Land of Enchantment!

We've enjoyed a day off in Santa Fe today, an incredibly picturesque city situated beneath the Sangre de Christos Mountains. Bike shops here were especially generous to us as we loaded up on supplies, tires, and new chains before setting off into the desert. A special thanks goes out to Mellow Velo, for the discount they offered and the care package of clif bars and electrolyte chews!

I spent some time today working with the church hosting us here to prepare the free meal, frito pie, they provide to those in need, particularly the city's immigrant day laborers. Speaking with the people there quickly gave me insight into the flip-side of the city's attractive aesthetics and major art markets. Because so many people of means are eager to live in Santa Fe, property values go up. For low-income home owners, this can be a boon as it increases the value of their major asset and investment, their home. But this also means that property taxes increase, and over the past decade in Santa Fe many locals have had to sell their homes and move miles away into the nearest city. So much for any "trickle down effect" from the concentration of the affluent here!

Here's my bit for the trip journal from July 10:

Today was just our second full ride day in New Mexico, but the rolling grasslands, red sandstone ridges, and classic canyons have made for what I would say is the most amazing landscape we’ve seen yet. We started our warm-up for the Grand Canyon back in Texas at Palo Duro (my favorite off the bike experience, hands-down), but I am each time amazed as an otherwise flat and featureless plain suddenly opens up beneath us to reveal what color and what texture water (given a few thousand millennia) can coax from the rock under the earth.

After our first 20 miles to Las Vegas we hit a few nice downhills, but a significant headwind prevented us from reaping the full fruits of that momentum. Around one sweeping curve a sign appeared to warn of an impending 8% downgrade and I, separated from a group, pulled up to wait for some company on what I hoped would be one of our faster descents. As I turned back to catch some riders changing a flat, Colin came around the curve by himself. He sighted the 8% sign, we exchanged a grin, shifted up, and started mashing towards the drop. The slope and our speed increased gradually, but after a second warning sign the road suddenly dropped like a stone towards the floor of a surprise canyon (!) carved by the Canadian River. Colin’s heavier frame and slicker wheel hubs had him rolling further ahead of me, but wide sweeps in the road let us both pedal the straights and turns to approach and, in Colin’s case, exceed 50 MPH.

We screamed the mile down to the canyon floor in about 75 thrilling seconds, and stopped there for a few war whoops and a glance up at the steep stone walls now rising around us. Other riders descending gave us an additional thrill, but that excitement was soon tempered by the acknowledgement that canyons are, in a certain sense, just inverse mountains. So we had a serious climb ahead of us! Still, there were no low spirits on the 2 miles up (at a slighter grade, thankfully), and had it not been for the near-century set on our plate that day I think more than a few of us would have turned around and, added climbing notwithstanding, taken another trip from rim to floor for a second shot at a speed record!

I wish there were more to say about the other 94 miles ridden today, but I suppose it says something about what we’re doing and about cycling generally that a 6-hour ride can pack all of its energy, adrenaline and amazement into that one stunning minute!