I have completed the long boring drive across Texas and New Mexico. My Caveman compass pointed me towards Durango, CO, and I will make this my home for a while. My journey began  by leaving my beloved homebase of eleven years, Austin, and heading up to my hometown of Terrell to stay a night and see family. From there, I headed West and a little north across TX and NM. Here is a picto-post of my journey thus far:

Driving across the parched nothingness of North Texas near Wichita Falls.

The digital thermometers at every small town I drove through registered 102+ d F, and I was rolling with the 2-60 AC 90% of the trip. At least the roads were free of traffic and the Texas sky was big and bright.

The world famous Cadillac Ranch just outside of Amarillo. I can finally scratch this one off my Texas bucket list.

Got to watch the sunset in Texas one last time. Lego Caveman was an ok travel companion. He didn’t talk much, but sometimes that is good thing.

Farewell, Lone Star state.

As I neared Tucamcari, NM I had a front row seat to a spectacular lightning storm. My camera didn’t have night settings, so all i got was blurry car lights and a little white patch from a lighting bolt illuminating the clouds. The strorm was actually a little down the road in Santa Rosa, NM where I spent the night.

By the time I hit Santa Rosa, NM, it was late and I was tired of driving so decided to find a campground for the night. There is a state park on Santa Rosa lake just north of town. I had a hell of time finding the park and a place to pitch a tent (thanks to the state of New Mexico’s uber intuitive wayfinding), but eventually found an ok pad, setup camp, and crashed hard. I woke up to a beautiful sunrise.

Made it through Albuquerque and onto Hwy 550 which would take me all the way to Durango.  I could see the beginnings of the San Juan mountains in the background.

Colorado State Line, my new home state for a while.

On top of the plateau looking down into the Animas river valley. A beautiful day here in the 4 corners region.

This is the view looking south from my new place.

Here is a view of my backyard. I caught this pretty little lady hanging out mid day. There are some crabapples on the property that she really enjoys. I got to within 10 ft tossing some her way.

So, that sums up the trip and a little bit about where I have landed. My second day here I met up with Austin mountain bike friend Payson McElveen who will be going to school here at Ft. Lewis College and we rode a good chunk of Horse Gulch, the more popular local trail system starting right out of downtown. I’m totally out of shape and struggled to keep up with him on the climbs, but I reckon a 3-4 rides out here a week will get me back in shape very quickly. Enjoy the ride!
Caveman

The weekend went according to plan and I did make it to Warda to participate in the Blazing Saddles 6 hour race on Saturday. Ladybird and I made it out to the ranch around 4pm and started setting up. Former NRC/Pedalmasher head honcho James Webb showed up about a half hour later and started setting up his gear next to mine, as we had coordinated earlier in the week. Both of us would be racing completely self supported, other than having each others tools/food/water to share. Having Colleen at these long races has really spoiled me, but I’m no stranger to self supported racing and this go round it was actually kind of nice. I wasn’t out to win this one, and not having to squeeze every single second out of my feed zone times helped reinforce this mentality.

I was racing Long Tall Sally 2.0 for the first time. Mike of YBS bikes had dropped it off Wednesday that week and I hurried to get her built and dialed in before the race. I normally would never do anything like this since it is asking for mechanical and bike fit issues, but since I wasn’t planning on being super competitive for this race, I saw it as a great chance to break her in. Also, before the frame came in, I was debating which bike to race-Proud Mary the light fast snappy hardtail, or Big Tex the heavier but much more comfortable full suspension. Having limited ride time the past few weeks, I didn’t know If I could handle 6 hours on an alloy hardtail. A steel hardtail was a good compromise. Heavier than the Kona Kula (only about 1.5 lbs), but lighter than the fully, with the supple riding quality of steel!

I had my only mechanical on the first lap. I washed out in a sandy turn and had to put my foot down. The chain jumped off the big ring onto the crank arm. I was using an old bent front derailleur that my sponsor shop had lying in the scrap box in the back ( the frame clearances are a little weird on this bike and this was the only one we found that was compatible). It wasn’t an ideal setup, but after that little flop I didn’t have one single problem with the bike the rest of the race. I loved the 2×9 gearing with 40/27 up front and 34/11 in the rear. I am going to see about going to a 36 or 38 ring instead of a 40 so I can stay in the big ring more often and spin a little faster.

The evening wore on and after 4 laps it was getting dark. Threw the lights on and started out for lap 5. The heat had taken its toll on just about everybody at this point. Riders were dropping like flies. I was feeling ok though, and kept chugging along. Just as predicted, I began passing riders and building my confidence. I felt my second wind coming on and the pace picked up. My legs had reached that point of fatigue where the pain somehow feels good and you get a sense that you can ride forever. My biggest concern coming into the race, whether or not my butt would hold up from saddle soreness, didn’t seem to be an issue. All of a sudden, the race demon came out, sort of.

I knew the lead was out of the question ( the winner, Tristan Uhl would actually lap me at the end of this lap), but, I figured If i pushed hard and made up 5 minutes a lap, I could catch anyone within 20 minutes. Maybe I could get a podium spot. I kept the pace high.

After a short break back at camp, I started on the 7th lap. I could tell my motor skills were fading even though my muscles felt fine. I’ve dealt with failing motor skills in the middle of 24 hour races at 2:30am, but never at a 6 hour at 10:30pm. This started a bit sloppy and just got worse until I smacked a tree with my left handlebar. My right shoulder is the one recovering from dislocation, but the impact was kind of an action-reaction sequence and jerked my right shoulder forward unexpectedly. It wasn’t excruciating pain, maybe 7 out of 10, but it gave me a pretty good scare. With 10,000 more trees between me and the finish line, I decided to play it safe, slow down, and call it a day after this lap. I rolled in at 11:06pm, a little bummed I didn’t go the full 6 hours, but pleased nonetheless with the effort and really, really excited that the race demon had paid me a visit.

Thanks to friends and sponsors who had a hand in my success: YBS Bikes, Eastside Pedalpushers, Bobcat13 Photography, Paleo Cookbooks, James Webb, and the world’s best cheerleader, my dog Ladybird.