We passed a fellow heading up the mountain on a heavily loaded road bike yesterday, which is not unusual here (northern NM mountains), however, when we saw him a couple of hours later he was struggling with a steep section and we offered him a ride to the top. He accepted, and when I helped him load his bike into our truck, I discovered that it was loaded with at least a hundred and fifty pounds of gear. He got into the cab with my girlfriend and me and, with a charming german accent, introduced himself as Paul. He informed us that he had just stopped at the local hot springs where he had taken his first hot bath in eight months. This was a bit unusual even for our area so we began to ask questions.
Paul, it turned out, was on the last leg of an epic ride from his home in Calgary Canada, to the Panama Canal, and back. He had crossed the continental divide something like fourteen times, and had at least one more to go. All of his gear for this trip was loaded onto beefy homemade racks, and his bike showed every mile he had put on it. We gave him a ride over the mountain to Los Alamos because; a) we were headed that way anyway, and b) he had only one brake on that bike and the descent into Los Alamos is very hairy on a bike that has disc brakes and isn't loaded with 150 plus pounds of gear. We left him with a couple of tangerines, a couple of our hand rolled cigarettes, and our best wishes. I have no doubt that he will make it home to Calgary before winter.
Oh yeah, two other things, Paul is fifty eight years old, and this whole trip came about as the result of a bet. Someone bet him a dollar that he couldn't ride canada to the canal and back on a twenty dollar bicycle. Hardcore, eh?
Paul, it turned out, was on the last leg of an epic ride from his home in Calgary Canada, to the Panama Canal, and back. He had crossed the continental divide something like fourteen times, and had at least one more to go. All of his gear for this trip was loaded onto beefy homemade racks, and his bike showed every mile he had put on it. We gave him a ride over the mountain to Los Alamos because; a) we were headed that way anyway, and b) he had only one brake on that bike and the descent into Los Alamos is very hairy on a bike that has disc brakes and isn't loaded with 150 plus pounds of gear. We left him with a couple of tangerines, a couple of our hand rolled cigarettes, and our best wishes. I have no doubt that he will make it home to Calgary before winter.
Oh yeah, two other things, Paul is fifty eight years old, and this whole trip came about as the result of a bet. Someone bet him a dollar that he couldn't ride canada to the canal and back on a twenty dollar bicycle. Hardcore, eh?