Day 18: Taos to Raton
Today's 94 miles from Taos to Raton started with 32 degree temperatures and an immediate 2000' climb over the first 17 miles to an elevation over 9000'.
I have no photos of the first 30 minutes of riding because we were in the shade, so I was much too cold to do anything other than ride. When dressing for a ride like today's, I usually under dress for the initial half hour to hour because the temperatures tend to rise quickly once the sun gets out.
In this case, because of the shade, it really took about 50 minutes before there was any warming at all, but by the top of the climb an hour and 40 minutes in, the temperature was up to the mid 50s.
We had a nice initial descent from the peak to a lovely valley. Here is a look back towards the mountains.
Looking the other direction was a good sized lake.
After a modest climb out of the valley, we began a 22 mile, 2000' long descent. Here you can see the mixture of deciduous and evergreen trees which is common in the area.
The descent followed along a small river which appeared and disappeared depending on the moment.
We had a nice rest stop just beyond this bend giving us a chance to look at the rock formations.
At the end of our descent, we headed out into flatter land, leaving the mountains behind.
We had lunch in the small town of Cimarron. This photo captures about a quarter of the downtown.
After lunch, we had to deal with the winds. Initially, the winds were slightly from the front but mostly a cross wind from our left. As a result, when possible, we rode in an echelon. Note in the photo that each rider is not directly behind the rider in front, but is shifted to the right to be protected from the wind from our left.
As the day got later, the winds picked up over the flat open space, and shifted into a very strong direct headwind. At that point, even in a strong pace line rotating the lead rider, we could only average 13 mph over the last hour. Unfortunately, all of this week will likely be filled with windy rides. Hopefully, at least some of the time the wind will be helping us.