Why Did You Quit?

As we swelter in mid to high ninety degree heat in Albuquerque, many people I meet here are wondering why I am not still on my "big trip?" When I tell them about the the miles of snow and mud, and the strong winds that nearly blew my off Brazos Ridge they don't seem to be able to conjure up a picture of that in their minds. They ask: "How long have you been home?" Perhaps I am referring to some events in the distant past, because these far-fetched stories just don't match up with the present reality.

In any case, I pulled a few pictures from my photo albums to remind myself why I decided to not continue on the GDMBR this year. If it were just a few miles of the whole route, then so what? I suppose relative to the total length of the 2700 miles of the GDMBR it is just a few miles, but with a load it simply is not fun. With the severe winds it became very dangerous. Many miles of roads are washed out, and even experienced racers are getting lost in sections that they have traveled through at least once or twice before. How about the caved in tunnel or the hundreds of big downfalls to climb over and move a load through? The pictures below are trivial in comparison to other places on the route this year.

I guess it is just a matter of how much fun you can stand. As for me, I had all the fun I could stand on the GDMBR for this year just in New Mexico.



These were small snow banks, but by the time you climb over and through a few dozen of them, and slosh around in the soft, wet snow, the mud, and the icy cold melted water you begin to wonder what you have gotten in to. We had no warning. At best our information was inaccurate. In at least one case I think we were outright lied to about the conditions ahead. Once you were in it, you just hoped you would make it through the mess in one day, because turning around was not a good option either. It was too far to ride back around the Cruces Basin Wilderness.





For a while you could sometimes work your way around to a lower section of the snow bank, but then it became a solid barrier of snow and downfalls. There was no way around, so you had to plow your way through it as you crawled up to 11,000 foot elevation.




Near the top you were fully exposed to the gale force winds. The mud was worse than the snow to get through.



Then I got to a point where I had no idea where the road was located, but I knew I had a turn coming up fairly soon. I definitely did not want to miss the turn that would take me down the other side of the mountain off the windy ridge.





With the GPS I found the turn down the mountain, and lived happily ever after - at least so far.