Our day starts out cloudy and threatening rain. Looks like the weather forecasters may be right this time. We have a 14 mile ride from Chama to Tierra Amarilla pictured to the left. This is a very small (Tony Hillerman describes it as shabby) Hispanic village best known for the June 5, 1967 county courthouse shootout when a group of impoverished Hispanics tried to start a secession from the USA over the historic land grant issues dating back to the ratification of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848.
From Tierra Amarillo the road to Taos turns eastward and we are now buffeted by a side wind as we ride upwards toward our biggest climb of the ride. We will be cresting the Rocky Mountains on an un-named pass with no signage even for elevation. It is 10,500 feet! Needless to say it is steep going and the cold and wind do not help us. We alternate between being hot from working so hard to being cold from the gusty winds. We do however make it to the top and are thankful to have a warm car and this fabulous view of the Brazo Cliffs. These are the oldest rocks in New Mexico and in some lighting look black and always very dramatic. From here it will be mostly downhill.
As we come up another "hill" we are greeted with a very big surprise. Our bicycling buddy Peter D'Aquanni decided to come up and be a one man welcoming party. Thank you Peter, we loved it!
At the top we are also greeted with aspens still with some golden leaves on them. We have missed the height of the fall color so it makes us happy to get a little of it. Now we are in for a big down hill ride. Martha and I have put on all the warm clothing we can find as we are going from 10,000 to about 8,500 in about 10 miles. Burrrrr!
As we come up another "hill" we are greeted with a very big surprise. Our bicycling buddy Peter D'Aquanni decided to come up and be a one man welcoming party. Thank you Peter, we loved it!
At the top we are also greeted with aspens still with some golden leaves on them. We have missed the height of the fall color so it makes us happy to get a little of it. Now we are in for a big down hill ride. Martha and I have put on all the warm clothing we can find as we are going from 10,000 to about 8,500 in about 10 miles. Burrrrr!
As we come down we get into one of the most lovely mountain valleys in New Mexico. There are still cattle grazing here, but soon they will bring large cattle trucks to haul them out of the mountains and down to lower elevation and probably to the meat packer! For now, we are enjoying seeing something other than sagebrush and chamisa.
We are lucky to have friends, Deb & Gil Graves, who have a ranch in this valley and who offered their cabin for us to stay in. Camping at 10,000 feet in this wind and with the possibility of snow tonight just did not sound like fun. We find the cabin with the heat on and welcoming us.
It is quite rustic but just perfect for us and the views off the front porch aren't too shabby as you can see from the photo below.
Martha gets a fire going while Kit fixes snacks. We have splurged and purchased filet mignon steaks for dinner which Bill cooks to perfection on our little portable gas grill which has served us so well on this trip. We have our last dinner with the three of us together. Bill will be relieved by Martha's husband, Chris for the remainder of our ride. Today we rode 53 miles over a 10,500 ft. summit and then down and up over a 10,000 ft. "hill" in 4 hours 4 minutes.
We are lucky to have friends, Deb & Gil Graves, who have a ranch in this valley and who offered their cabin for us to stay in. Camping at 10,000 feet in this wind and with the possibility of snow tonight just did not sound like fun. We find the cabin with the heat on and welcoming us.
It is quite rustic but just perfect for us and the views off the front porch aren't too shabby as you can see from the photo below.
Martha gets a fire going while Kit fixes snacks. We have splurged and purchased filet mignon steaks for dinner which Bill cooks to perfection on our little portable gas grill which has served us so well on this trip. We have our last dinner with the three of us together. Bill will be relieved by Martha's husband, Chris for the remainder of our ride. Today we rode 53 miles over a 10,500 ft. summit and then down and up over a 10,000 ft. "hill" in 4 hours 4 minutes.
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