Dehydration, Mountains & Rest

I've made it to Farmington! I'm just 60 miles from Arizona & the 4 corners. It's been raining/ snowing the past few days so I'm spending the weekend with a couple from warmshowers.org who have been very kind & inviting.

First off, New Mexico has kicked my ass. With that it has also become my favorite state. There is just something about struggling up a 10k' pass while being tossed around by the wind and barely being able to see anything that I just love. The scenery here is grand, the weather bipolar, and the people are awesome.

Once I left Raton things took a turn for the better, the temps warmed up and I got a tail wind all the way to Cimarron. I checked out their main street which was pretty nice, bought some bananas & greek yogurt (2x protein) and headed for the cliffs. The fencing on 64 just outside of town was in total disrepair, making me believe the land was no longer used/ abandoned & served to be the perfect camp spot. The temperature at night got to the low teens and my bananas turned black & started to freeze so I spent some time at 2 am finishing those off along with a cup of tea.

In the morning I headed through Cimarron Canyon which was totally rad. I made my way through Eagles Nest & Angel Fire and climbed through Carsons National Forest crossing a pass at some 9600'. I camped in Carsons after dragging my bike through some damned snow and up a 200' hill. (If you ever saw Into The Wild picture the scene where Chris drags his canoe up the side of the Grand Canyon in order to get away from river patrol) I had little water left so I boiled some snow up; it wasn't enough though and this is where the trouble began.

On Monday I made my way into Taos passing by old Pueblo homes and a ton of art studios. I went into the local bike shop, Gearing Up, and the owner allowed me to clean my bike using their tools. It's a good thing I did as my rear hub was loose and derailleur hanger was off by an inch. I stayed with a warmshowers host that night, Elisabeth, who cooked me up a great pasta dinner. In the morning I decided on a major goal, 200 miles in the next two days, which on flat land would seem like nothing but in the mountains turned out to be almost impossible. I had to make it to Farmington by Thursday though as a major snow storm was moving in and getting stuck out in the elements would not have been good. I crossed the Rio Grande river at the John Dunn Bridge and continued west feeling pretty sluggish. I entered Carsons Nat. Forest for the third time and went from zero snow on the ground to about a foot some 3 thousand feet higher. (the roads were clear though) Once I got to 9000' I started feeling horrible. It was hard to see, I was sleepy as could be & a throbbing headache moved in. Elevation sickness I though. I maxed out at 10,500 feet and started descending. It was getting dark and I was cold, I had no idea where I would camp and the nausea remained. Before I descended to the bottom I saw a gentleman going into his driveway and yelled frantically in hopes of him hearing me. He told me the next town was some 10 miles down and the next motel some 20. Luckily he allowed me to stay at his guest house and I was more thankful for that then I can describe.

That night I finally realized I was really dehydrated (up until now I thought it was just elevation sickness). Turns out you breathe out twice as much water vapor above 6 thousand feet as you do at sea level, and the past few days at high elevation and little water caught up to me. I was angry that it took me that long to realize what was happening but glad I realized it before it got more serious.

A night of "heavy drinking" let me complete the 120 or so miles I had to get to Bloomfield/ Farmington but not easily. I had a few occurrences where I believe I was hallucinating ( turning my head & seeing a car, waiting a couple of seconds, not hearing anything & looking back to see no car in sight, things running across the road, weird lights in the evening). My Eminem discography helped to keep me peddling but daylight was running out. I still had some 20 miles to go when night came and was riding with just some cheap blinkers on a road that had no shoulder. I had no phone service either so I tried flagging a down a car to either get a lift or to use their phone. After 2 hours of riding in the night a guy finally pulled over and let me use his cellphone, I got a lift into town and was so tired that I didn't feel tired at all.

I've spent the beginning of December just laying around, drinking lots and resting a ton. I'm hoping to head out Monday and make it to the Grand Canyon by midweek, after that it's off to Las Vegas. I'm pretty sure that from there I will head west onto the coastal highway and North into San Francisco as opposed to going North through Nevada and then somehow trying to make it across Yosemite Park into SF. There is a good chance most of those mountain passed could be closed this time of year anyway.

I seem to have stopped thinking while being off the bike. I've focused all of my attention to being safe on the road that when I get off I end up doing some silly things. This past week I've hit my head on several doors, fell down stairs, walked into things and even burnt myself twice. I wonder if I stayed on the bike for 10 hours a day and then just slept the rest of the time if it would be possible to forget how to walk after a month or two; or at least become really clumsy at it. Sort of like the people who live with animals in the wild and forget how to socialize with people after a while.

That's all I've got for now, look for another post soon dealing with my thoughts on reality and survival that this trip has evoked!

Peace (: