Newsletter No. 27
September 13, 2022

We made it to Las Vegas New Mexico yesterday

We put the Red One on the road just north of Walsenburg. In 1919, C.K. Shepherd said he had spent the night in Walsenburg at a “Doss House” which he described in disparaging terms. But we had spent our night at a Holiday Inn Express, so we were well rested to ride some 37 miles on gravel roads (Colorado Routes 330 and 310) before joining I-25S for a mile or so to get off about 10 miles north of Aguilar. My heart sank a bit to see the first mile of the road to Aguilar was also gravel, but not in as good condition as Colorado Routes 330 and 310. But within a mile, a nice tar road began, smooth as glass and the best road I have seen on this trip.

Later, we pulled into Raton, New Mexico. I had every hope of riding the Red One up the New Mexico side of the Old Raton Pass Road, but I am sorry to say that I came to the conclusion that the extreme risks were just not worth the possible reward. My off-road safety rider, Lloyd Hill, and his friend, Andy Faust, were riding modern adventure bikes which made quick work of a scouting recon ride as far north as we could go. If you don’t know it, it is extremely difficult to get permission to ride any portions of the Old Raton Pass Road in Colorado or New Mexico. Just as I had done in 2019 to go up the Old Raton Pass Road in Colorado, I made great effort to get access to the New Mexico side which is locked off by two gates. Up near the end of the road (a ditch and berm cut across the road to prevent further travel north), there is the old New Mexico Port of Welcome building. It’s now owned by Don Giacomo who was kind enough to meet us and open the gates so Lloyd and Andy could do their recon.

Don Giacomo, me, and Ron Chavez at 3rd and Moulton
on September 12, 2022

Andy holding a sign at the end of the accessible
Old Raton Pass Road.

Lloyd inside the fence at the old
New Mexico Port of Welcome.

Ron Chavez and Don Giacomo in front of the
old Port of Welcome.

With Raton in our rear view mirrors, we set off for Springer, New Mexico. From there, it was supposed to be about 80 miles to Las Vegas, New Mexico. I rode mostly frontage roads alongside I-25, but I rode 15 of the last 20 miles on I-25 South and, besides the inherent pressure to ride much faster on the Interstate, it was quite windy. But the wind was kind of nice due to its drying effect. Some 10 miles south of Springer, the sky unloaded rain. From a distance, it looked like light rain, virga, but when it came, it came with big water drops. I got soaked but we kept riding. The temperature went from 81 degrees to 51 degrees in 5 minutes! But it passed and the sun came out and dried off everything but the inside of my boots.

Here is a short video with two clips shot by Andy Faust on old US 85 highway south of Wagon Mound.

https://youtu.be/1IMxB0_uqoc

Shortly we will be riding out to Santa Fe, La Bajada Hill, Isleta, to finish in Belen for today.

If you have not checked it out, I have a live tracking page on Garmin:

https://share.garmin.com/ND86G

Thanks again for all the support and encouragement.

Mark