56: Quicksand, Bears and UFOs!
Would New Mexico be New Mexico without seeing at least one unidentifiable aerial object?
Spent yesterday holed up in Cuba, watching torrential rain and feeling quite pleased with my decision to wait out the weather.
Left Cuba bright and early this morning and discovered quickly after turning off the pavement that the desert landscape is very much still processing the rain from the last few days. Unfortunately, after a couple of miles, when the CDT became singletrack, I encountered a sign indicating the trail is closed to bikes (despite Trailforks showing the trail as bike legal).
Of the perils and hardships I had girded myself for during these travels, I must confess that quicksand was not one of them. While attempting to reroute to a nearby road, my front wheel collapsed through the surface of some hyper saturated sand, and pitched me right over the handlebars into fast sinking quicksand, adding insult (and muddy sand in unexpected places) to the already odd scenario of pulling my bike out of sinking sand. With my both my person and my bike heavily encrusted in wet sand, I pointed my bike back toward Cuba to regroup.
$16 in quarters at the carwash and one cup of coffee later, I’d outlined a new route of real roads (no more jeep tracks!) and was ready to go again. Just about this time, Sagar and Sarah (and their dogs Tux and Yucca) arrived from Santa Fe!
Sagar rode with me for some 30 miles, before we rejoined Sarah who had taken the dogs for a bit of a hike. Tailgate beers and tasty snacks were enjoyed!
Eventually I reluctantly said farewell and started back down the road.
One last bit of excitement for the day: just at sunset as I was cresting the mesa this evening, I saw a bear, standing on hind legs and seeming to stretch itself on the stout post of a gate. It ran off, but not before I got a good glimpse at both it and its cub!