Tour of Northern NM tiny towns!

Waking up up at Hopewell Lake, there was something different about being on home turf!

One similarity to the other days on the Tour Dive was that morning was once again fresh and humid, and our tents wet!

Our objective for today was to ride to a location past the tribal lands outside of Abiquiu, NM, and in the National Forest lands, where we could set up a camp for the night.

Departing Hopewell Lake, we were refreshed ready, as we started the almost entirely downhill stretch that would see us pass through several small, and historic, New Mexico towns in the northern part of the state.

Our first destination of the day was the town of Canyon Plaza.

Canyon plaza is not much more than a small collection of homes on the side of the road, not far from the original Tierra Amarilla Land Grant. It is however know to every Tour Divide rider! More on that in a bit.

The early part of the day was more a conversation than a ride, as we effortlessly rolled down a fairly good dirt road that wandered out of the high altitude mixed conifer country that surrounds Hopewell Lake, and into the canyons approaching Canyon Plaza.

As I said, Canyon Plaza is known by every GDMBR rider or racer, as it is home to the Summer Store, owned and operated by Sylvia Gururle and her husband. As we pulled up to the store, we were immediatly greeted with the Sylvia’s friendly face. The store is housed in about a 10’X10’ metal building, it’s wall lined with every type of food a hungry bikepacker could ask for. Cold drinks of every type (except beer of course), candy bars, chips, energy bars, pickles, beef sticks, Ramen, and yes, even Vienna Sausages! (plus many more item types!)

We went inside and soon had picked out about 5-6 items each. We asked Sylvia if we could sit inside and snack. She was gracious and accommodating. As we sat there speaking with Sylvia, we learned of her family and their history. We also had the opportunity to share. She seemed genuinely interested in us and our lives. Sylvia keeps of registry of everybody that visits her store and requested that we sign it.

She is a perfect example of why the Tour Divide is such an interesting and rewarding experience.

Ray and I have spoken often on the trip about what is important to us in the journey. Oee particular thing for each of us is not only riding the GDMBR, but engaging with folks we meet along the way. Speaking with Sylvia was easy and provided insights into not only the TD, but to those that support it and appreciate the folks that take on the challenge of the GDMBR.

After a longer stop than we were anticipating, we were back tp riding, headed down a short paved section of road for the small Northern New Mexico town of Vallecitos.

Once again, Vallecitos is not much more that a collection of adobe and tin buildings on the side of road. We had been warned to watch for loose dogs in the small village, but aw we turned off highway 111, and onto a dirt forest road, we were apparently able to avoid being detected and went through unmolested.

Our next destination was El Rito, NM.

After about 2 hours of riding on rough NM road, now having descended almost 2,600’ from Hopewell, the air was warming up and had gotten down right miserable. The final stretch into El Rito was sandy and wash-boarded as we continued losing altitude.

We finally made a right hand turn onto a paved road and after about 1/4 of a mile, found ourselves looking for a general store. We found it.

We entered the store and we greeted with a friendly “hello!” Now, anybody that has spent any time in the small and remote towns of northern New Mexico, and understand the history of the area, knows that these areas have been inhabited by Native Americans forever, and by Spanish settlers since the late 1500’s. They have their own way of doing things and can sometimes seem cold and unwelcoming. Nothing of the sort was seen here!

We wandered about the small grocery/convenience store, housed in a building that looked to be at least 100 years old, and found the items we needed. We paid for our items and went back outside into the building summer heat.

We decided that a seemingly seldom used and dead end driveway across the road from the store would be a good place to sit, so we rolled over and sat in the shade of an elm tree to have lunch. As we sat there enjoying or snacks, I was suddenly jolted out of my food induced trance by Ray yelling “Holy Shit”, or something to that affect.

As he was sitting there eating, he was startled by a huge snake SPRINTING directly towards him!! (Not sure if sprinting is the correct word, but slithering at an extremely high pace just doesn't seem to convey the speed of the thing!) The snake, the type of which at this point was yet undefined, got within about two feet of him before it detoured and went directly behind him and past me. It was soon identified as a red colored racer, a non-venomous variety of snake that could only kill you by causing a heart attack when it startles you!! Well, we were awake now!!

Our exciting lunch having new been abruptly ended, we were soon back on the bikes and pedaling towards Abiquiu, NM.

The road to Abiquiu on NM 554 is completely downhill. We also had a significant tail pressure differential, so the 15 miles toward the turn off to the town flew by. The only thing that was detrimental at this point was the oppressive heat. As we go to the turn off, we sat in the shade of a tree as an abandoned liquor store and tried to figure out what our plan for the remainder of the day was. We had gone about 60 fairly easy, and downhill miles, but we were, for some reason, cooked. Maybe it was the previous day’s effort.

We decided that trying to get past the Native lands outside of Abiquiu might be more than we wanted to bite off. If we could find a place in Abiquiu, we would take an easy day. Soon we were rolling up the Abiquiu Inn and arranging a room for the night.

We did our laundry, took showers, had a relaxing meal, and prepared ourselves for a LONG day tomorrow. We’ll immediately have a big climb to tackle, so we’ll take the opportunity tonight to rest and recover before an early rise tomorrow and more New Mexico fun.

We’re South bound and down!

Shane and Ray