Forrest Gump

Last night I was very exhausted after my incredible ride. The place I stayed was very scenic and the 12,000 ft ski mtn was visible from the lot. Ruidoso seems like a neat destination, though I had very little time to explore.

This morning I tried to leave late because I had a short ride, I was tired, and I knew it would be cold. I left a little before ten and the roads were still icy. It is quite a challenge to control a loaded bike on ice and hills. Especially when the traffic doesn't want you on their road. At one point I was following this car and it went over a pothole about three ft wide and 6-10 in deep. I barely saw it and I was there. I hit my brakes and the ice didn't let me stop, but I could turn the front wheel to miss. My back wheel, however, entered in. I popped it out and continued on, dodging ice and snow piles all the way out of town.

Upon leaving town I had a 600 ft elevation gain followed by 3,000 ft of vertical drop over about 20 mi. It was cold but the scenery was beautiful and it spilled me out to a warmer valley.

I then headed south to Alamogordo. Five mi north of town I met a guy around my age running with a camelback. He asked if I was cross-country and then informed me he was too. He was going from huntington beach to Georgia and hoped to be done a couple months from now. We didn't talk long, so I don't know if he has a SAG team or how he's doing it exactly, but that's a bit more Forrest than a bike ride, though I'm going across more times.