The last time I wrote we were in Albuquerque NM at the White Ridge bike trails. We arrived at the trailhead a bit late and only got a small ride in that day. It is a really interesting area--it felt like every time you turned your head you were seeing something unique in the landscape! And there are (allegedly) oodles of fossils from the Jurassic period and the remains of the longest dinosaur ever found, a seismosaurus, was found near there. I found no fossils.
I can't find my photos from this area (they are probably on my phone) so I'll update with those later.
When we returned to the parking area we met a super nice and fun gal named Laurie who spent the weekend in the area geocaching. A disconcerting thing happened in that there were a number of people out target shooting (which seems to be a very popular pastime in the desert) and someone was shooting over our heads. The sign very explicitly said "no shooting" in the parking area, so either they had horrible aim or they were being a jerk. Fun fact: bullets flying over your head sounds like mini-missles.
We hung out that night at our campsite and the next morning I went geocaching with Laurie. I really like the hunting and exploring aspects of geocaching...but I've promised myself I'll mostly do it in nature areas since I'd feel creepy poking around people's neighbourhoods.
Albuquerque started getting cold so we headed west for warmer weather. We stopped in Gallop NM to ride the High Desert bike trails. Besides being super fun, it has quite realistic metal silhouettes of animals scattered along the trails. The rabbits and birds were sweet but the mountain lion that emerges from behind a rock as you're climbing makes your heart race for a good few seconds before realizing it's fake. We met a family of three from Oregon in that parking lot who were on a shorter version of what we were doing--traveling around to mountain bike. It turns out that the guy is a photographer and had worked at a surfing magazine. He and Luke had lots to talk about on the trail.
That night we went to a coffee shop and met another super nice person (so many great people in New Mexico!) who was a slick pro road racer and is now a coach for the bmc junior team. He was a huge talent, but got some concussions while racing and was told he couldn't risk hitting his head again. So now he's opening a bike shop/bakery with a local talented baker. We must go back and visit his store now that it's open!
As an aside, the is a fantastic campground in Gallop with a great view, heated washrooms and *really* good showers. These things are important, especially since it was getting cold in Gallop too.
Continuing to flee from the cold, we traveled to Tucson Arizona next. We took the more scenic drive on highway 60 through a couple of national forests and reserves. The drive was phenomenal!!! I was not expecting such incredible views and scenery. (did I take photos? Of course not. Google images of Tonto National Forest. You won't believe how amazing it is)
Our new friend Laurie had spent a few days of her vacation in Tucson so we met up with her on her last night there. We stayed in a campground in Oro Valley at the edge of town and listened to the coyotes howling in the huge Santa Catalina natural area.
I *love* Tucson. We spent about a month there and we are so impressed with what it has to offer. First, it has super amazing desert. It's one of the few areas that have saguaro cacti. Finally I have some photos!
Pretty much everything in the desert is thorny.
Tucson also has a amazing mountains! We drove up Mt.Lemmon and spent a night there. It amazes me how there is desert down below and on the mountain you'd think you were in Canada!
Mt.Lemmon
It has an elevation of just over 9000ft and as you travel the Catalina Highway up you'll also see hoodoos and canyons.
I just read this description of it:
great vistas, outlandish rockscapes, cool mountain forests and deep canyons spilling out onto broad deserts. Because the road starts in the Lower Sonoran vegetative life zone and climbs to the high forests of the Canadian zone, it offers the biological equivalent of driving from the deserts of Mexico to the forests of Canada in a short stretch of 27 miles. Here you'll find plants and animals and geology that exhibit some of the most wide-ranging natural diversity to be found in any area of comparable size in the continental United States
(turns out I was right about it being like Canada!)
There is a big, long downhill trail that Luke biked. It was too big for me, so I enjoyed the drive down and saw at least 20 people biking up the road. Tucson has a huge road biking scene.
It's a pretty sprawling city but it has all kinds of interesting neighbourhoods. There is a cute hipster neighbourhood near the university, a few gated golf club communities, affluent neighbourhoods and places you are recommended to avoid because of gang activity. They also have my new favourite chain of stores called Bookmans. Most of the stores have used books/musical instruments/electronic equipment but they also have one location that has used sporting goods. I suspect I will buy a banjo there someday soon.
One night we heard a couple of owls hooting in a Walmart parking lot. We followed the hoots and saw two huge owls, one in a tree and one on a ledge of the building.
Tucson has an impressive amount of trails--over 400 miles-- and we just heard that the city is planning on developing over 2000 more miles of trails. The Arizona trail also runs through there as well. There is an Arizona Trail bike race that is either 300 or 750 miles and is self supported, with no entry fee or prizes. People say it's even more challenging than the Great Divide race, which I didn't imagine would be possible. This has piqued Luke's interest, of course.
We spent a day out in the Coronado National Forest, which was an interesting experience. One of the interesting things was going through a border patrol check point. It's strange to still be in the country but have to stop and have military people ask if you're American and look through your window to see if you're smuggling people. They were friendly enough to us, but I imagine it's a different experience if you look Mexican. Once we got to the forest it was a little disconcerting as well. It felt like the middle of nowhere, but there were plenty of people booting around with guns and atvs. Nothing happened, but it didn't feel terribly safe.
This prompted us to have a discussion about how, although we lock the bikes on the roof rack, it would be too easy to steal our bikes. And sure enough, the next day my bike was stolen. It wasn't stolen in the desert however, but from the parking lot of a coffee shop in the middle of the day. The a-hole ditched their bike by a tree around the corner, cut my lock, jumped on and took off. I will never forgot the shock I felt when I looked at the truck and my bike wasn't there. I'll admit I cried a little.
The police didn't care at all and I'll never see that bike again. I prefer to think that some kind, clean person is enjoying my bike after that dirtbag spent minimal time touching it.
Then the next day Luke's bike was almost stolen. We decided to spend the day in Phoenix and the very first time we stopped some other jackass tried to steal it from an even busier parking lot in the middle of the day. The only thing that saved the bike was that the would-be-thief was too dumb to know how to release the strap on the back wheel--they tried cutting it and cut the tire instead. They couldn't ride off with a flat tire so they abandoned it. We had over 6 months without any problems and then this, two days in a row. We decided to leave Phoenix and I spent a lot of time being angry and refusing to leave the truck unattended.
The stolen bike, along with some other things, made us decide to return to Ontario for the holidays to see family and friends. So we started heading home. But we took a detour to Big Bend Texas first.
We stopped in Marfa Texas, which is a cute little town that it an artist mecca with an international art scene. The cost of living is quite low so artist can live there easily and focus on their work. They also have a fantastic coffee roaster.
Big Bend is crazy amazing. We stayed in the town of Terlingua, which is a tiny place with an old ghost town and interesting people. There are no building codes so you can pretty much do whatever you want. One person lives in a pirate ship and has a building that looks like a mostly submerged submarine. They only got cell phone reception about 5 years ago.
There are also a lot of trails and one trail has a hill that is covered in crystals. We didn't even get to the Big Bend National Park, which has the Rio Grande flowing through it. One fellow camper spent a month in the park and it sounds fabulous.
We spent a few days at a campground run by a retired couple. Our site was on a ridge and there was only one other person camping up there with us. He had just retired from the Marines and had been traveling for four months by that point. He had rescued a little abandoned chihuahua at a rest stop and they've been travel buddies ever since. This chihuahua, whose name is Poncho, is one of the nicest dogs I've met. He's smart and affectionate, with pretty long fur and minimal yapping. He would jump up against Luke's leg and nibble at his hands until he picked him up and held him...and he would sit there content to be cuddled all day long. We need a trail dog.
The campground was pretty sweet. It had a great bathhouse with hot shower (you can probably deduce that we've had lots of not hot showers on our trip) and the owners have a donkey, two horse and about 60 chickens. You can buy organic eggs from them and the chicken lay 'easter' eggs that are naturally multicoloured. I just had to take photos.
They tasted amazing too!
Here's the sunset view from the campsite:
You could also see Mexico in the distance from our site.
It is wonderfully warm there at this time of year. I actually found it too hot sometimes. In the summer, they get 2-3 months of 40-50C temperatures. I don't think I could handle that. Interestingly, they get occasional downpours that, for those who collect the rainwater from the roof of their house, provides water for the whole year.
There had been a little bit of rain, and the previously bare looking thorny plants were blooming.
The local bike shop holds a bike festival in February with a two day, 100km ride in the State park. That sounds like unfinished business to me!
We reluctantly left Big Bend and started heading north for Ontario. As soon as we hit Austin TX it started getting cold and we spent four days traveling and sleeping in the horribly cold weather. When you're sleeping in your truck anything around 0C is very unpleasant. I hit a particular low when I started wearing my soft striped lululemon leggings in public because I didn't want to get changed to go to bed. I went into Walmart that way and Luke predicted I'd end up on the People of Walmart website.
We made it to London ON safe and sound. It was a hard adjustment to be back indoors so much and the current cold weather and snow has me dreaming of Tucson....
