Wed was a beautiful day, another one. Winter is lurking out there somewhere. But today it is not in my thought process. I rode the Hurricane Cliffs IMBA epic ride from the upper JEM TH, a first from this start point. I started downhill on the JEM kinda sorta warming up for the pedaling on the cliffs. Up down and around as the trail worked its circular magic. By the time I reached the nasty climb up to Goulds wash I was warmed up. Big hump. I’m riding a 1X11 11X42 cluster and an Absolute Black 32T chain ring. This climb is a test of the gear choice and matching it to my body’s out put. I needed the 42T right at the top of the climb off the hwy, from there to the top I rode in either 2 or 3 down on the cluster. Plenty of gearing. Last year this climb was the proof of the same cluster with a 30T round ring. And I rdoe the ride back on clipless pedals. All by myself again. The joy of riding during the work day. 20.95 miles climbing 2188′ in 2 hrs 36 pedal time. Once the big climb was over the rest was a mild grunt back to the upper JEM and a refreshing recovery drink. I drove down to town for a shower etc. then drove back to the same TH parking lot.

Thurs was a rest day. Laundry at the same laundromat, the woman attendant is still there. That evening the Seahawks played w/ TV coverage. I drove up to Springdale to Jacks to watch the first half. The weather forecast was calling for big rain. I watched the first half, at half time I looked outside seeing falling rain. Good enough for me to split. My sleep spot was on Sheep Bridge road outside of Virgin. The road is an improved all weather road which should be firm enough to drive on after a rain. In the dark I found a pull out spot on the road. I was about 15′ off the road. Turns out I stayed the same spot last year under similar conditions. Rain fell pretty hard as the drops beat on the roof. In the morning after Bfast and clean up I started the engine letting it warm up a bit then shifted to going forward. The dirt was rain softened. I was either going to make the road or spin out and if so I would stay till the dirt firmed up maybe the next day. The van body sheltered the dirt from direct rain. The van is rear wheel drive. Going forward the rear wheels, traction, had the length of the van before hitting soft dirt. Inertia was my friend as at the time the wheels started slipping in the mud I made the hard road. OK. I’m on my way. I made first mud tracks, in several spots the positraction light lit signifying a slipping rear wheel. Inertia again got me over those spots. I did make Hurricane.

I putzed around town till dinner time then drove up to the overlook over town for dinner. I had permission to sleep in the OTE parking lot which I took them up on after dinner. The dirt would be too soft to drive on. OTE is located right at the edge of town, at the bottom of the hill climbing out of town. Traffic noise. Temp dropped into the 20s. The furnace ran all night never reaching the low setting I set it at. Cold. I left about 7AM driving back to the overlook for Bfast and to spend the day. Winds picked up which just viciously rocked my van. The catalytic heater fuel valve opened allowing the heater to run. I was toasty. Late in the afternoon I drove up to the JEM TH climbing out of the valley and to lower temps. Snow fell last night. I made the TH and restarted the catalytic heater. I ran it till bed time. I did put my sleeping bag on my bed. The catalytic put out hot heat to make the sleeping bag cover too warm. I shut it off and turned on the furnace which could not match the 21 degrees outside. Just after 7 I crawled out from my warm bed, 21 degrees outside and 50 inside to see my breath. The catalytic would not start, the valve would not open. I put on a long underwear top and wool sweater and went about fixing bfast. The sun climbed over the shoulder of Gooseberry Mesa drenching the van in solar gain. I pulled off the windshield curtain to see complete ice up of the windshield from the water vapor from the catalytic. I ran the engine for 30 mins to melt the ice which turned to water and ran down the inside of the windshield and dropped from the headliner. beautiful clear cold day.

I drove down to town. Quentin said the weather Sat out at Church Rocks was calm and sort of warm. Still too cold to ride and the dirt is sticky. Beside the Zags played at 2PM. There is no sports bar in Hurricane, my choice to watch the game was ST George or Springdale. I elected to the non tourist crowd of Jacks. The Zags won going 11-0 for the first time in their history. I left at the end back to Sheep Bridge road. I found another pull out for the night. Still cold, below freezing, 26 degrees at 8:25PM. Going to start the catalytic heater. It started.

I bought a pair of Catalyst pedals which are longer than the Spikes I now ride. Benefit of length is that the foot is used as it should be used. bikejames.com flat pedal manifesto. Will be here early this week to go w/ my new shoes. I do like flats.

Nearby is a pistachio orchard, I found a place where they sell their nuts. fresh, this year’s crop. Buy locally.

Tomorrow is a ride at Church Rocks where I fell 2 years ago. Riding w/ Dolly whom I met in Sedona and is now living in Virgin.

Many miles of driving since leaving Bentonville. A big drive from Gallup to across the Colorado and a bit further past Cliff Dwellers I turned on the first BLM road heading south. A kiosk

I am riding around 4,000was just a few feet off the highway that I deemed too close. I noted the mileage then continued down the road. A pull out little campsite appeared just a few feet past. Good enough for me. I could see the headlights and hear the traffic noise if I listened.I just wanted to eat dinner and sleep. And that I did.

Monday morning I continued towards Hurricane. I stopped at the upper JEM TH to check out the road in and to ride a short ride. Road in doesn’t hike a wheel off the ground which makes it OK. I geared up and pedaled out down the JEM which I rode all the way down to the Hurricane Cliffs trail. The JEM gently looses elevation over some smooth bermy mixed in w/ rock chunky. I rode gently to protect my rims. I upped the pressure to 18 and 17 psi. I might go up 1 more pound to offer perhaps more protection to the rims, IBIS carbon. Quentin says he rides the snot out of his and has no issues.  I’m a turtle anyway.

elevation is 4,000′, the highest I’ve been since late September. I pedal albeit slower each year.

Afterwards I drove down to Over the edge right at the bottom of the hill. Hello Quentin. A bit of catching up. My shifting was not working per drawing. Wrench Ryan made some adjustments which just transferred the shifting issue to the next biggest gear. He observed that the shifter cable ferrule was incorrectly sized per the cable housing. He said he had time to make the change. I let him lead my bike away. He had to replace the shifter cable and discovered that the cable end was only partially captured, this condition was causing the shifting issue. He replaced the cable and test rode it then gave it to me. Wonderful, a twist made the chain move. Good to go.

A shower at anytime and groceries at Lins. I drove back to the JEM TH my preferred sleep spot. Mostly full moon last night.

Today Kevin arrived at 9:30, a half hour earlier than we agreed on. I was not ready to take off. Wonderful day and we had time. Kevin will drive us in his dad’s pickup out to ride a new trail just completed on Wire Mesa out past Gooseberry. Wonderful handbuilt narrow rowdy trail. Trail could have been built with loppers and a push broom. It had a mix of smooth dirt tread and low tech level rock which was the first I have ridden. What an adjustment I am making from hard wood forests on low elevation to high and in the desert. The trail was exciting change. Wonderful narrow hand built trail. The road out is more than I want to drive on, a need to ride with someone else’s rig to return again.

The trail is a loop. back at the truck Kevin discovered that his phone is missing.Memory recall said he left it on the trunk bumper back were he picked me up. I called his number checking to see if someone had picked it up. No answer. We turned off the highway on the JEM TH road. There in the road about 100′ from where I parked there was his phone in the road. He picked it up noticing tire track in dirt on the phone. Someone suspect purposely drove over it.The screen was smashed. He fired it up and it turned on. It received my call but because the screen was smashed he could not sweep it to answer. He left for screen repair.

I drove back down to town to OTE. Clayton is sending me a new helmet to replace this one that I broke the head net strap. I showed Clayton my 5.10 shoes how the soles were cracking. He went above board by seeking out a 5.10 contact. He negotiated me sending the shoes back to 5.10 instead of having to work thru the shop where I bought them back in Bend. I am now back on clipless starting tomorrow. Both products failed within the manufacturers’ warranties.

Weather is forecast to change to rain on Friday. So far now snow or freeze thaw mud.

Just last week I was riding Arkansas in oak forests denuded from fall leaf fall, sight lines were lengthened but the primary objects were tree trunks and no elevation. Yesterday I am riding in the desert w just creosote bush and lots of big rocks. I have an idea what someone experiencing this place for the first time. hard to get a head around how big this is.

Tomorrow I will ride the epic cliffs trail.

Yesterday was soo cold I wore long underwear on a hike then kept them on inside the van afterwards. I walked 4 miles on the road up canyon to the park office to pay for  camp and today’s admission to the park. $5 per person per day, campsite was $24 paying for water and electric that I only used several minutes of. But I did take 2 hot showers. A park person shared the hiking map and told me of the CCC trail to take instead of the road. I took it making a hiking descent back to Hackberry camp unit where I stayed. Soo cold. I took a shower before dinner, heated shower room. Put the long underwear tops and bottoms back on. Added the wool sweater and Carhart lined jacket. That was to walk back to the van. Empty campground. I ran the propane infra red catalytic heater last night to save battery as the sun lacked intensity to greatly charge the batteries. Heater puts out more heat than the furnace. It is aimed at the back of the passenger seat, some spills over to me at my desk which makes me warmer than the furnace heating the back half of my domicile. I did spread out the 20 degree down bag over the the doubled over down blanket. I used spring camps at the wall side of the sleeping bag to keep it from sliding off. I woke up refreshed albeit a bit toasty. out of bed temp was tolerable 58 degrees. Outside the temps was just under freezing. Last night I felt the air warming. Weather forecast said this would happen plus strong winds.

This morning I planned on riding at 10 till 12, take a shower, then bolt for Tucumcari. I stuck my hand into the freezer and discovered ice build up which was robbing freezing capacity. Still below freezing outside. I plugged in the shore power then turned the fridge to electric and started defrosting consisting of heating the small pot of water to 140 degrees and placing it inside the freezer. Took maybe 20 mins to finally pull off the last ice chunk. And the temp outside hit 32 degrees. Plan was to give it a go, at least ride a bit of Texas dirt.

Tights, heavy wool socks, knickers, long underwear top, heavy long sleeve jersey, wind shell, winter riding gloves and cap. My hands immediately gave bio feedback of put me somewhere warm. I pedaled onward raising muscle heat and my hands joined the rest of the body for a fun ride. I must have ridden Comanche trail down to the end of the park road then returned on green trails back to the van.

Problem with uploading pics.

I allowed myself to get turned around which complicated riding back to the start. Once my internal compass sync’d to the real compass I was good to pedal home. Helped that at the TH a large scale map was posted. I was riding on trails w/ no MTBP track.

I did ride in Texas, my 25th state this year.

Towards the end of my ride the clouds left allowing bright warm sky moving the mercury up. All by myself. I saw 3 mountain sheep (?) scamper up a hillside. They peppered the trail.

The earth here is just dirt with layers of rock mixed in. Very unstable.

Back at the van I turned to to make tracks westward. A shower, put stuff away and rig for travel. I started the engine tow arm up because the transmission slips when cold and right out of the start the road climbed. The tranny still slipped a bit but if I kept my foot into it keeping it in perhaps 2nd gear we made the climb out up the twisty 2 lane black top road. Would not want to be here during events that would loosen hillside rocks.

Up top with internet I found a laundromat in Tucumcari. Once on I 40 it was a straight shot. Right on historic route 66. Clean clothes then a few more blocks west was the grocery store. I remember sleeping in the parking lot of the local airport which is to be my sleep spot tonight. Terminal is still closed but runway lights as is the tower rotating beam are lit. I will be well lit tonight.

It was  53 degrees when I arrived at Tucumcari. I put my sandals back on but left the long pants on.

Tomorrow it is on to Gallup. Forecast is for 10 to 20 mph head wind. Velocity picks up in the evening.

Time zone change meaning I get to live the same hour over again. Now it is 9:40 PM Mountain time, just 40 miles tot he east it is 10:40 and I am tired.

Finished Hiiason’s new novel, Razor Girl, last night. Crazy funny. Kept me engaged while being solitary and no socializing.

Tonight is warmer, 33 degrees. OK, it’s relative. Batteries are good and charged for the blower motor on the furnace. Thel seeping bag is just overhead in case.