Day 07
Today we ride to Alberkirkie!

Today is our signature day...or one of them.  As I prepared to give route rap last night, the mood was good, but apprehensive...only a couple of the riders had ever ridden this distance before.  I assured them that if they paced themselves and kept moving today they would do fine.  Luckily, the temperatures have been below normal so we haven't had heat problems...I wore arm warmers and was comfortable all day.  The winds could have helped us a little more, but they were fairly light all day or at least not as strong as forecast.  Sometimes it would seem to be in our face, then other times it would be from behind, but basically it was a headwind all day. 

It wasn't nearly as cold as usual either at departure.  There's something about Gallup...it's always been in the low 30s when we depart this town but this morning it was in the low 40s...quite nice. By the time they arrived at the first SAG at the Continental Divide, most of the warm weather gear was in our garment bag and not on their bodies.

Gallup is over 6000 feet elevation and as I mentioned above, we ride over the Continental Divide which is 7275 feet at about 32 miles.  We had our first SAG there and everyone took the obligatory pictures to record the event (above right).  Supposedly, it's all downhill from here...at least if you are water.  Of course I tell everyone it is down hill but they find out pretty quickly that there's lots of humps in the terrain before we get to sea level in Massachusetts.  But it does drop for quite awhile after the SAG before they have to start going up and down again...a good ride after a nice warm up climbing up to the Divide.

Even though it was a tough day, we rode through some interesting, beautiful, and desolate areas.  The mesas were beautiful and I imagine that they looked the same a thousand years ago.  We also rode by Fort Wengert where Kit Carson led campaigns against the Navajo Indians.  We'll see Kit Carson monuments all along our route through Kansas.  There's even one in Kansas where he shot his mule thinking it was an Indian...makes you wonder how good an Indian fighter he was if he had trouble telling his pack mule from the enemy.  We also rode through the largest lava flow in the continental US...another area that probably hasn't changed much for thousands of years.  It's sobering to think that well after we are long gone, these formations will still watch over people passing by on our route.  But for now, they just tell a story of a time when the terrain was much more volatile than today.  I wanted to find out more about it like when did it develop, but I didn't have time to do the research...there's only so much I can do out here.  From what I understand, the entire area around Grants NM is volcanic...no thank you.  I'll just ride through it and look in amazement. 

After Grants, we venture out into the New Mexico back country and an Indian reservation around Laguna.  From there we pick up I-40 all the way to Albuquerque.  We did have a hiccup in our planned support as there was construction on I-40 for about 6 miles that we had to shuttle everyone through...no shoulder and heavy traffic.  That meant coordinating pick up points, drop offs, and still making the last SAG stop.  The first group beat us through but we caught most of the rest.  The one's we missed refueled at the store at our planned SAG location and tried to beat feet into town before the bike shops closed.

At the last SAG, we take a frontage road up 10 mile hill to Central Avenue for the screaming downhill into town.  The final hill into town is a doozy.  You seem to just keep going down forever...it's about an 8 mile descent to the Rio Grande River where we can break the 55 MPH speed limit if we try.  I've peaked out at double nickel in the past, but today's cross winds on the descent made control a major issue.

The last riders got in about 6...not bad for all that went on and with the headwinds most of the day.  WOW...a tough day and we have another one tomorrow.  We'll get another early start and set out to the hills around Santa Fe.  But today was a good day...everyone in safely...feeling good about their accomplishment.  Tune in again tomorrow and see what we are up to.

PS:  A great big "THANK YOU" to Greg Dubrock a previous rider who lives in town.  He made bike shop runs for everyone on our long day on the road.