Tour Divide '24: Day 1 - Cumbres Pass to Cañon Plaza

 One last time, let me set the stage for my return to the Tour Divide (TD) route. In a nutshell, back in 2019 I lined up for the race out of Banff, AB. I made it to Salida, CO, some 1800 miles down the route, but a nasty staph infection (MRSA) manifested above my right knee ending my ride there. I met a cool cat, Justin Heckman, from Council Bluffs, IA during the ride sharing a bunch of miles and some campsites along the way. He too did not reach the end, but made it farther than me, scratching in Del Norte, CO.

We've been trying for 5 years to return to the route to finish the deal but life has a funny way of getting in the way of grand plans. Let this be a lesson to those with lofty goals: it'll never be perfect, just GO!! Our 5 years went like this: 2020: COVID. 2021: Justin tweaked his knee while training so I went back to Colorado and rode the section between Salida and Del Norte with a long-time friend. 2022: We were set to finish it from Del Norte, but two weeks prior to launch, New Mexico closed all their National Forests due to wildfire danger. We didn't want to ride all the paved re-routes, so we opted to finish off Colorado on a leisurely two day ride over Indiana Pass. 2023: My wife had a health scare and I needed to stay home. 2024: All the stars aligned. Let's ride.

Red line is the 2019 Tour Divide route with major resupply/checkpoints noted.

Only a 'few' climbs. :)

Now that you're up to speed on how we got here, our plan wasn't to race to Antelope Wells, but we weren't exactly touring either. Fast touring?? Sure. Our original plan was to take the dirt route between Cuba and Pie Town along the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route (GDMBR), but we also had the option to stick to the paved route the Tour Divide racers use if weather became an issue as it's impassable when wet. The fresh release of the 2024 Tour Divide gpx file saw three changes in New Mexico. One of which I helped scout last year with Scott north of Hopewell Lake. We hadn't planned to ride that since I rode it last year and we kind of wanted to stick to the 2019 route since that's what we started. The other changes were intriguing though, one south of Silver City and the other leaving Hachita, both cut out pavement in favor of dirt. I'll always opt for that, or so I thought. More on those later.

Our goal was to shoot for 80 miles per day which would set us up to be in Silver City on Friday night. That would give us an easy, trending downhill, 80 mile day to Hachita where we could rest up and time our pickup from the border much easier.

Justin ready to go, just waiting on a friend...

Ok, the stage has been set, how'd it go? K and I decided to head to Santa Fe a few days early for a mini vacation, which we both needed and really enjoyed. Justin was leaving his truck in Chama, NM and we'd pick him up on our way towards Cumbres Pass. The TD route peels off Hwy17 about 1 1/2 miles north of Cumbres Pass onto CR117. That's where our next TD chapter begins.

Justin and I ready to ride. Photo by K.

Heading off on CR117. Photo by K.

About to cross the historic Cumbres & Toltec Railroad. Photo by K.

Patches of snow here & there near 10,000'. Meanwhile, back home it reached 112º.

We were feeling the altitude early on, at least the climbs weren't steep.

Three miles into the ride, we finally reach our last state: Welcome to New Mexico.

I was here last year with Scott, but today felt different.

The high alpine riding continued.

There was a pretty good climb to get up here and we both cleaned it, which was saying something. Maybe our fitness was a little better than the two of us thought. PeakFinder app.

Nearing the Brazos Ridge overlook, our high point of the entire ride. This would become a theme as the highest remaining points became a notable checkpoint as we rode south.

Sweeping valley before we climb to the overlook.

Ahh, the Brazos Ridge hike-a-bike. Justin checking to see how long this goes on...

Long enough. Not too long though, maybe 15-20 minutes.

The view at the first overlook was pretty ok. PeakFinder app.

We knew we'd be battling the heat down south, so we were quite stoked to walk through a couple of snow drifts.

It's really not the Tour Divide if you don't experience all of nature's elements.

This second drift was rather impressive in depth.

High point of Brazos Ridge near 10,950'.

The descent off the ridge is fast, but has a fair amount of chunk. It's not big chunk, but it'll rattle you around and mess your day up if you don't pick a good line. I love this kind of riding as Arizona is loaded with it, so I let 'er rip. Justin was a bit more cautious and he was running a rigid fork, while my Lauf helped ease the bumps.

Back down in the trees, we were now dodging mud puddles instead of snow.

So beautiful up here, still felt like Colorado.

The miles were ticking by, but the sun was intense at this elevation. It wasn't hot, but it was warm.

Little bit of an aspen alley.

The racers won't be on this section any longer now that the CDT near Lagunitas CG has been added.

I caught up to Justin here and he pointed out the Tesla Cyber Truck driving away. Talk about a random place to see one.

My friend, Lee, bought this place a couple years ago. It's right on the GDMBR route and he's done a great job making it livable. Too bad he had to be away this weekend.

The best part? Clear, cold running spring water on site.

After our short break at Lee's place, we had a 5 mile paved climb to Hopewell Lake. I wasn't really looking forward to it, but the grade was less than I thought. It's always tough to tell what a climb is like when you've only ridden down it at mach speeds. The final pitch was a bit of a drain.

No need to go down to Hopewell Lake since we topped off at Lee's.

We had a bit more climbing to do, getting back to 10,000', then a long descent with a few climbs thrown in to break it up. We were now over the 60 mile mark on the day, but also feeling the effects of riding a loaded bike at elevation all day. By the time we crested the second climb on the descent, the sun was getting low and we decided to call it a day.

One of the climbs after Hopewell Lake.

We weren't too far from Cañon Plaza, about 5 miles, and we weren't sure about the camping situation between there and Vallecitos. We would need another 10+ miles to clear both and we decided to do that in the morning.

We found a nice flat spot in the woods and set up camp with the remaining daylight. For some reason, I did a poor job of planning my first dinner and following breakfast. I don't recall what I ate, but it was just snack food. I'll do better going forward.

First day was in the books at a bit under 67 miles.

Route:

Strava link

Full photo album for Day 1

TD '24: Day 2 - Cañon Plaza to Polvadera Mesa

Here is a full Tour Divide Index from each day on the route.

Mogollon Rim: FS300 & General Crook

 I had time for one last 'training' ride before I headed north to New Mexico to finish the Tour Divide. What to ride, what to ride?? I wanted a higher elevation route, something fairly pedal friendly too. Rim country came to mind. Why not an out-n-back on the Rim Rd., aka: FS300? Yep, that would do.

I arrived at the FS300 / AZ87 junction north of Pine to 68º temps. Perfect. I typically like to skip the first section of FS300 up & over Baker Butte in favor of FS218 as it undulates less and gets to the rim quicker.

I was riding the Havok, the same bike I rode on the 2019 Tour Divide and the one I'd be finishing the route on. I had swapped out the Jones bars in favor of George's new Ti mid-sweep bars, the Falkens. I also had my Brooks saddle with replaced hardware to test out. Early indications were in: Superb comfort and cockpit feel. This bike was made for this type of riding.

Incredibly clear vista to the south. Love days like this. PeakFinder app.

As I rode along towards the AZT junction, I remembered Igor telling me about some new General Crook singletrack in the area. I figured I'd be on the lookout for it and if it appeared good, I'd hop on. Low and behold I spotted a cairn shortly after passing the AZT.

So far, so good. Really nice singletrack through the forest.

It kept going, crossing over FS300 a few times along the way.

While FS300 wasn't super busy with OHV traffic, this was so much better than competing for real estate on the dirt road.

Hard to believe this trail was running parallel to FS300, never really being more than 1/4 mile away.

Little bit of spice on the trail too.

There was a section of trail that had about a dozen down trees, but I also saw a bunch with fresh cuts. Hopefully the rest of the trail will be cleared soon as it generally rode really well. There was one short hike-a-bike where the General Crook cut a corner climb on FS300. That could be easily skipped in the uphill direction.

I also noticed I missed a section of trail as it sometimes uses FS300. I planned to ride it on the return.

Sometimes the trail was right next to FS300.

I reached the 20 mile mark, the last 8 being solely on the General Crook trail. I didn't immediately notice the singletrack continuing so I opted to turn my ride around there. I'd take FS300 all the way back to the car, except for the section of General Crook I missed.

It's really an amazing ride.

I found the section I missed as it cut through a burn area. There was a fairly steep section leading down towards the AZT that would be hike-a-bike going east.

Crossing over the AZT at the Cabin Loops.

I stayed on FS300 all the way, going up & over Baker Butte. It's so beautiful back here.

Too bad some people have to vandalize everything.

I was doing really good on time and remembered I needed to scout a short section of a route I had put together for the Arizona Endurance Series, AES. As luck would have it, the section I needed to scout was from where I was parked, heading west about two miles to the top of Pine Canyon. I had routed it on some remote two-track and history has told me just because it's on a map doesn't mean it's on the ground.

Happy to report, not only was it on the ground, it also rode quite well.

It also turned into some good singletrack that was also part of the General Crook trail hugging a fenceline, but never crossing it.

Route:

Zoom into the far right/east side of the route to see the difference between the General Crook trail and FS300 alignment.

Talk about killing 3 birds with one stone: Training ride, new General Crook trail and an AES route scout. Win, win and win. As a bonus, I felt really good the entire way. I actually feel like my fitness is returning along with some elevation acclimation. Just in the nick of time too. Here I come, New Mexico.

Here is my setup for the New Mexico portion of the Tour Divide, which I'll be resuming on June 8th:

Drive side shot.

Non-drive side. Almost looks like two different bikes.

I'm going to finally earn one of these, along with completing a career Triple Crown of Bikepacking.

You can follow my progress south here: https://trackleaders.com/finishtd24