I had a couple days off work and wanted to get out of town. So, I headed for Mount Taylor which is just north of Grants, NM and within the Cibola National Forest. My plan was to tent camp at one of the two campgrounds and spend several days riding double track in the area.
I got didn’t get started on my little adventure until Sunday afternoon stop at the Ranger Station before heading up the mountain but I could not find it.
I found BOTH campgrounds were closed. What?!?! It was getting relatively late in the day and I needed a place to setup camp so I just headed to where I thought some good bike riding would be and found a spot. This is called “Dispersed Camping” in National Forests and is allowed (here, at least). I actually found a spot that was previously used and had a fire ring already constructed.
I setup my home to be sure I was ready for the dark. When it gets dark in the wilderness, it is DARK!
I still had plenty of time for a ride so off I went – uphill. The double track was reasonable – mostly hard pack with quite a few rocks and washed areas. The climbing wasn’t all that bad so I just kept chugging along.
After stopping to take a few photos, I jumped on my bike and something sounded really wrong. Further investigation revealed that one pedal was really loose on the shaft but the jam nut was tight against the race. How did that happen while I was stopped taking photos, I asked… No idea. I didn’t see anyone run out of the forest with a socket wrench and mess with my bike but that is obviously what happened.
I was bummed – I drove 100 miles, setup my camp, and was fully prepared for a few days of awesome riding. All to be lost to a pedal. Worse, a nut in a pedal. Ugh… The pedal worked well enough to get be me the few miles back down to my campsite. It was downhill most of the way so I didn’t have to use it much.
So, there I was, feeling all dejected and a thought struck me. Sometimes thoughts do that to me – mostly though, they wait for awhile until I have thoroughly mired myself in misery. Why don’t I just fix it?? Yea, I says, I have tools in the car and there are probably plenty of “extra” ball bearings in the other pedal. So, a couple of minutes later, the pedal was fixed. Most, if not, all of the ball bearings were still in the pedal as it was now spinning quite nicely so I didn’t have to steal from the other pedal.
At this point, I had to stop and ponder myself. Sometimes my defeatist mentally really ticks me off. This was one of those times. How brilliant would I have felt had I packed up camp, drove home, and then had the thought to just fix it?!?!?!?
While I was sitting there enjoying the quiet, I started hearing noises. It was the sound of something wondering thru the woods. From the sounding of snapping branches, it was clear that it was coming my way, whatever it was. Of course, my first thought was a bear. Within a minute or two or became obvious that it was more than one “something” – it was a group of somethings. I decided to just sit still and maybe I would be treated to a herd of elk. The animals were clearly grazing and slowing passing thru the area. Finally, one of the animals came fully into view – a COW! What!? I can see a cow anywhere – I wanted to see some elk!!! 🙂
The typical summer fire restrictions had recently been lifted so I went about creating a little camp fire. I’m trying to learn some “survival” skills so I’ve been using only a magnesium stick to light my fires. Normally, this works pretty well or I am lucky. This day, that wasn’t the case. I finally figured out that even though the wood looked dry, it was just wet enough that it didn’t want to burn. So, I made a more concerted effort to gather the driest possible kindling using dried pine needles, old mans beard, and tiny little branches all still hanging on the trees. This worked and soon I had a nice little fire going.
Dinner was to be chili – yippee!! I cracked the lid a hair to allow it to vent, set the can inside the fire ring next to the fire, and sat back to enjoy the peace and quiet. A while later I was enjoying a hot dinner! A little tip that I learned subsequent to this dinner is that eating chili while not having a bathroom readily available is probably not the best plan. Nonetheless, it tasted great!
I finally headed for the tent and got myself tucked in. Then it hit me – I had setup my tent right in the middle of some plants that my nose/allergies did NOT like one little bit. I had noticed it when setting up the tent but it was so slight I really didn’t give it a second thought. Now, it was plenty strong. I laid there trying to ignore it as it was pitch black outside and moving the tent wasn’t much of an option at this point. Combine this with just enough noise and I could not get to sleep. Animal noise, wind noise, a light sprinkle of rain noise, etc… Shortly after 2am, I finally gave up and moved to my car. That didn’t prove any more comfortable so it was a nearly sleepless night.
As soon as it was light, I began packing up my camp site. I then drove to another location further into the Cibola forest for an epic bike ride.
The story continues tomorrow….
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