Scott Junker Rides the Great Divide
Journal #12
Endo the ride and Back in SoCal
Hello-
From my motel in Rio Rancho North of Albuquerque, I rode through the city for the first twenty or so miles which was choked with traffic and I had a disgusting amount of fun mixing it up with the autos in spite of the Bob which flopped about in my wake. From the southern edge of the city the trip became a Taco Bell advert and with skinny road tires I paralleled I-25 on frontage roads and hammered South.
I stopped for the night in Socorro and ate a pizza. In the morning it was more road riding and I spent a long time on the shoulder of the highway. I stopped for a while to let a storm pass but it never came over. As I was pulling back on to the road I met a couple who were auto-touring from New York to Miami. They had run out of fuel, I offered a Double-Caffeine Espresso Love GU Human Octane Booster. They declined, I think it might have clogged the injectors anyway. They took great interest in my trip and interrogated me for a while and took some photos.
I headed on and at the next rest stop met an ex-marine trucker team. They thought it would be really great to ride one of their regular routes at an eighth of their regular speed just to see what they had been missing. They must have radioed me around because for a short while afterwards, I received a disproportionate number of honks and waves from big-rigs.
That afternoon my destination was Truth or Consequences (which was named after the TV game show) where I was to rendezvous with my Mother who volunteered to shadow me for the remainder of the trip and then drive me back to Sunny SoCal. My rear tire flatted about a hundred yards from the off ramp, rather than fix it I just rode in with a flat rear tire.
We met up at the Sonic Burger for limeade and then headed for a motel to clean up. We dined at the only crowded joint in town which we thought was a Mexican restaurant but turned out to be a steak house and sports bar. I had a big rack of juicy spare-ribs which seemed to fall off of the bone.
In the morning we headed West towards Silver City, a big thunder and lightning storm pinned us down, but I jumped in the rolling insulated shelter and hung out until it settled down, from there it was a long rainy climb up to the pass and the other side was a long swooping descent where the grade and wind conspired to keep me at a fun 30 mph for nearly 15 miles no brakes just swinging through turns faster than cars would dare. It was vaguely reminiscent of Bouquet Canyon with big trees and terrific tarmac.
There were a few more hills and I didn't quite make it to Silver City before dark but I had ridden 82 miles so I felt OK about it. Rather than sleep on the side of the road I jumped in the car and was shuttled to town to sleep in a motel. In the morning after a big breakfast I was re-deposited on the road where I was picked up the previous evening.
That day consisted of a rolling elevation gain up to the divide at a little over 5000' and then a rolling elevation loss to a big long descent to the valley floor. Although the total elevation change was around a thousand foot drop there was a lot of climbing.
On the long descent to the valley floor I left the relative shelter of the trees and mountains and had a fairly strong headwind. I was really working to go downhill. As soon as the road leveled off there was a very noticeable temperature jump and off came the warmers and cap for a ride Eastward down the shoulder of I-10. The headwind was now a tailwind and with that help I could spin along with relative ease at 20mph.
Bicycles are permitted on most highways but are required to exit and re-enter at every off ramp, after about 10 miles just as I was topping an off ramp my rear tire was slashed open by a piece of something. I swapped back to a knobby and rode another fifteen miles or so to the turn where I would be heading South to the border. After a supper in Lordsburg in the only restaurant and a sleep in a bed and breakfast at that same restaurant, I got a fairly early start towards the border. Despite the long straight road shown on the map which usually denotes a hill-free, fairly flat ride this was one of the tougher days.
It may be that I already felt 'done' or that it was a long boring ascent but it was tough. The ride was punctuated before the end by a monsoonal type storm which found me in the car/shelter a scant nine miles from the border. No sooner had the worst of the storm passed than I was back out on the bike trying to kill the last chunk of road like the last half of an out and back time trial. I was holding 19 mph, uphill, into a headwind and reveling in the knowledge that I wouldn't be riding the next day.
At the border we took the commensurate pictures and loaded up for a short drive back to Tuscon. In Tucson we grabbed a room and met up with my old roommate, Ed, for dinner at one of the best Mexican places in town. afterwards we headed for The Buffet where we met some other bike dork buddies for a couple of rounds.
In the morning, fueled by Nico's Burritos and much coffee, we drove to San Diego where the trip really ended.
Although I was roaming the continent without company I owe much of my success to my family and friends for the eventual success of my endeavor this includes but is not limited to:
My parents for their visits, concern, and assistance
All of the crew at Sundance Cycles for posting this drivel for you to read as well as their backing on the equipment end of things.
The Boys for their constant and unflagging enspiritment and confidence,
The Jewsburys and cohorts for a great and much needed day off,
The Guelphers for making Banff one of the hardest places to leave/start from,
Special Ed for his internet and 'homefront' assistance,
The countless people who sent me messages of encouragement along the way,
Miss Jenn X who provided me with the cookie-fuel which propelled me through the bad lands of Wyoming,
Randy Sane who hooked My Mother and I up with a ride home,
All of the Motorists who didn't hit me and the few who nearly did but provided me with fodder for writing.
And all of the people I met along the road who provided me with, directions, water, food, advise and optimism for humanity.
I am firmly convinced that any of you could do it too. But I hope you're smarter than that.
What's next? Party of course.
Thursday, August Third, 8:30pm at the Cowboy Palace ,
21635 Devonshire, Chatsworth, CA 91311
To accommodate the geographical disparity of you all we tried to pick something equally inconvenient for everybody.
Go outside,
-Scott(y) Junker
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Scott Junker's Ride Photo Album
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