I’ve had the rollicking fun to experience ten bicycle tours over the past twenty years or so. Bike tours are like backpacking on wheels, except in my case I hate camping, campfires, and all that. So I load up bike bags (panniers) with the same stuff many bring to that hotel in Far Away City and slowly roll my way to a destination.

Many of my tours have been in Europe (Portugal, Germany, Netherlands, a bit of France), and I’ve scooted through the Great Plains and down the Mississippi. But I haven’t done much here in New Mexico (with farcically unsuccessful exceptions), largely because our towns are so far apart. Yes, there’s the heat, the cold, the wind, the sand, and all that, but my personal biggest obstacle has been how far it is between places to stay.

But I think I might have a workaround for that now.

Eschewing the idea that I might get in such good bike shape that I can ride, say, the ~100 miles from my front door to Mountainair, Cuba, or Magdalena (like that’s ever gonna happen), your humble blogger has invested in an ebike. And having found my new ebike battery only gets me about 50 miles, depending on wind direction, elevation change, temperature, I’ve bought a second bike battery.

These batteries and I are about to embark on what might turn out to be a very bad idea, a trip east and north from ABQ to Pecos, NM. The route is something like this:

You’ll notice there aren’t many incorporated areas along my planned route. Larger towns are often along interstate highways, and while it’s legal to ride I-40, for example, outside of big towns, I ain’t doing that. For this reason, I’m always on the lookout for places like Pecos and Mountainair. As New Mexico has a near endless supply of middle of nowhere, this coming mini-tour features a whole lot of nowhere.

Some folks might think that’s a bad thing.

Such is the nowhere in this Pecos ride that I ended up calling San Miguel County folks because maps tell me one of the roads I plan to travel is private, whatever that means. After a few calls to folks out there, those folks and I decided that I’d just ride out there and take a chance. Yes, I realize this strategy makes a great deal more sense if you’re on the phone with somebody going out there, as opposed to the person actually attempting it.

But such is the fun of bike touring. It feels great to once again have that giddy nervousness of wondering just how bad an idea this Pecos trip will turn out to be. Having made wrong turns and stupid decisions from Porto to Pontevedra and La Junta to La Crescent (MN), I’ve learned those mistakes are the absolute best part of any bike tour.

Or anything, for that matter.

Wave at me if you happen to pass on that dirt road outside of who knows where.