PECOS, NM—It should have been an easy day: only 25 miles and a train ride. It started out fine. Mike and I met near the Alvarado Station in downtown Albuquerque. We made sure our bikes were set up and rode them over to the RailRunner platform.
What a deal! Roll on service for bicycles. Frankly, this is not a common service. AmTrak is still trying to decide whether it wants to do it. But here on our RailRunner Express, you roll your bike right on to the train, fasten it to a bulkhead, and that is that. No disassembly, no boxes, no extra charge.
We got off at the South Capital station in Santa Fe and basically zig-zagged our way east until we hit Old Pecos Trail. We headed towards the outskirts of Santa Fe under gray skies. We were full of enthusiasm and well-rested. Not even Mike’s flat tire got us down.
The skies got darker and darker. Finally we stopped for lunch at Harry’s Roadhouse just as the rain started. The rain continued off and on for the rest of the day.
It was a cold rain. In fact, the best part of the ride was that we were going uphill, and consequently we kept pretty warm. We didn’t take too many pictures because we didn’t want to get our cameras wet. However, we did stop at the Glorieta Pass Civil War memorial.
This home-made salute to the battle that took place in Glorieta Pass and Apache Canyon is the only monument, public or private, to the Civil War in New Mexico that I know about. The Battle of Glorieta is sometimes called the “Gettysburg of the West” because it was the furthest north the Confederates got in the west and they were defeated here just as in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
The memorial is on private property and was constructed by Al Sanchez. Why isn’t this a National Monument? There is so much interest in the Civil War, one would think it would be a no-brainer.
Well, those dark thought about war were soon replaced by even darker thoughts about the weather. There were unmarked detours would have added an extra 12 miles to our day if not for a friendly motorist who gave us a timely tip: get on I-25 now, the on-ramp you are headed for is closed.
We worked our way through the cold and rain. There was no place to stop. Sometimes, when the hills seem to go on forever, my mind rambles into a kind of stream-of-consciousness bicycle narrative.
“Will this hill never end? Now the hill seems to have leveled out but I’m still pedaling hard and only going 4 mph…what’s with that? And why is the water rushing towards me? My hands and feet are soaking wet, but my legs don’t feel too bad. At 4 mph I figure I’ll get to Pecos sometime tomorrow or the day after.”
But the most concerning thing of all was that we didn’t know where we would be spending the night. We could find nothing on-line in Pecos at all. When we finally rolled up to the Forest Service headquarters, they suggested a campground with Adirondack shelters five miles north of town.
I was really so cold and wet, but I would do it. I thought that I could probably survive okay in my sleeping bag provided I could get dry, but what about tomorrow? It would mean putting on those same cold, wet riding tights and jacket. And snow was predicted for tonight.
Fortunately, somebody suggested calling the Benedictine Abbey. Our Lady of Guadalupe Abbey is about two miles north of the four-way stop in Pecos. They had rooms to rent for the night! Fantastic! And there even was an internet room. Not only that the people were so nice. Mike spent a great deal of time talking to Brother Joseph about bicycling.
Here’s the bottom line. We are safe and warm. We will eat breakfast here at the monastery tomorrow morning. Then, hopefully, off to Las Vegas in better weather. After all, tomorrow is another day.
