Spinning in the sand.

August 9th

Had a great nights sleep at the Hidden Springs Hotel and packed up and hit the road by eight.  Had about 30 miles of pavement till our first sand road of the day.  Took that up through Pie Town, NM and after a bit started climbing up a mountian on a nice wide gravel road.  We climbed up to 9200 ft in elevation, which
was the highest yet for us.  Came down the mountian and into the valley which was like the desert, with sand roads, srub brush, and catus.  This was an awesome ride as we followed the valley for 110 miles through big washouts and around rock outcroppings along the caynon walls.  After fueling up we had another 120 mile
strech of a beautiful ride through the valleys of several mountians and then across a huge valley that aforffed us the ability to run about 65 miles an hour.  We saw two cyotes thru this run.  Got into town about 8:30, fueled up and headed into the mountains to find a place to camp for the night.  On the way up the mt. we ran into a herd of 5 or 6 bull elk.  Found a nice clearing and set up camp. Put in close to 300 miles for the day.

A few pictures

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150278106409556.349434.618059555&l=73eb0a29a3&type=1

Dirt roads, fires, and no gas.

August 8th

Well the thunderstorm spared us but we where awoken to the sound of howling wolves (okay maybe coyotes) at 4 a.m.  They howled for awhile till I started to howl back at them.  They must not have liked my howling skills.  Hit the trail around 9 a.m. and ran dirt for awhile till it turned to pavement.  Then we came to every adventure riders dream, a dirt road with a sign reading "no services next 120 miles".  That is where the fun began.  As we were winding around though the mountains we happened upon a wild fire billowing white smoke in the air.  A few miles down the road we came to the Beaver Creek work station in Gila National Forest which was where they monitor the fires.  We learned the fire we passed was nine acres big and was being let go to naturally do what it wanted to do.  The man at the station entertained us for awhile with forest fire facts and information about how they watch for and contain them.  The ranger man gave us a few ideas for some scenic alternate routes and that is where things turned south.  Our previous estimates of how far our gas would last turned out to be a little off as I ran out about 20 miles from gas.  So we drained some out of Tyler's tank to get me going but it didn't last long enough, and then Duane ran out also.  So Tyler went to town to get gas which was supposed to be about 5 miles away, but was around 20.  Duane and I chilled out in the mountains till Ty got back.  Duane then had an issue with his contacts and could hardly see which had us a little worried about what to do.  So we decided to head to town and find a hotel to clean up at and let Duane's eye rest.  Found a nice little family run place with a restaurant that had killer pizza.  They even did our laundry for us.  Was good to have a evening of not riding after a hot dusty day.  Duane's eye is feeling pretty good already so we plan to get a early start tomorrow and put a big day in.

On thru El Paso to the border and the start of the CDT!

August 7th

We decided we had time to relax a little today and didn't get going till about 9:00 a.m.  We got to El Paso around 10:30 and hit up a Walmart for food and a few supplies for camping out in the great outdoors.  After topping off with gas we aimed our front wheels for the desert once again.  140 HOT and WINDY miles
later we stood peering into Mexico.  Took a few pics and started what we came for, the Contenetail Divide Trail.  As we pulled into a very small and mostly abandoned town of Hitachi we saw a Border Patrol officer sitting along the road.  Duane and I where working on my radio headset which was being a pain and Tyler decided to go chat to the BP officer about the forest fires in NM.  As they were chatting the officer remarked that is actually does kinda smell like smoke.  Turns out Ty's bike was on fire!!!  The plastic shield over the muffler melted down and caught his dry bag full of clothes and other things on fire.  Needless to say he has a few holes burned through a few things.  The first 75 miles was on pavement but then we hit the dirt roads through cattle country in the rolling foothills.  We were all very glad and excited to get some gravel under the wheels.  Rolled up a winding paved road to Silver City, NM and then took us by the Santa Rita copper mines which were very impressively huge. The route turned to dirt again just east of town.  We entered National Forest country after a bit and found a spot to camp.  As I right this I'm swinging in my hammock as the lighting is flashing in the distance.  Might be in for another interesting night!

Awesome thunderstorm and on to Alamogordo

August 6th

When in Liberal we looked up a campground in Guymon OK, which was about 30 miles to the southwest.  As we left Liberal we knew we were in for an interesting time as there was a nasty looking thunderstorm flashing and banging in the southwest. So we headed towards Guymon with one eye on the sky and the other on the road.  We stopped for gas about 20 miles out and I asked a local what he thought and he said we had a fifty-fifty shot on making it.  So off we went as fast as we felt comfortable going.  I'm sure the truckers were getting a kick out of us as it was clear what we were trying to do.  As we were flying towards town the storm got blacker and blacker with more lighting then I've ever seen in a storm before.  About five miles from town big droplets started pelting us, and we saw an abandoned warehouse not far off the road so we beat it into that just as the winds really started to pick up.  As it was pouring down rain we decided to forget going to the campground and just set our hammocks up in the shed as the poles were just the right distance apart.  So we got to listen to the pounding rain roaring on the tin roof as we attempted to sleep. We were up and out on the road at daybreak.  After the short ride through Oklahoma we had a short shot through Texas before reaching New Mexico.  We ran route 54 down to where we hit interstate 40 which would have taken us to Albuquerque but we didn't feel like buzzing along on the boring highway so we picked a route out that would bypass 40 and join up with our intended route farther south.  I am really glad we did that because we got to see a lot of the county side which was mostly just desert (it felt like the desert to, intense heat!).  We ended up coming across route 82 which took us up to 8,200 ft in elevation before dropping back down into Alamogordo NM at 4000 something feet in elevation. The neat thing about that was that coming across the dessert it was well over 100 degrees and as we climbed the mountain it kept getting cooler and cooler till it was actually cold at the top (it was drizzling and cloudy so that didn't help).  Then coming down the other side the sun burst out again and it was back to 100 degrees down in the desert town of Alamogordo.  That ride through the mountains got use excited to get started on the CDT.  We changed our oil in Alamogordo and found a real campground for the first time this trip just south of the city.

Running hard and more rain =(

After leaving the McDonalds we had a very pleasant ride through Indiana and Illinois to St. Louis.  We really wanted to ride right though downtown but we took a wrong turn and routed around the city and then ended back in it after rt. 50 wasn't marked (or we were getting sleepy, but I won't admit to that).  Anyway we spent about a half hour in the suburbs till we found 50 again.  After St. Louis, 50 turned into a motorcyclists dream road.  A two lane rd with long sweeping turns through the rolling wooded hills of Missouri.  50 then turned into a four lane highway and we put the hammer down and made it to the East side of Kansas City, MO.  Found a place to rest our heads at about 11:30.  Total miles for the day was 710.
Awoke at daylight, found some grub and rode on.  Right into a thunderstorm!  Put on the rain gear and off we went again into Kansas.  The sun then came out and started cooking us dispute the 50 SPF sunblock.  That is about all that is interesting that happened in KS because motorcycling in KS is kinda booooring.  We are currently in the Southwest part of the state in the town of Liberal but we are about ready to head south for another 100 miles till we find a place to camp.

Dancing among the rain showers

We left Lancaster around 10:30 and headed for rt 50 in WV.  Ran the superslab to Keyser, WV to 50 which was a gorgeous two lane road up and over and around the mountains.  We rode in and out of light rain showers all day but never really got wet.  Stayed on 50 till about 70 miles from Cincinnati where we found a place to "camp".  Other then being attacked by a ferocious bull dog we had a restful night of sleep on the pavement.  Up and rolling at 6 a.m. towards Cinci and out the other side into the land of no diners where we had to resort to a McDonald's for breakfast.  Turning into a beautiful day.