end of the week

i woke up in the lower luganitas campground to the sound of a lone mooing cow.

not being a cow whisperer, i did not know its pleas or message, but it seemed urgent. such is the life of a range cow…wake people up, shit in their campground, and do it everywhere.

luganitas is a beautiful spot, about a mile’s worth of premium forest service gravel up from the divide trail. i did not see it the night before but with the mooing of a new day, saw my tent in the middle of large spruce and pine grove next to two alpine ponds whose cow impact was visible in its algae-choked waters.

on the good side, there was toilet paper. the down side? cows have free domain on public lands.

don’t get me started.

again.

i started my ride with limited water, but knew there were a couple of water sources for filtration and that was a good idea until i saw the water and figured i’d rather die of dehydration.

just when i started to get desperate, a forest service truck came my way, slowed down and asked if i wanted water.

heck yes.

tommy and henry were returning from a small lightning-caused fire and were both bikers. they knew who did and who didn’t need water.

tommy told me about the best mexican food in new mexico in el rito, and i stuck that to my brain with a mental post-it note, given my path would bring me to el rito on saturday.

we bs’d a while because of that “public sector thing” and then bid farewell. the water was a great boost to my spirits.

my goal for the day was to make it to lake hopewell, which is a prominent usfs campground in the middle of nowhere, but on the way to the finish.

it is a fee campground, which should mean toilet paper, clean privy vaults, and other things enforced by the campground hosts. it also includes a $24 fee, explicitly geared towards “vehicles”.

on the welcoming kiosk, depictions of vehicles included cars, trucks, rv’s and trailers. it did not include a bicycle, but i was tired and didn’t want to argue with host doug, who also informed me the wells were closed and if i wanted water, i’d have to go filter it from the lake, a quarter-mile away and 150’ below the campground. i did argue about that with doug and he tapped into his 20-gallon water tank and poured me two liters of sun-scalded water.

after eating, i did go to the water source, but had to wiggle a shoreline space between fishing and drinking families who seemed put off by the guy filtering water between them.

i said nothing. no one said anything to me.

in the morning i got up early, with an intended destination of abiquiu, about 60 miles away.

i stopped in el rito at el farolito, but it was closed, even though it was a half-hour past it’s saturday opening time of 1:30. i beat on the door, eager for sustenance and ended up riding away while eating jerky.

where is a trail angel, or the owner of el farolito when you need them?

by the time i arrived in abiquiu, i was tired and booked a room at the abiquiu inn, which has bikepacking rates and is really the best facility of the divide.

plenty of water and toilet paper.

can’t go wrong.