Ray Johnson and Shane Cunico, Tour Divide Finishers!

From Separ, NM to Antelope Wells, NM, only about 70 miles.

That’s all we had to ride today. 70 miles. After 31 Days, almost 2450 miles, and 200,000’ of climbing, we were that close to start the day!

I don’t want to say that finishing today was a foregone conclusion, but we would have dragged our bikes 70 miles to complete this journey.

We awoke today to a beautiful morning. The skies were still milky looking and heavy with moisture after the INTENSE thunderstorm from last night. The other remnant of the storm was that the power was out at the Bowlins Continental Divide Trading Post were we had set our tents up. We noted that there was a stiff pressure differential blowing from the North and were excited at the prospect of a fast and easy ride south!!

We were mindful that Bowlins opens at 0700, and as I was blocking the front door, wanted to get up early and pack so that we were not an impediment to the store.

At about 7:10 the nice couple who run the trading post came out and informed us that the restrooms were non-functional due to the power being out, and that there was no way for them to make coffee, but the registers were working if we wanted to buy anything. After the sparse dinner (snacks and ramen) from last night, ANYTHING would be welcome food.

All three of us (Ray, Nathaniel and I) went inside and wandered around in the darkness of the store picking up items for breakfast, as well as snacks to get us to the border if the market in Hachita happened to be closed. We also each bought a souvenir Tour Divide T-Shirt!

We went outside and stuffed down some snacks and were soon on our way to Antelope Wells!

We had an 8 mile stretch of pavement on a frontage road next to I-10 (I think I may have mistakenly referred to it as I-25 in a previous post) as we headed East towards the Continental Divide marker on the highway, and finally the exit to Hachita. Due to the storm last night, there were several places where mud and water had rushed over the tarmac, so we had to navigate through those. It was a mucky, muddy mess that clogged up our nice clean drive trains (yeah right!), but eventually we made it to the turnoff south.

The miles ticked off quickly and we chatted, riding three abreast on the remote road. We were aware that two years ago, a Tour Divide rider was struck by a vehicle and killed on this road, only 50 miles from the border, so we payed close attention to oncoming cars from both directions.

After about 2 hours of riding we had arrived at the small market in Hachita. The owner, Jeff, was somewhere miles behind us! We had met him on day one of the TD, about 5 miles from the start. He was also riding the TD!! We hope he is successful in his attempt to finish.

We strolled into the store and bought Mexican cokes (sooo much better!!) a couple of breakfast burritos and some other snacks.

As I exited the store I was the first to see a car pull up! It was Lauren and her friends, driving on their way to pick up Ray at the border! The sight of friendly and familiar faces was incredible! Soon Ray came out as got to see his lady for the first time in 30+ days!

Not long after they drove up, Nathaniel’s wife drove up in their sprinter van and it was a reunion all over again!

We sat outside and chatted and laughed and generally had a great homecoming, albeit a bit short of the final destination, 45 miles down the road. Unfortunately, Lola had recently accepted a position in a new company and her first day was today! I was dissapointed that we couldn’t finish yesterday (Sunday) so she could be at the finish. Bummer.

After an almost hour long stop, we were back on the bikes and waving goodbye to the ladies, whom we would see in a few hours.

We were still high on seeing everybody when something changed. The WIND!! (Yes, there, I said it!)

What was initially a southerner, turned decidedly north! We were now 40 miles from the finish and riding directly into the pressure differential! As we have said before, there are no easy days on the Tour Divide, so we were not surprised that thing would get difficult on the last day, in the last hours, over the last 40 miles. It’s just the way it is!!

The anticipated 2-3 hours remaining turned into 4+ hours, as the heat kept building, and the sun was now beating down.

We watched the mile marker signs on the side of the road tick down….slowly!

Finally we could see the border crossing coming into view.

One strange thing is that I had not seen my son Zane, my ride back to Las Cruces, drive by. I was not sure where he was. Zane had agreed to miss work to drive the 150 miles to Antelope Wells to pick me up.

My question was answered about 1/4 mile form the finish. He had somehow missed seeing our bikes at the Hachita Market as he was driving past, and was now waiting along the roadside to greet us at the finish! Such a welcome sight.

We were finally within a few hundred feet of our destination, and rolled past to touch the southern most point of the route, a chain link fence that kept us from actually going all the way to the border. We could see the hulking mass of the border wall, stretching for miles across the barren desert just a few hundred feet away. We were as far south as we were going to get!

DONE!!!

We rode back to the Antelope Wells Entry Point sign. The border crossing is closed at this time, owing to political factors too many to mention. We took the traditional picture at the sign, barely able to lift our bikes above our heads!!

Nathaniel’s wife had been a bit delayed in arriving from Hachita, but was soon there as well. We all had our tearful and incredibly happy reunions with our families and friends.

Lauren and her friends were incredible in bringing us food and drinks, so we spent about an hour at the finish, talking and recovering. It was such a relaxing and fulfilling time to realize we were done.

There is simply no way to put into words the appreciation that Ray and I have for everyone involved in making this dream become a reality.

Our perspectives on life have changed, as have our perceptions of people.

In all honesty, we are different men than we were at the start.

We made a decision about 30 days ago to squeeze everything we could out of this trip, in terms of interactions with others along the way. We realized that, at least on this initial attempt of the Tour Divide, meeting to and speaking with people was important to us. Our original plans were to finish in 20ish days (HA!!! Another piece of advice Gary Johnson gave us, “Dont make a schedule, just ride as best you can”), but you don’t know what you don’t know, and we didn’t know a LOT!! What we figured out was that a set schedule was not as important to us as getting home safe, and experiencing everything we could along the way.

We have been through times to intense to accurately share, seen sights too incredible to describe, met people (of every type) too kind to forget, and made friendships too valuable to lose. We I think it is safe to say that we are changed as a result of this trip.

Ther is a saying I recall fro the 24 Hour of Moab: ”When experiences go beyond words, life begins to have meaning”

I’ve tried over the past 31 days to share all I could in words, but I’m no Hemingway, so it is a faded picture of the experiences we had. My words simply cannot do justice to the journey. Also, I apologize for the grammar and spelling errors. I’m just a simple country enguneer! ( ;) )

Thank you for following along, and for sharing your thoughts, comments, and words of encouragement. You were all part of our journey, and we loved having you with us!

We’re no longer South Bound and Down, but our journey will continue. We’d love it if you would come along with us again!

Shane and Ray