Left Florida on May 30 (later than planned) and arrived in Las Cruces NM on June 1. Early on the fourth met with Tim from El Paso who rode along on his WRR to the official Dell City TX start point, meeting Brian which made two WRR's and one CRF250L from there to Cloudcroft, where Brian (from Lubbock on the Honda) and I made camp, while Tim continued into Cloudcroft to see his grandfather. That was as far as Tim had planned to ride.
Brian's intention was to ride as much of the 1,290 route as he could given 7 days off from work. To my surprise we covered the entire route. Surprised not because 1,300 miles in 6-1/2 days riding is unrealistic, rather surprised because both of us had a few things to sort wih respect to gear, minor repairs, and terrain that was often much less forgiving than either the BDR website's trailer or DVD depicted. Keep in mind 80% of the route is NOT paved... I'll get into that soon.
We completed Saturday through Thursday usually less than a mile apart, pitching camp where we liked and finding each other the following morning. I prefered winging it and sleeping where the cows crap if that's what it took to snooze off the grid, Brian tended to favor established campsites which had their benefits. On two occasions I opted to follow his lead in that regard, and camp where normal folks did.
The final day we parted ways given he had opted to follow the expedient route on the NMBDR's "NM7" final section, while I was bent on taking a stab at the alternate route that was rated as "expert" by the route developers. More on that later, but rest assured Brian and I shook hands promising no ill will towards the other if the decision to ride solo were to incur any peril.
I reached Antonito Colorado (the official "End-Point") about 3:30pm, and he arrived shortly after 8pm according to his text. Neither of us have discussed any particulars regarding the final day's ride, but I can only assume he took it easy, assuring safe passage, and know for a fact I rode that last day like I had nothing to lose. Fortunately that turned out well, not ending badly.
Traversed back to the bottom of NM via a combination of two lane blacktop and improvised ranch road "chance" routes where fate smiled on me and the trusty WRR, with no locked gate forced re-routes... gotta love western states. Wound up back in Las Cruces to visit mom and dad, for a few more weeks, after which I'll ride back to Florida, and wrap up this report with thorough pictures and detailed accounts of the highlites.
More soon.
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