Day 205: Emory Pass, NM

We have spent the past few days without any trace of an internet connection, so my blog posts are once again in need being caught up to where we currently are.

When we left Caballo Lake State Park a few days ago, we headed toward the southern end of the Rockies and the Continental Divide.  I got an early start, being a bit concerned about the katabatic winds that are created when cool air from the mountains gets sucked down the mountainside as hot air rises in the adjacent desert basin.  It basically guarantees a downhill headwind by mid-morning, or more precisely a headwind that increases with speed as it approaches the hottest part of the day.

Fortunately, the impact of a headwind when traveling uphill at 9 mph is much less than while riding on the flats at 20+ mph.  But as expected, the winds were quite brisk as I approached the 8,228 foot summit of Emory Pass.  In particular, whenever I would round an outside corner that was more or less parallel to the adjacent valley, the Venturi effect (wind speed increases as the outlet narrows) would increase the wind speed at the apex of the curve.  The result in some instances was that the back end of my bike would skid sideways from the force of the wind, as I buckled down and attempted to maintain forward momentum.  But the same forces at work on those outside corners also created eddies of calm or helping winds on the inside corners.  So at least it wasn't a continuous brutal slog into the wind.  In the end, the views from the top were more than worth the extra effort expended getting there.

Views going up to Emory Pass.

As I coasted downhill, we checked each of four different nearby Forest Service campgrounds as we went.  We were thinking we would camp at the last one, but that one happened to be closed.  So we drove back up to the second, where we camped for the night.

At 8,228 feet, the high point of this year's travels...

And the view from the top...

Railroad Canyon Campground (Free, primitive, no water, pit toilets) had just three campsites, but they were all beside a small mountain stream.  And since I didn't sweat too much on the big climb, due to the cool temperatures and brisk winds, the lack of a shower wasn't a big issue.

Once we set up, I went about trying to figure out why our solar panel has not been charging our battery.  It took almost no time to discover that the cause was a burned out 10 watt fuse, which I replaced from our stock of spares.  So for the first time since buying the solar panel, we actually had enough of a charge from it that our battery wasn't on the edge of running empty first thing in the morning!

Of course we were camped at 7,000+ feet of elevation, which meant that it was a lot cooler than we have been used to for the past several months.  We weren't quite prepared for the abrupt change, finding it a bit too cool in the middle of the night.  But we piled on some fleece during the night, and then warmed ourselves with coffee once the sun came up.