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[bwdmax]

This ride was a celebration of my son Colton graduating high school. He has been talking about riding the Continental Divide since he was in the 7th grade when I showed him pics from someone else’s adventure. I have been gathering pieces and parts and planning in my mind for some time. The plan was to ride as much as possible until time ran out and we had to head home. My wife and daughter would parallel us in the truck, so we could meet up when convenient and load up when the time came to head home. Time has flown by and I have been crazy busy with other obligations so the week before the trip was late nights and several untested parts and zero time riding with the luggage and big tank for Colton. He was out of town all week and got home Friday evening in time to test pack the bike once before leaving on Saturday 6/22/19.

The bikes and equipment for those interested:
KTM 525 exc mine is a ’06, Colton’s ’07 both fitted with 6.6 gallon tanks. This gives about 280 to 300 mile range depending on terrain. There are two sections on the tracks that are 260+ between fuel. They are both fitted with cush hub rear wheels from older KTM LC4 adventure bikes. They also have HT Racing oil coolers installed this gives them 33% increase in oil capacity. I have a seat concepts seat and Colton has a Renazco both of which I find comfortable. Giant Loop Coyote along with a Giant Loop top bag would hold our tools, spare tubes, food, camping gear, rain gear.

Day 1 is spent in the truck driving to Las Cruses, NM

Day 2 we drove to where we launched from just off of I10. The southern most part south of I10 is just straight and flat so we chose to just head north from I10. The time was passing quickly, by the time we unloaded and geared up it was almost 1:00.

My wonderful bride who allows such crazy dreams.

We made it to Silver City topped off with gas and ate a Subway and headed off into the Gila National Forest and on into the Apache National Forest.

Colton lost the front end in this talcum powder switchback. It was low speed and he just stepped off. You can see the dirt on the fender and tank.

 

[randypower]

What a great experience for both of you. Colton sounds super fun and is lucky to have you for his Dad. You all will remember this trip far longer than whatever you would have done at work. Fantastic. Where's that emoji?

 

[StromXTc]

lucky to have you for his Dad

You stole my line, haha

Thanks for sharing Gary !

 

[Tourmeister]

Beyond awesome!!

 

[randypower]

You stole my line, haha

Thanks for sharing Gary !

Awww, sorry. Now he'll have to go do it again. I won't say anything the second time, so you can.

 

[sanderjavant]

Fantastic!!!

On my list, can't wait for more.

 

[Meriden]

Take care, have a good time and be safe. It's supposed to be fun.

 

[bwdmax]

Day 2 continued We encountered Pronghorn and elk. There were over 100 elk in one heard.

We came upon two riders on adventure bikes one on an F800 GS the other on a 1090 KTM they were studying a map on a phone. They were looking to see where they might get some gas. They eyeballed my natural tank in which they could see my gas level and commented, “You got lots of gas” yes I plan on making it to Grants. I offered them some possible options for fuel and bid them a good day and good luck.

We eventually made our way to a camping area with some picnic tables. The Valle Tio Vences campground was about 30 miles south of Pie Town. The sun had set and it was getting dark so we made camp quickly and built a small fire before going to bed. 162 miles for the afternoon.

Day 3 we headed out for our campsite headed for Pie Town, Grants and on to Cuba.

No PIE at Pie Town. We were early and more interested in riding that hanging around.

This section takes you through El Malpais National Conservation Area. This includes the "Chain of Craters".

This is rock not mud clods.

We made it to Grants where the girls were and gassed up and grabbed lunch at a Sonic. When we came out I found this.

The tire was not leaking. The ride-on was sealing it, but I knew the tube would eventually tear and not be salvageable. I remembered riding past a park a few miles down the road so I headed there to work in the shade.

Found both of these.

I aired up with my little slime compressor but lost some when disconnecting it, so I headed to a local tire shop to borrow an air hose the driveway was not level and my bike fell over. This was the only time my bike laid down, but no pics so....did it really happen?

Lots of open country between Grants and Cuba. There were sections that had ruts in sun baked dirt and other areas with lots of sand.

We rolled into Cuba about 7:30 gassed and called the girls, they were about 30 minutes out but had a motel reservation. Colton and I headed for the motel and got checked in. 240 miles of forward progress on the day.

 

[misterk]

Awesome adventure with your boy! What a great time and ride. Thanks for sharing.

 

[StromXTc]

Day 2 continued We encountered Pronghorn and elk. There were over 100 elk in one heard.
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We came upon two riders on adventure bikes one on an F800 GS the other on a 1090 KTM they were studying a map on a phone. They were looking to see where they might get some gas. They eyeballed my natural tank in which they could see my gas level and commented, “You got lots of gas” yes I plan on making it to Grants. I offered them some possible options for fuel and bid them a good day and good luck.

We eventually made our way to a camping area with some picnic tables. The Valle Tio Vences campground was about 30 miles south of Pie Town. The sun had set and it was getting dark so we made camp quickly and built a small fire before going to bed. 162 miles for the afternoon.
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Day 3 we headed out for our campsite headed for Pie Town, Grants and on to Cuba.
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No PIE at Pie Town. We were early and more interested in riding that hanging around.
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This section takes you through El Malpais National Conservation Area. This includes the "Chain of Craters".
View attachment 237645

This is rock not mud clods.
View attachment 237646

We made it to Grants where the girls were and gassed up and grabbed lunch at a Sonic. When we came out I found this.
View attachment 237647

The tire was not leaking. The ride-on was sealing it, but I knew the tube would eventually tear and not be salvageable. I remembered riding past a park a few miles down the road so I headed there to work in the shade.
View attachment 237648

Found both of these.
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I aired up with my little slime compressor but lost some when disconnecting it, so I headed to a local tire shop to borrow an air hose the driveway was not level and my bike fell over. This was the only time my bike laid down, but no pics so....did it really happen?

Lots of open country between Grants and Cuba. There were sections that had ruts in sun baked dirt and other areas with lots of sand.
View attachment 237652
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We rolled into Cuba about 7:30 gassed and called the girls, they were about 30 minutes out but had a motel reservation. Colton and I headed for the motel and got checked in. 240 miles of forward progress on the day.

Was this on the backwoods discover route? Great write up . That's a good testament for ride on. I believe I would definitely have that if I had tubes. Pays to always keep an eye on everything

 

[bwdmax]

What a great experience for both of you. Colton sounds super fun and is lucky to have you for his Dad. You all will remember this trip far longer than whatever you would have done at work. Fantastic. Where's that emoji?

Beyond awesome!!

Fantastic!!!

On my list, can't wait for more.

Awesome adventure with your boy! What a great time and ride. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks guys it was truly a great trip, even when it didn't go as planned.

Take care, have a good time and be safe. It's supposed to be fun.

It was fun and everyone made it home safe.

Was this on the backwoods discover route? Great write up . That's a good testament for ride on. I believe I would definitely have that if I had tubes. Pays to always keep an eye on everything

This was on the Continental Divide Trail which shares some of the same roads and trail with the Back Country Discovery Route. You can see some of the same roads and a gate in common from this report on the NM BDR. https://www.twtex.com/forums/threads/nmbdr-after-the-snow-melt-mostly.121044/

 

[Vec]

what a wonderful adventure for you and your son ! making memories that will last a lifetime.

 

[bwdmax]

Day 4 would be Cuba to Abiquiu through the Santa Fe National Forest, then onto Chama through the Carson National Forest.

This area had all kind of terrain from sand, packed dirt, rocky hill climbs, and sand washes with rocks some hidden and some exposed. The first 77 miles of this from Cuba to Abiquiu was the most technical to this point. Colton had 2 little get offs. The first one he just stepped off when he stalled the bike on a hill climb.

The next one his back tire got kicked to side by a rock and down into a rut which caused him to get thrown to the side. He landed on a rock that gave him a scrape just above the left hip. The headlight mask contacted a large rock and broke the back of the reflector out as well as pushed to dash are back into the bars. This resulted in the odometer getting damaged, high beam indicator broken, ignition switch popped out of it holder and a toggle switch broken that controls his auxiliary power for charging phone or whatever else he might want switched power for.

Notice the orange skin off of the bike on the rock.

The bike fired up and he rode it about 25 yards to the shade were we went about patching things up. I happened to throw a toggle switch in his spare parts box the day before we left, so that was an easy fix. I put the light back into the hosing with duct tape and straightened the dash mount the best I could.

A few minutes for snack, water and re-composure and were ready to gear up and head out.

The Carson National Forest had some great scenery and we were making good time. We continued to climb in elevation and I began to see snow in the shade as got around 9,000 ft., by 10,000 there were significant patches with mud from the melting. There were work arounds and we just busted through some of it. This snow pack just grabs you front tire and the back slips and slides.

A coyote ran across in front of me. He was camera shy, but you can see him in the upper left.

Not a lot of pics as I was focused on making miles at this point. Somewhere about 30 miles from Chama we encountered a mountain biker who flagged me down. He had been with two other guys and had parted company two days ago and they had all the maps. Seems the altitude was a bit much and he could only walk not ride. I gave him instructions on getting to Chama and asked him about his food situation which he said he was good. I got the feeling he wasn’t being honest with me and I pressed him a little harder about his food, which he didn’t have much so I gave him some trail mix and jerky as he had at least one more night on the trail. We had a little conversation about life and beliefs’ and he thanked me.

More snow as we continue to climb.

Colton and I rode off into the fading sun we came to a fork in the trail, so I left a little something for my new biking friend.

The exit of the trail was actually in Colorado, but we headed 14 miles south west into Chama were the girls had a room for the night. On the way into town anytime I tried to get on the throttle under load my bike would bog, so I adjusted the fuel mixture screw at a gas station and it seemed to run fine after that. I asked my wife to go see if she could find some pizza in town. I had a craving for some hot gooey cheese. Well nothing is cheap in Chama and two large pizzas was $48, so the few left overs had to be breakfast.

200 miles of forward progress.

 

[Tourmeister]

That rock section looks nasty indeed! Glad the injury to bike and rider was not worse. I seem to recall one report where some guys got into that section and there were some broken bones...!

 

[bwdmax]

The fall was actually after the worst part. It may have been a moment of relaxation after the tough part that got him. It's never easy to see your partner down, but ever worse when it's your kid. I heard the crash in the communicator. I was relieved when he gave me the thumbs up as i walked back to him.

 

[Tourmeister]

The fall was actually after the worst part. It may have been a moment of relaxation after the tough part that got him. It's never easy to see your partner down, but ever worse when it's your kid. I heard the crash in the communicator. I was relieved when he gave me the thumbs up as i walked back to him.

Been there, done that... more than once When I first got my 530 EXC, I had been ripping all around Big Bend Ranch & SP for three days. Near the end of the third day I thought I'd been pushing my luck all weekend and probably ought to slow down a little and take it easy so I wouldn't get hurt. The thought had barely finished forming in my mind when I hit a rock with the front end that put me on the ground instantly... It took about 6 months for my tweaked ankle to stop hurting...

Years ago, Beth and I were riding on the Blue Ridge Parkway with a group of other riders. She was bringing up the rear. She'd been riding fantastic all week long. We were running a pretty good pace and then came into a decreasing radius corner. I BARELY said a bad word when I was surprised and realized the corner was getting tighter, and then leaned through and made it without any issues. Normally the communicator would NEVER pick up the first word you said. The voice activation usually required me to make some kind of sound to get it fired up and then it would catch the next words. Noooo... Beth heard me, freaked, stood her bike up, and shot right off the road. I heard all of that behind me and all I could think of was her tumbling down the side of the mountain! Fortunately, she picked the perfect corner to run off because there was a large grassy area that sloped up before it got to the edge of the drop off. That slowed her and she just fell over in the grass. I turned around and got back to her as fast as I could, but it seemed like it took me FOREVER to get to her. I was also trying not to drop my own bike in the rush to turn around. Her bike was tweaked a bit, but she was fine.

 

[_RG_]

Awesome trip! Treasure these things.

I spent the night in the Santa Fe nf on my way to the mountains several years ago. Leaving before daylight I saw what looked like a huge centipede in the headlights. There was a low fog layer and below it were a thousand legs all wiggling in one direction. Figured my leftover sandwich for supper must have been a little off. Turned out to be elk. I can't even guess how many. And they didn't give a hoot about me being there. Had to have been some kind of migration. I just killed the engine and watched... for quite a while. Didn't know there were that many elk in the entire state. Good times.

 

[Mr. Clortho]

Wow, what a great trip so far. This is on my list to do someday. Thanks for sharing.

 

[kickstand~prophet]

Wow fantastic pictures and detail. Looks like a blast. When you were in Chama what motel did you all use?

 

[Thrasherg]

loving the report, My wife and I rode the CDR from Canada to Mexico in 2015, then we tried to ride it in the opposite direction with our youngest daughter (she was 18), we got to northern Colorado before she took a spill and broke her left arm (just below the shoulder), that ended the holiday, but she wants to go back to where she fell and then continue to Canada, I hope we can try again in 2020, I love the CDR.. We have ridden the TAT and it has bigger bragging rights, but the CDR remains our most favorite ride, up towards the canadian border is just beautiful and the animals up there, we saw elf, bears, etc it was amazing. Hope you and your son have a great time.

Gary

 

[JQ1.0]

Ya can't have a great adventure without duct tape or zip ties. Looks like ya'll had a great one.

 

[bwdmax]

Day 5 the plan was Chama, NM to Del Norte, CO and then head for Sargents, CO and camp somewhere near Sargents depending on how the miles went. We were moving a little slower this morning and I noticed a bolt had shaken out of Colton’s rack so I replaced that before we headed out. The first part was to back track back to where we jumped off the trail the evening before as we began to gain our elevation back leaving town my bike started to bog again, so I decided to head back to town where the truck was to re-jet my carb so I could use the tailgate as a work bench. Colton’s bike was jetted a little leaner than mine and his was running great so I went to the same jetting as him. Exit Chama take two: bike is running great and we had about 20 miles of pavement and then the forest road was a well-groomed gravel road. I was thinking to myself we are making good time and just my still make some good miles even with the late start.

We began to see snow again in the high elevations, we were picking our way through. I was watching the mileage and with about 20 miles to Del Norte, CO we encountered a large snow packed area. I walked across without breaking through so I tried to walk my bike across, but it was too heavy and broke through. We tried to pull it backwards by the bars and the luggage, but it didn’t budge. Plan “B” I grabbed the bars and Colton grabbed the rear tire and rolled it back. This worked and with my bike out of the snow and slush we begin to hike looking for ways around. We were able to make a trail around this large patch, but further up the road was a deeper larger area and the tops of the peaks we were headed for had white blankets on top of them.

I decided a reroute was the best option. I begin to consult with my GPS and it kept telling me to make a U-turn, it didn’t understand the road was impassable. I zoomed out and kept checking other roads and trails, but they all deadened or looped back to the same road we were on. Eventually we back tracked about 70 miles and then rode 86 miles of pavement to Del Norte, CO. When I determined a reroute was in order I sent a message via my InReach to the girls to meet us in Del Norte to make a plan. On our way to Del Norte there was a forest service office and Colton suggested that we stop and get some info on road conditions. The fellow behind the counter was helpful and gave us several maps, but confirmed what we were thinking. He basically said don’t plan on passing anything above 10,000 ft. in the “Front Range” which is exactly where we had plans of being. We meet up in Del Norte and pulled out the maps and had a discussion about the next few days and options. Colton said he didn’t want to drop elevation and reroute on a bunch of pavement and I agreed, so we decided that installment 1 of the CDR was done and hopefully next chance we get on a different year or later in a year we can pick it up in Del Norte, CO. We loaded up and changed plans to visit family and friends while we were in CO. 230 miles for the day with 97 miles forward progress.

My wife had a friend who was in Estes Park with her family at a cabin so we headed north to see them. We traveled close to where the ride would have taken us and sure enough the snow was heavy at elevation. We passed by Clinton Gulch Reservoir outside of Leadville, it had ice still on the lake. I have been by here a half dozen times and never seen ice on it in the summer.

Our accommodations at Estes Park. Things could be worse.

We could have done many things different like reroute or head to a different area to ride, but we had a good time and wouldn’t trade the 800+ miles of back country travel with my son for anything. I also enjoyed the later part with my wife and daughter visiting family and friends. We spent a night in Estes Park with friends, a night in the Denver area with an aunt and uncle that I don’t see often, we also had breakfast in Colorado Springs with a childhood friend who we hadn’t seen in over 20 years.

Back where we started from.

 

[Aspear]

Sorry yall got cut short. But glad yall had fun and stayed without major injury

The Carson national forest is very awesome. My uncle lives in las trampas, nm and his property borders the forest. I may need to pay him a visit

 

[bwdmax]

what a wonderful adventure for you and your son ! making memories that will last a lifetime.

Awesome trip! Treasure these things.

I spent the night in the Santa Fe nf on my way to the mountains several years ago. Leaving before daylight I saw what looked like a huge centipede in the headlights. There was a low fog layer and below it were a thousand legs all wiggling in one direction. Figured my leftover sandwich for supper must have been a little off. Turned out to be elk. I can't even guess how many. And they didn't give a hoot about me being there. Had to have been some kind of migration. I just killed the engine and watched... for quite a while. Didn't know there were that many elk in the entire state. Good times.

Wow, what a great trip so far. This is on my list to do someday. Thanks for sharing.

Ya can't have a great adventure without duct tape or zip ties. Looks like ya'll had a great one.

It was indeed a great time even though it got cut short.

Wow fantastic pictures and detail. Looks like a blast. When you were in Chama what motel did you all use?

Vista Del Rio Lodge

loving the report, My wife and I rode the CDR from Canada to Mexico in 2015, then we tried to ride it in the opposite direction with our youngest daughter (she was 18), we got to northern Colorado before she took a spill and broke her left arm (just below the shoulder), that ended the holiday, but she wants to go back to where she fell and then continue to Canada, I hope we can try again in 2020, I love the CDR.. We have ridden the TAT and it has bigger bragging rights, but the CDR remains our most favorite ride, up towards the canadian border is just beautiful and the animals up there, we saw elf, bears, etc it was amazing. Hope you and your son have a great time.

Gary

I hope to regroup and pick up where we left off too. I'm glad your daughter healed up and is ready to ride. I thought of her while we were on the trail.

 

[Retiredtosoon]

We spent 5 day camping at spectacle lake of FR 250 last week I tried my self to make to Del Norte all roads closed ,had same thing happened in 2017 with my son but we were lucky we stop and I heard a tractor coming from the other side waited a hour for them to clear it out and we went on.