Day 23 - Van Horn to Fort Davis

This is the day that we all dreaded because of the length and general lack of services and the length just over 90 miles. The last place to get water is about 20 miles out of Van Horn at a truck stop just before we got on the freeway for another 20 miles until the turn off at Kent.

We got started early. Waking to a an ominous blood moon.

I was about 8 miles in when I stopped to take a picture of the sunrise.

Up until Kent everything went pretty well for me, but I could tell I was not having the best of days riding.

Our last stop where we could get water was at a truck stop about 20 miles from Van Horn. If you look closely at the map you can see a thumb tack in the map in the picture below indicating that location. It is fairly impressive to see how far we have come but we are still a lot less than half way.

When we turned to head south we were faced with a steady headwind and a chip sealed road that uses large aggregate plus a generally up hill ride with a few rollers. 

When we started off we noticed that they were mowing along the side of the road. We caught up with the mowers about a dozen miles down the road.

I struggled against the headwind and eventually made it to the point where the real climbing was about to begin. Hal came by and soon left me behind because I needed to stop and rest more often than he did. About an hour after he went by Mitch caught up with me. I told him that I wasn't sure about being able to finish the ride in daylight and told him if I got desperate I would try to hitch a ride into town.

About 10 seconds after he disappeared over a rise ahead of me I had a flat tire. I proceeded to pick two pieces of glass out of my tire, but those weren't the problem. I finally pulled the tube out and pumped it up to see where the hole was. After further examination I found a thorn that had gone all the way through the thickest part of the tread. It took some doing to pick it out, but I eventually got it out and put in one of my spare tubes.

This picture was taken just before I had my flat.

About the time I was done Phil and Max showed up and helped me stand my bike back up. After which we started riding. About 200 feet up the road I heard something hitting my fender. Upon examination I found a thorny branch about 2 inches long with one of the thorns stuck in my tire.

I pulled the thorn out and heard the sickening sound of a leak. Knowing exactly where the hole was I was able to patch the tube without taking the tire off.

It turns out that the mowers were throwing thorns all over the road. Very inconsiderate. Just after getting this patched the mowing crew showed up and I told one of them that they really needed to be more careful about what they were doing. He didn't seem all that willing to accept that there was a problem but did offer me water which I declined because I still had a good supply.

So far I'm as unimpressed with the Texas department of transportation as I am with every other state I've ridden through. Road maintenance generally ignores the needs of cyclists.

Everyone pays taxes to put bike lanes and wide shoulders on roads but seem unwilling to pay for an occasional pass of a street sweeper to get the crap off the shoulder that they throw out their windows and the tire carcasses from trucks and trailers. 

Anyway at about that point we started the real climbing which in places well exceeded 10% which is contrary to some reports I've read of 5% gradients. Be aware that the climb up to the observatory it at times very steep. If I were doing this again I would opt for going south through Marfa. While this road had very little traffic and the scenery was at times interesting it isn't anything you won't see in other places as far as I can tell. If you do opt to go this way don't count on being in shape to do this ride based off of the riding done up to this point. 

I got up the hill a little ways and after pulling a rock out of my shoe, started trying to thumb a ride.

Eventually a nice guy, by the name of Alex if I remember correctly, stopped and gave me a ride. About 15 minutes into the ride he mentioned that he had a rattle snake and a couple of other snakes in the truck. He reached down and picked up the box with a baby rattlesnake in it and showed it to me. Apparently he collects snakes from a variety of locales.

I offered to pay for his gas but he refused. By the time we got to town we had passed most of the other riders in our group. But he reported that one of our riders Alisha was a good 7 miles behind me.

He dropped me off at our lodging for the night and the manager of motel, Randal, was very helpful by hauling my panniers to the room which I had taken off the bike so I could load it into the truck. He had also provided us with a cooler full of ice cold beer, which I promptly took advantage of while waiting for the rest of our group to arrive.

I kind of felt bad about not riding the whole ride, but it was the right decision for me to make.

We went to dinner minus 3 riders. While at dinner we got word from Alisha that she had received a ride back into town and that Phil and Max were about 4 miles out of town. They all managed to get to the restaurant where we were eating in time to get food. 

Hal and I drew high cards and ended up with one of the two regular rooms for the stay in Fort Davis. They also have what are known as camping rooms with cots and screen doors and shared bathrooms. It is a nice to have slightly better accommodations.

This was a very hard day. Some of the riders said it was the hardest ride they have ever done. Which is to say a lot because they have all done some significantly difficult rides to be able to do this. I figured this day would be hard, but not as hard as it was.

Our next several days will trend down hill into Del Rio after which we will do some more, but shorter climbs to get into Austin. After Austin it will be generally flat for the rest of the ride.

View Map My Ride Map