Wednesday, August 26th, 48.6 miles and 1137 accumulated vertical feet up.
Hotel complimentary breakfast and across the street to the grocery. Island Park is behind us now. We were planning to camp at a place called Big Springs Campground, and our route took us past it — good thing we didn’t go this far yesterday cause the campground was closed for construction!!! Anyway the park was open and it was nice.
Thinking about how to express my thoughts about the GDMBR. I’ve been riding it now for over a month. Yes, I miss my family and friends at home! But, what I really want to convey is my mentality and frame of mind when I get up and get started with the current day’s riding. Usually near the end of a day I’m exhausted and have trouble focusing on those thoughts. However during most of the daily sessions riding I’m enjoying the entire experience!! Packing up from the overnight rest and getting some breakfast in me, I’m usually going over what details need to be considered for the ride that day. Then Pulling out I’m making sure everything is packed and balanced and I haven’t forgotten anything. Then It takes a 70 year old body about half an hour to brush off the stiffness and blow up my lungs and get the heart pumping—especially considering some of the altitudes we are living in. Basically everyday there’s an continuous flow of panoramas running past my eyes and I find myself trying to absorb the vastness and endless horizons and beautiful scenery that is so different from what I am accustomed to. There’s no monotonous feeling, there’s no boring time. There’s a full time job of keeping my body fed and watered. (Keeping a food stock on the bike is another story for another day). There’s planning for breaks, restaurants, C-stores, dinners and an overnight location (most times with NO cell phone service, we are mainly depending on downloaded content on Ride With GPS).
Going back to the GDMBR it’s self… In the beginning I was hating the unpredictably of the “road” conditions. I still have disdain when I need to pay more attention to the “road” surface than the sights around me. BUT, I’m beginning to greatly look forward to the changes and challenges of the “road” the rocks, the washboards, the roads that turn into trails, the puddles and other obstructions, the overgrown plants, etc. all makes the experience!!! The ACA used its artist license to the fullest when creating this route… This Ride through the most secluded and rugged areas of our country is just not made for everyone! (If participation is to be increased—which would be beneficial for the ACA and the businesses along the route—then I would suggest the ACA issue several sets of maps, each aimed at a specific demographic.
One thing I learned is that I no longer enjoy riding on the berm of a highly car/truck traveled road, I want quite challenging rides, on fat tires when a 15 mile ride is better than a 25 mile ride going as fast as I can peddle…. But nothing is better than a casual ride with my friends!
Back to Wednesday the 26th:
Did I tell you we see bicycle tracks on these dirt/dusty trails almost constantly but rarely encounter other cyclists. Today we did stop and talk to a guy from Washington DC. He’s using bits and pieces of several ACA routes to get to his sister’s house in North Bend, Oregon. He left Washington in early May.
Thursday, August 27th, 57.3 miles and 3410 accumulated vertical feet up.
So just like I’ve come to expect on the GDMBR, today we spent a considerable portion of our effort riding north and east so that we could get to the Southern Border of New Mexico 🤔😫🤣🚴♂️🚴♂️. A wonderful female Photographer from Tennessee stopped while I was making water in a roadside creek just to make sure we were OK. But when we explained our plan to ride to the Southern Border she pointed out that at the time we were going straight North… we saw her later down the road photographing something in a beautiful creek.
Ken's Adventures 
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