Day 3 - Upham Territory to Truth or Consequences
Day three started on rather flat ground in a broad and wild open space under the high tension powerlines that cut accross the otherwise empty desert. There was a distant ridge-line in clear view up ahead, which remained in front of us for hours. On our long march towards the highlands we found a really cool working windmill that was pumping water into a cattle tank. Of all the rest stops and water refills this was one of the cooler ones we had all trip - standing in the shade of a creaking and freely spinning oldtimey windmill in the middle of the open desert. It was a nice respite, but the riding got tougher in a hurry afterwards.
The windmill find was truly something special, the sound of the creaking, spinning blades in the dry air gave an incredible ambiance to the area. For someone accustomed to green hills and busy cities this moment out in the wild yonder of NM scrub-land felt truly alien. All I could think was "this is why we do this." Unfortunately by this point it was clear that I was unfortunately quick sick with a bad head-cold - it would be something I would have to fight to overcome for days.
-Andy
As we got up and over the ridge line we had a lot of really technical and sketchy descending punctuated by exceedingly steep uphill climbs. At the top of each climb we got increasingly great views of Elephant Butte and the surrounding lake. The final unpaved descent landed us on a two lane highway directly into the town of Truth or Consequences, NM. Here we stayed in a hotel with a natural spring spa, where we soaked our tired bones. Adding to the hard earned pay off was our ridiculously huge room. It was fun being tourists in this small but very interesting place, we wandered around town and tony bought some reiki candles from a hippy. She told us her wiccan customers "had money." Quite the cultural experience/ We had dinner at a drive in diner before crashing for the night.
Day 3 low point - bike pushing under high tension wires
Day 3 high point - hippy store in TorC.