A Big Push to Antelope Wells

FINAL Day 37: Silver City to Antelope Wells, 123.7 miles, 2,842 feet

Windmill at dawn

I started riding from Silver City at 4:40am, with 4L of water and all 4 lights going. The first 18 miles on the paved road went fast, with a wide shoulder and little traffic. Morning’s first light started to emerge after I turned onto a dirt/sand road through a yucca desert, watching the sun bending around the horizon to peek through the mountains in the distance to the north.

The sandy road. The lights helped me see where the sand was most of the time.
Sunrise in the yucca desert.

The road was a little sandy at the beginning, but transitioned into hard packed dirt which allowed me to move quickly on a long gradual descent to I10 following a divide crossing. I texted Anna on my progress, hoping to calculate a time to connect at the border crossing without too much waiting for her and the kids.

The distances ahead. Not really anything between them.

I was relieved to reach the highway around 8am, with much distance behind me and smooth surfaces only ahead. The route continued along the frontage road before turning south toward Hachita and the end of the route (65 miles left – couldn’t tell whether that felt like a lot or a little!).

Settling into the landscape.

I soon passed the final Continental Divide crossing, only known by the sign along the road. On the way south to Hachita, the wind started to pick up from the west. I took a break a nice little shop in Hachita, 45 miles now to go.

The final (of 32 total), unimpressive Continental Divide crossing.

From this point, the sidewinds became very strong and the riding monotonous and mentally draining. The Big Hatchet State Game Refugee loomed ahead on the left, something to look at and show some sort of reference to progress. Occasionally border control trucks would fly past me, but not much else.

More of the same, this time with stronger side winds.

I set goals for each 10 mile segment and pushed on as the winds became stronger and stronger.  With 15 miles to go, Anna passed with the car and offered a cold gatorade, and I decided to lighten my bike and ditch my frame bag, helping a bit with the sidewinds for the final push. Thankfully the road took a slight bend to the east for the last few miles, giving me a boost until I could see the border two miles away! Finally, arrival!

The first sign (not on the actual border).

At 123 miles, it was the longest day of the trip and the earliest start and arrival time for a ride fo that length. Thankfully the first half went fast, and I managed to average around 14mph for the day. I think the wind kept me around 10-11mph for the last 45 miles.

The actual border sign. We were told by the border officials to not accidentally enter Mexico, and informally allowed to take the car into no-man’s land for the photo. Silas proudly delivers a Colorado coffee mug gift to celebrate my finish.

Antelope Wells isn’t really more than a border crossing, and a very relaxed one in that. Some of the border staff came out and offered me and Silas an ice cream cone and a bottle of water, and we posed for photos near the US/Mexico sign, hard to believe the route was done and it was time to go home. We were all excited to have arrived, sad to think of the trip coming to an end, but looking forward to getting back to Virginia.

We packed up the car, changed and headed east to El Paso (via Columbus, an alternate ending due east of Hachita). At one point in the day I considered switching to end there with a huge tailwind, but was happy to head farther south to the traditional route end. For people without a vehicle to pick them up, it’s basically the option of paying for an expensive shuttle from the border. Not an ideal place to end in that regard, but Antelope Wells sure does feel like the end of the road. It did cross my mind that there’s the option of only another 55 miles to Janos, Mexico…

Once we got closer to the border, T-Mobile jumped onto a Mexican network after hours of radio silence on the US side. Our experience with T-Mobile is that it often roams better than it has its own service in some areas, thankful for unlimited data/calls/text in Canada and Mexico which were included in our plan.

One thought on “A Big Push to Antelope Wells”

  1. Hey guys, I basically “binge”-read your blog and it was a pleasure. Very well-written, the pictures are fantastic and just the layout of your website in general is beautiful. Glad everything went rather smooth on your ride and you have given me much inspiration for my anticipated tour in three or four years. Want to go from Anchorage to Buenos Aires or Tierra del Fuego and am debating whether I should do the Pacific Coast or the GDMBR; atm I’m leaning towards the latter.
    Anyway, great read!
    Lucas

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