About 60kms to Pie Town

Erik has been riding mostly at 7500ft, 2280mts today. He still has about 60kms to get to Pie Town.

Lat 33.93839, Long -108.33580

 He started the day at the  lower "TH" bubble, and is camping at the top of the map.  South of Mangas Mountain, and west of Horse Peak.  He is in the GMU Unit15 area, (US Hunting and Fishing) so perhaps he will see some Elk.

Update from Erik:

We woke at 4:30, had breakfast, and were riding by 6 to beat the heat.

 The ride was a lot flatter than yesterday.

We started riding through farmland, then beside a lake, before reaching open plains. At first we saw quite a bit of wildlife: deer, elk, rabbits and pronghorn antelopes.

At one point we turned a corner and there was a huge stag in the middle of the road.  Then as we left the lake behind the wildlife disappeared.

 We dropped into a canyon with rocky walls on both sides. Lots of plants but no running water.

We were fully laden with water, but I discovered that my water bladder had developed a terrible taste -- something like rotten sausages! I had first noticed it yesterday but it was much worse today. Then Greg said that the bladder hose he had given me had been hit by a skunk. The water was almost impossible to drink, but I forced myself to drink it. Horrible!

 After the canyon, the wind picked up, and got stronger and stronger throughout the day. It started as a tail Wind, but often we changed direction so it became a cross wind or a head wind. This made the ride really tough.  

The road was all unsealed, and often had bad washboards. It felt weird to ride the washboards...a lot of dodging the worst bits. My calves felt like they were being massaged by the constant jiggling up and down. When they got really bad, my teeth would hurt because of all the jarring!

 We dropped down to an enormous basin, and rode through the day. The one advantage of the wind was that it didn't feel too hot, so we could keep on riding.  

 The road circled the basin, and it took several hours to go around the edge.

We sheltered at one point beneath a tree, but decided to take advantage of the tail wind. Unfortunately the road changed direction and we were riding into a head wind again, which made it really tough.

 We finally reached the intersection with Route 12, and we were exhausted by the wind.  There were some buildings at the intersection so we sheltered there. It turned out to be a private hunting lodge owned by a farmer. We sheltered in the verandah out the back, where there was water, shade and shelter from the wind.

 The farmer turned up and was very friendly. He was young, but had funny mannerisms: he only talked out of one side of his mouth, and wore a huge belt buckle. There were two couples and two young children, one a three-year-old boy in cowboy boots!

He told us about his operation: he has 70 square miles and raises calves for sale. Only 500 cattle in total.  He said they lose up to 10% of their herd to predators: wolves and coyotes!

He was branding a bunch of calves tomorrow...apparently it's state law that all cattle has to be branded so they can be identified, because there are no fences and the cattle often roam onto the neighbouring farms.

The farmer and his family left, and we ate dinner, filled up all out water containers, and waited for the wind to abate. We saw another rider head up the hill. Finally, we started again and rode a few km up the road to find a camp site.

Quite rough ground tonight, so I laid clothes under my mattress.

  I hope it doesn't get damaged by the sticks and rocks under the tent!

It was a big day, 100 km all on unsealed roads with a full load of water and with string winds. I'm feeling very tired now, and my legs, back and wrists ache, but what an amazing day! The long miles helped get us where we had to be so we can make it to pie town tomorrow...fingers crossed...