place and still looming over group events). That said, it was so incredibly gratifying to be riding with this group of folks again. It’s as if normalcy is peeking out of the dark days of COVID. I can’t wait!!!
This brings us to Saturday afternoon.
After first meeting up with a bunch of local MTBers and heading to ride some El Paso trails, Lola returned and suggested that we spend Saturday night out bikepacking!!
We finally got on the bikes and headed out the door about 6PM. One of the BEAUTIFUL things about living in Las Cruces is the almost instantaneous access to the outdoors!
We decided to head up to the Organ Mountain Desert Peaks (OMDP) National Monument south off Dripping Springs road. After about an hour of riding, we found a small, smooth, and flat depression in an otherwise rocky arroyo and set up our tent. Lola was kind enough to carry a few “adult beverages” for our evening. It was an absolutely beautiful night to hang out with her and just relax in the dead quiet that is the desert…..quiet that is, until we went into the tent!!
Throughout the night we had horribly noisy and rude neighbors making a racket. The noises left us both unable to sleep, particularly as they came over to our camp and started loudly conversing as they surrounded our tent. RUDE!!! It was only after Lola turned on her phone and played music that they finally stopped for a bit. Apparently “Eye of the Tiger” was enough to make them quiet down!!!
Did I forget to mention that our neighbors were a huge pack of COYOTES?!?!? Now we’re used to hearing groups (packs?) of coyotes, even in our relatively “in-the-city” neighborhood. But this was something else entirely. I never got perturbed enough to actually go out of the tent, but based on the noises, it seemed like they were about 15-20 feet from, and surrounding, the tent and howling, yipping, and making a general nuisance of themselves for a couple hours, on and off. In spite of the noise, it was really cool to just sit and listen to the critters that own the desert, while we as visitors just wander through occasionally. By morning light, they were long gone and only the memory remains.
A quick cup of coffee and we were packed up and back home after a quick 45 minute ride. Awesome.
We got some away time and a bit of camp set-up practice for the Tour Divide. Priceless.
Ride on!
Shane and Ray
