Day 8 — Alamogordo to El Paso

The last day is the longest: 109 miles. The forecast is 60 percent chance of rain with winds up to 20 mph or more, coming from the south to southwest (the direction I’m headed). Some friends from the El Paso Bicycle Club had said they might try to meet up with me in Las Cruces but the last email indicated the weather would cancel their plains. Meanwhile, my wife had to cancel plans to meet me in Alamogordo (she was nursing a sick dog just home from the vet) so that meant I would have to carry all my gear for the final long haul.

I get up at 5:40 a.m. and look outside – no rain. Half an hour later – rain. Another half-hour – no rain. I head out just before 7 a.m. and wheel down the road to a pancake house for breakfast. The weather is still dry when I get going around 7:30.

Eight miles later I get the second flat tire of the ride. Looks like a cut on my rear tire, which was new when I started the ride but now is fairly worn due to carrying the two rear saddlebags. I’m thankful the weather is still dry as I replace the tube (I can patch the old tube at home).

Ten miles later, I get a call from my bike club buddies. Their ride is a go after all and they are already about an hour along on their ride to Mesilla. That means they have two hours at most to get there and I have four hours or more. At least the phone call makes me concentrate on my pace.

U.S. 70 is one of the most boring stretches of Bikecapade II, as it was with the first Bikecapade 20 years ago. This time I was going in the other direction. Aside the a few glimpses of the gypsum dunes at White Sands National Monument, the road is a numbingly straight line through the desert for nearly 40 miles. Then begins a long climb to the San Augustin Pass. At least that will be the last climb of Bikecapade.

Headed downhill, I make plans with the biking friends for them to meet me at U.S. 70 and I-25. When we get there, we find out that bicycles aren’t allowed on the U.S. 70 overpass, so it takes a few minutes to ride around and connect. About eight of them have made the trip (thanks Linda, Margaret, John, Phil, Olac, Ashley, Jaime and Marta!). You can see them (except for Ashley taking the picture) at the Bikecapade photo gallery: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=q0xr8qy.161e7da2&x=0&h=1&y=-t70kx&localeid=en_US

We make a refueling stop at a fast food place so I can keep going, then head back home on NM 28. The pace is stiff for the 40+ mile trip home – about 17 mph average. But the legs hold up and I still can manage a sprint or two in the final miles.

The final total: 721 miles over the 8 days – an average of 90 miles a day.

Mission accomplished. I will post a couple of reflections on the ride later.