Day 25 to Cumbres Pass

"Cassi, that is where we will be going ... next year." -Tony

23 miles, 1800 ft climbing

We woke to a cool and clear morning, the south San Juans and Colorado now clearly visible to the northwest. We passed three GDR racers heading south, Dave from Fort Collins and 2 Europeans. With so few people on the divide, it was an unlikely coincidence to meet someone from our home town.

Because of snow drifts and deadfall our last few miles into Colorado, were on dirt road. We stopped to eat celebratory Snickers bars at the NM-CO border, half on each side. Soon after we arrived at Cumbres Pass. The east bound train of the Chama-Toltec Narrow Gauge Railroad came through. We made arrangements to catch it in the afternoon on its way back into New Mexico. As it steamed off, we continued goofing around- taking photos of our arms and legs to document our tan lines and battle scars.

After exploring the railroad site at the pass, we decided some more biking was in order. We followed 3 miles of wonderful singletrack back to the border. The views and the winds were amazing. Eating lunch on the edge of the cliff looking toward the South San Juans, I thought of next years trip on the Colorado CDT (see quote). On the way back we talked to 2 day hikers who filled us in on the fires around Los Alamos we'd been seeing. I felt fortunate that we'd been able to dodge all of these wildfires especially in this drought year. I did not realize how lucky we were. Three days later, both the Carson and Santa Fe National Forests would be closed to all travel. The CDT in northern NM would be impassable until fall.

The train ride down to Chama was expensive, but a great way to end our bike trip. It was nice but also surreal to be moving without pedaling. We stayed at the Rio Chama campground, 2 blocks from the center of town and on the river. We pitched camp in a grove of huge cottonwoods, cleaned up, then went to eat. We ran into Dave and Bev while eating ice cream and gave them an update on the CDT.

new plants seen- chiming bells, silver lupine, cutleaf sunflower

animals identified- elk, blackchinned hummingbird, graycollared chipmunk, goldenmanteled ground squirrel