August 30

We have a Continental breakfast at the KOA. It is nothing special, but gives us the calories we need for the morning ride. John, Don and I decide to ride as a threesome today and we are looking forward to learning more about each other. The next section will be determined by the current weather and the road conditions. It will be a day by day decision. John leads out with the mission to find a grocery store. Alas we are going thru a part of town that lacks one. We know there is a gas station /convenience store on route so that will have to do. We pull in to the gas station and find an okay selection.. We each buy something that will add to our food bag. We are taking the pavement section thru El Malpais National Monument. There is a gravel route thru here, but due to muddy conditions it is not advisable .

We are in awe of the flowers that brighten the road side.

The volcanic rock makes a great back drop for the sunflowers.

its a field of flowers on one side and rock formations on the other side

There isn’t much of a shoulder, but the traffic is very light.

The route is quite level so we are making good time and enjoying conversation.

We stop to check out an arch in the park,

When we get to the end of the National Monument we see the sign for Pie Town.

We have to decide whether to go for dirt or pavement. We have been on pavement for the last couple of days and decide to give the gravel a go. We can always turn back.

The dirt road in the beginning is quite nice and then we run into the sign that says no maintenance . We later found out that the person in charge of road Maintenance had a house in the first part of the road.

There have been several vehicles on the dirt road section. We figure if they can get thru we should have no problem. One truck stops and asks if we need anything, they warn us of muddy sections but that we should be able to get around them.

It has been several days since it has rained . Right after a rain the roads are impassable for vehicles as well as bikes.

There are several storm cells in the area and we are hoping that one won’t come our way. When we arrive to the TLC ranch we decide to take a break and see what the storms are going to do. There is a homestead building which the owners have provided water, a compost toilet and a cooler with some fruit for hikers and bikers. There is also the ability to get out of the rain.

The actual building is closed, but there is a table and chairs under the roof. We take a break and when the weather seems to be improving we head to Pie Town.

When we get cell service, John calls ahead to let the restaurant in Pie Town know that there are three hungry bikers arriving soon. The cafe closes at 7, but they will be waiting for us.

We arrive to the town that in 1927 had asked the authorities for a post office. When it was suggested that they come up with a more traditional name, they said no thank you. We like Pie town. There was a man in the early 1900’s who was known for his pie baking abilities and the town became known as Pie Town. The town has gone thru a lot of boom bust eras. It is now known for its pies and has a yearly pie celebration every September. We find the Doe and Buck cafe and get ready to satisfy our hunger. We are given free appetizers and then a delicious meal arrives. There are about 10 different pies we can choose from for dessert. The new owners of the restaurant are the owners of the TLC ranch that provides water and shelter for hikers and bikers. We were glad to take a rest at their ranch, but are happy to be here and have a hot cooked meal. We talk to Larry about the route from here, Again there are options pavement or gravel. He tells us that the postman got thru the next section, it was washed out in places, but figured we could get through. If it doesn’t rain tonight we should be fine.

We are staying at the Toaster house tonight, It is a house with a history. The main use of it now is for hikers and bikers to spend the night there. The owner raised her family there and became aware of the hikers and bikers passing her house. She often hosted them when she was still living there with her family.Now her family is grown and she lives in a nearby location. Her cousin, Jefferson was caretaking and showed us around. It is a donation based arrangement.

John, Don and I were the only ones staying there tonight. The bulk of the CDT hikers going north bound have already passed thru. Several bikers were here last week.

The house became called Toaster house. when Nita’s daughters put some toasters on the fence and then toasters kept being added.

On the porch was quite the display of hiking foot gear. Bikers tend not to wear out shoes!

Before Don and I arrived to Toaster House we stopped by to see a sister of a friend. She has lived here for awhile and actually used to be the owner of the restaurant that we had dinner. There are less than 200 people living here so to have a connection here was neat. A good night of sleep was had by all and plans for a breakfast at Doe and Bucks is something to look forward to.

Campsite Pie Town Toaster House

Miles Peddled 69

August 31

We are packed and ready to go before 7 so we can arrive to Does and Bucks when it opens. First though Jefferson the caretaker needs to take our photo and we need to take his photo.

Jefferson tells us that Nita, the owner has just returned from a trip and may meet us at Does and Bucks.

We take note of this sign before sitting down to a very filling breakfast.

Nita did show up and joins us for breakfast. We learn a lot about Pie Town and the Toaster House. She offers to take us on a tour of the town and to see a couple of the interesting places nearby. We quickly say yes and pile into her car. The first site is the Windmill Museum.

It is a collection of old windmills including the truck located in the bottom right of the photo which was used to set the windmills up right.

The next stop is the VLBA (Very Long Baseline Array) There are 10 of these structures spread across the United States. They help astronomers to make detailed studies of celestial objects.

Nita tells us that sometimes this telescope is dancing as it hones in on objects.

We then proceed to head thru town learning about the history and about some of the buildings. It was quite the interesting morning and much appreciated.

Final stop is back to the Does and Bucks Restaurant to have our photo taken by Nita.

We talked to Nita about the route south to highway 12 on the gravel. She agreed with Larry that parts of the road are in bad shape, but we should be able to work our way around it.

It was a beautiful ride and we were able to get around the spots that were washed out. Not sure I would want to have to drive this road in a car.

These roads are so peaceful when the traffic is lacking.

We pass an unmarked old building and some broken down stone foundations. I am sure that there is a story, but we will just have to imagine what that might be.

Lots of work went into building those walls.

We eventually saw a different landscape for awhile. It feels good to be back in the trees.

Then we come out on highway 12. This is decision time…will we be able to continue on to gravel or will we be taking pavement to Silver City. It is only a short distance till we have to make that decision. As we turn off the pavement and on to the gravel road we notice two signs.

The first one is flashing a warning about the closed road and the second one says closed and no access to Colins Park

We had heard that the road thru the Gila Wilderness area might be opened by Sept. 2nd. We wondered if that was when this road would be opened. John and Don pulled out their cell phones and both came up with no service. Time to pull out the iPad and see if I have any. A couple of bars show and I have enough service to make a scype call. We call several different forest service districts with no luck and eventually get advised to call road Maintenance . They gave us words that we didn’t want to hear, The road does not even exist anymore. They got about 12 inches of rain and there are even vehicles stuck there. The road closure Ih the Gila Wilderness area is in another district. We will have to see if we can find out about it later. I asked if there was anyway we could get to Colins park and they suggested to take some pavement and then a dirt road. We pondered that idea then a white truck pulled in to where we were trying to figure out our options. The driver was going to set up a camp for hunting so I asked him if there was a way to get to Colins Park. He reiterated that the road ahead was washed out, but there was a dirt road that we could take which would go around the closure. That sounded like a great possibility. We would be doing some roads that were not on our map or app so we would have to trust the driver that they would go. Most likely it is going to be a longer route, but it will be completely on gravel. We figured it was worth a go, but first we wanted to make sure that we had plenty of water. A sign for a church was across the road and there was a man working outside. We asked if we could get water and he said no problem. He told us that several days ago during a rain storm several bikers had stopped and he was able to give them shelter. We have met really nice people on this trip.

With our water bottles full we take off an unknown adventure. The first part of the road is great.

Great gravel, more flowers and mountains in the distance.

And there is even white poppy flowers on the sides of the road.

We find the John Kerr road that the truck driver told us about and head down it hoping to find a camp soon.

Our good road begins to follow a creek and soon the road is the creek. We push our bikes thru the water and wonder what will be around the next bend. It is easy to see how the rain impacted this road. Fortunately the road goes higher than the creek and we are back on a good road again,

The yellow sign warns that the road may not be in great shape.

We are not worried about the condition of the road, but whether we will survive the onslaught of mosquitoes.

This has been the worst case of mosquitoes that any of us has seen so far on this trip.They are biting thru our clothes and leaving blood marks on our sun sleeves.. One can’t out bike them so we stop periodically and slap our arms ,legs and back. Our only solution is to find a place to camp tonight and get away from the bugs.

The hunters are also here and are camped in some of the pullouts. Finally we find a grown over logging road that will be adequate for our tents. Don and I put up our tarp and start the thermacell which moves the mosquitoes out from underneath the tarp. Whew! Soon we are making dinner and developing a plan for tomorrow.

Campsite Informal campsite on John Kerr Road

Miles peddled 50