(Mon, 3/10/25; 35 miles, 3264 feet of climb)
I CONQUERED EMORY PASS!!
This was the scariest part of the whole trip for me, and now it’s DONE! The weather couldn’t have been better. This is the highest mountain pass I’ve biked over since my brother Jim and I tackled Independence Pass on the way to Aspen on our TransAmerica ride in 1982. For some reason, it seems harder at 64 years old than it did at 22…not sure why. It was slow ongoing, but I DID it!
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I had the best night of sleep for the entire trip last night in my small room at Four Seasons. The bed had thick covers and the bedroom temperature got down to 51°F! Just like at home in Wisconsin.
The bike liners that I hung out to dry in my bike were frozen stiff. In fact, all three water bottles on my bike were frozen solid! Alisha told me later that her thermometer read 16°F when she was feeding her horses this morning. I am so grateful I got to sleep indoors!!
I like getting an early start, but had no interest in biking in subfreezing temperatures. Or even in the 30s, for that matter. So I decided to wait until 10 am again.
I used the community kitchen at Four Seasons to cook my last two oatmeal packs, and coffee and hot chocolate. Then I checked my email.
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Last night when I interviewed Alisha, I gave her my Old Scouter card so she would know where the YouTube videos would be some day. I forgot that my email address was on it. When we were talking I’ve over the fence last night, I asked her what time her OLUV restaurant opened. She said it was supposed to be 8:30, but she wasn’t sure if she had a cook for tomorrow.
Well, this morning she EMAILED ME to tell me that breakfast is ready! I didn’t have the heart to tell that I’d already eaten. Plus, it was six miles away, so I figured it would be okay to take a quick break anyway.
When I arrived, I asked if I could just have three over-easy eggs and one large pancake. She obliged, and even with pure maple syrup, the bill was only $8! I should’ve skipped the oatmeal.
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It was a great breakfast, and definitely the only possible stop of the entire day, but I was getting a later start than I had planned. It was 11:00 am before I was back on the main highway! Yikes.
The climb started right away after a descent from San Lorenzo. I was fine with the 4% and 5%, but when I was cranking away too long at 6% or 7%, I had to get off and walk. And definitely at 8-9%.
So the whole day, I kept calculating how long it would take if I walked the rest of the way at 3 mph. It didn’t look good when I was still 12 miles from the pass summit.
But I just kept whittling away, hopping on the bike when it was level or the gradient was reasonable, and hoofing it when it got too steep. I probably spent over half my time today walking.
At long last, I REACHED THE SUMMIT!! It was almost 5 pm, which would’ve scared the heck out of me when I started this trip, with 5:30 sunsets back near San Diego. But now in a new time zone and after Daylight Savings, I had until 7:15.
So I took some time to drink in the views at the summit overlook, and even launched my drone. It was a great feeling to be on the top of the world.
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The descent to Kingston was ALL downhill. Before starting down, I put back on all my warm clothes that I had shed for the big climb. There was zero calories burned flying down the mountain pass, but it was still a lot of work. Cold wind, hairpin turns, and pressure constantly applied to the handbrakes.
Also, I broke the speed limit a few times, but there were no cops among the one or two vehicles I saw every ten minutes.
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I was very relieved to make it to Black Range Lodge a little before 6 pm. I walked in and…total ghost town! Nobody anywhere. I later found out that they had all gone to look at a “natural house” they were building.
This place is amazing! According to the brochure:
The original brick construction dates back to the 1880’s, when the Lodge housed miners and cavalry. Its massive stone walls and log-beamed ceilings were built during the 1930’s.
Catherine Wanek had the foresight to buy the lodge in 1984 — 41 years ago! She opened for business as a bed and breakfast in 1988.
Normally dinners are not served at a B&B, but she invited me to eat with an eclectic crew. Many of them were there to work on “natural building.” Two of them were traveling musicians living out of their van (and in fact they played at RAGBRAI in 2023!), and two others live in the Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage in northern Missouri. The guy who sat right next to me at the big kitchen table does 200-mile multi-day runs.
Needless to say, there were lots of interesting dinner conversations! I’ll probably see them again at breakfast tomorrow, then it’s all downhill with a TAILWIND for 25 miles to Caballo Reservoir, where I turn south another 25 miles to Hatch, NM.
After that, there’s one more hurdle: Wednesday and Thursday, those pesky 25-35 mph SW winds are coming back. Only this time, I’ll be heading south, so they will be HEADWINDS. Stay tuned.
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TRANSLATIONS/BACKGROUND: “CANTBIRD” = CA-AZ-NM-TX Bike Ride, my own nickname for the 1000 miles on the western half of the Southern Tier Bicycle Route, from San Diego to El Paso, using maps from ACA (Adventure Cycling Association). (I did the 1500-mile eastern half in March 2024, which I called GUMBIRD [Gulf of Mexico Bike Ride].)
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LINKS:
Old-fashioned BLOG if you have friends who don’t use Facebook:
“Old Scouter” Facebook page if you want to follow big adventures with more pictures and video clips (but not unrelated personal posts):
“Old Scouter” YouTube page (when I get time to edit after the trip):