Day 33: Road to Pie Town

Wednesday July 21

Grants, NM to TLC Ranch, NM

55 miles, 1675 ft climbed, 2221.3 cumulative miles

We waited until almost the hottest part of the day, 11 am, to leave Grants and only 6 miles later, we were at the last gas station we expected to see until Silver City, buying cold beverages. The hot afternoon was in front of us and neither of us were keen to go. 

Grants was one of the last resupply stops and potential laundry for several hundred miles, so we did both, and enjoyed breakfast and trail stories with a fellow SOBO rider, Evan. It was fun to recount some of our adventures and hear how different his were. 

We took the alternate route again which provided us with more pavement. The entire region is under a flash flood advisory and having heard about the peanut butter mud that you can encounter in NM, we elected pavement. 

It was a pretty ride and we briefly stopped to admire the El Malpais national monument area. We cycled through several “watch out for water” and “elk crossing” signs which we didn’t expect to see in NM. We saw a baby elk, all alone, drinking near a culvert where the water has pooled. 

Then we turned on dirt “Pie Town Road” and it felt somehow more relaxing to be on dirt again. One of the two motorcycle riders that we saw, outside of two cars, slowed down and shouted “Mexican border? We are going to the Canadian border”. 

We planned on a shorter day after the 120 miler yesterday and camped at a cattle and horse ranch about 15 miles outside of Pie Town, making it a 55 mile day. We figured that will get us perfect timing to get to Pie Town for breakfast and pie, of course. 

The rancher’s sweet daughter in law made us some dinner and strawberry lemonade and brought a few apples. We were cozy in our tents before the sun went down for a good night’s rest. 

Published July 25, 2021