After a night in Chama, New Mexico, Sarah drove Jody and I back into Colorado so we could pick up the route near La Manga Pass. Jody was not happy to be backtracking but it was another cool beautiful morning and we were both smiling as we started our ride on a fun descent into a tree lined valley. The down hill was short-lived but the rough roads lived on as we reentered New Mexico and started a series of steep rocky climbs to a high plateau with views that seemed to go on forever. Although the scenery was magnificent, the rough roads (including a 1/2 mile scramble on loose softball size rocks) slowed our pace to less than 4 mph for several hours and had me worrying whether our headlights were fully charged. Our pace started to pick up as we passed the high point of the days ride (11,000 ft) and we were both smiling again as we made up time on a series of fun/treacherous technical downhills. 
The road conditions started to improve after lunch as the weather started to deteriorate. We were seeing some lightning in the distance and getting hit with a few sprinkles but were still making good time when we came around a corner to find Joe and Rhea resting on the side of the road. They seemed happy to have some company as Rhea had taken a bad spill earlier in the day and was still feeling the effects with sore ribs, a bandaged ear, cracked hemet and a bent wheel. We traveled together making good time other than frequent stops to take our rain gear on/off as the rain came and went. The thunderstorms continued to build and were putting out some serious lightning on the ridges around us as we sped across a few miles of open terrain to get back into the trees at which point it started to pour. We hid out under the trees for about 15 minutes until the rain let up and got back on our bikes only to find the road had turned to peanut butter. The goop quickly built up on our wheels to the point that we could not push the bikes much less ride. We were only about 5 miles from the pick-up point so we scraped off enough mud to allow the wheels to roll and started walking the bikes through the rocky grass fields along the road. After a mile the road conditions improved enough that we were able to get on our bikes and coast the rest of the way downhill to the highway where Sarah and Silas were waiting to rescue us. We were all a muddy mess and Rhea was hurting so she and Jody hopped in the RV for the short trip to the campground while Joe and I rode. By the time we got to the campground, they had both showered and were lounging in the RV drinking deraillers while Sarah worked on dinner. It took Joe and I another hour to clean the mud off the bikes and get cleaned up enough to join them for a spaghetti dinner in the warmth and comfort of the RV.
More pics here
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