Day 3:

• We started the day with sprinkles and the threat of a heavy rain. If it rained hard ahead of us, we may have been stuck in place for a while.
• The very sandy and soft dirt roads remained for us all morning.
• We passed by Cerro Dado Peak.
• About midafternoon we entered the Cibola National Forest (way before seeing any trees).
• We rode across CR-456 and CR-239, generally southwest, toward San Mateo Spring
• San Mateo Spring was a huge let down. Someone had turned the spring into a covered artesian well with a lock and they were piping the water out to some downhill destination. Luckily for us, someone before us had broken the pipe and we were able to get some water at the break. Otherwise we would have hiked up the mountain to find a water source.
• After filling our Water Bladder and all of our Water Bottles, we pedaled another mile or so to set-up a Wild Camp off the side of a National Forest Access Side-Road.

Day 3 - Felipe-Tafoya Land Grant to San Mateo Spring (New Mexico)

Above: A nasty storm was coming. The winds and direction of travel of the rain cell indicated that the edge of the tempest would hit the location where we were camping but it would be clear (for a while) in the direction that we were to travel. Our goal was to get going as quick as we could.

Above Left: Morning comes, that is our Food Vault and the Felipe-Tafoya Land Grant fence.

Above Right: The sun rises for the Bee.

Above Left: Terry was cooking breakfast (I packed the camp). We were on water rationing, we were down to a half a bottle of water after a re-hydrated Bacon/Egg hot breakfast and a cup of hot Coffee and Chocolate (it was good for the soul).

Above Right: Our view to the southwest, the direction of today's travel. The immediate cycling looks to be clear of bad weather.

Above Left: Sprinkles on our bike seat.

Above Right: We're on our way; Terry just closed the entrance gate to the Felipe-Tafoya Land Grant.

Above: We had arrived at Sandoval Ranch (Back L Bar S) and yet another gate. The road was still soft and sandy in many places. It was not raining but the air was cold.

Above: These are old ranches in the Felipe-Tafoya Land Grant. This looks to be an old Bunk House, Eastern Fence House and a Cattle Loading Coral.

Above Left: A remnant stone house (Sandoval Ranch). The San Mateo Mountains loomed in the background.

Above Right: El Dado Peak (it is abeam the southeast corner of the Felipe-Tafoya Land Grant).

Above Left: We were still dealing with bouts of soft sand and pushing the bike.

Above Right: A desolate view to the north.

Above Left: El Dado Peak - We were getting closer to riding off the Felipe-Tafoya Land Grant.

Above Right: Felipe-Tafoya Land Grant.

Above Left: The high ground was a little rocky but firm.

Above Right: Another gate BUT I think that we rode off of the Felipe-Tafoya Land Grant at this gate.

Above Left: That may be Cerro Alesna.

Above Right: A rabbit near a cattle guard.

Above Left: Water! That's the Tank in the background. This tank had a water pipe feed that was inside the water of the tank, therefore the water needed to be filtered and chemically treated (Chlorine Dioxide). Terry is seen retrieving the water filter kit. We're now using a Katadyn (Hiker Pro) Water filter system and it seems to have a whole lot less problems than our MSR Sweet Water Filter (long story there) BUT we use the MSR Chlorine Dioxide for safe chemical treatment.

Above Right: That's the cattle tank that was saving our keesters, it had a propane powered water pump (and possibly a water heater).

Above Left: Interesting Rock formation.

Above Right: Scorched earth.

Above Left: A mining road, San Mateo Mountains in the background.

Above Right: An explanation of the Blast Alarm System.

Above Left: An ant hill lets us know that what was underneath us was volcanic rock.

Above Right: The Sun is Out! Cerro Alesna in the background. It got warm enough to remove our jackets. The sun was strong enough that we needed to take time to apply sunscreen.

Above Left: Another Gate.

Above Right: Great road, we're starting to make good progress again.

Above Left: We took a mid-morning snack break (trail-mix), Cerro Alesna in the background.

Above Right: We came upon the Ore Trucker's Hard Road. This hard road runs many miles between a major dig (ore pit) and the processing plant. We get to ride on the road for only 5 miles but at that moment it felt very luxurious.

Cibola National Forest

Above Left: Oh Joy.

Above Right: We ran out of the Hard Road (we turned off the Ore Truckers Road) and now we were taking National Forest Road #456. We also just entered the Cibola National Forest (not Cibolla - Onion).

Above Left: We were happy to avoid the rain of the Miguel Creek Valley (where the land grant was located and flash flooding can lock up a cyclist for 2-3 days). Now we may be faced with a mountain storm. No storm is 'good' but we'd rather face a mountain storm if we get a choice (where one may only need to hole-up for an hour or two). That dark area was our destination area for the day.

Above Right: First of all, that rain was coming at us and we were not going to miss it. So we became mentally ready to grab a space blanket and sit out a rain a rain squall. Second, the town of San Mateo is behind that hill on the left side.

Above Left: We dismounted the Bee. We grabbed our rain jackets (because the temperature was dropping) and we grabbed a space blanket. We went under a tree and huddled under the space blanket. Under the Tree and Space Blanket we stayed dry and warm.

Above Right: After a 30 minute deluge the storm began to clear away.

Above Left: The Bee waited for us to hide from the rain.

Above Right: We squared everything away and started riding again.

Above Left: One last photo of the San Mateo bowl.

Above Right: We climbed.

Above Left: We finally arrived at NF-239 and it was 5 miles to San Mateo Spring.

Above Right: NF-239 and we were still climbing.

Above Left: We were riding a ridgeline road with little ups and downs but still climbing in general.

Above Right: We were high enough in elevation (just under 9000') that we were seeing Fall Foliage.

Above Left: Climbing was slight and pedaling was easy.

Above Right: We love mountain riding like this.

Above Left: The Aspen seemed to stand-out.

Above Right: The sign indicates 1/2 mile to San Mateo Spring and 19 miles to tomorrow's destination of Grants.

Above Left: San Mateo Spring was a huge let down. Someone had turned the spring into a covered artesian well with a lock on the access cover and they were piping the water out to some downhill destination. Luckily for us, someone before us got upset and broke the pipe and we were able to get some water at the break. Otherwise we would have hiked a long ways up the mountain to find a water source.

We filled all of our water bottles and we filled the water bladder.

Above Right: We're now looking for a campsite. We went by an area that the map suggested as a potential campsite but it was in the middle of an automobile loop, so we passed on that.

Above Left: We decided to camp on the next off-road.

Above Right: About a mile downhill from San Mateo Spring we took the first road off of NF-239, we went about 50 yards/meters, and we pitched our tent on the side of a Forest Access Road. No one ever drove by the campsite, we had it to ourselves.

Above: We worked quickly, rain was coming, again. Terry started cooking and boiling water. I squared away the rest of the camp gear. We got to bathe for the first time in 2 days. Just as we turned in for the night and zipped up the tent, it started sprinkling and it subsided after about 20 minutes. We easily fell asleep. Around midnight it rained heavily for 2 hours with spurts of lightning and thunder. I woke up, looked around, and I just smiled in our warm dry sleeping bag and went back to sleep.