Day 13: Lost no More - Found our Way to Cuba

Day 13 - 5/28/08Start - lost in a ranchEnd - Cuba, NMMileage - ~95 miles
Well it was a rather long day put in today. But that was probably due to being lost right in the coal mine. We got out pretty early this morning around 7 am. It turned out to be one of the most beautiful days of the trip thus far. The desert is truly magical - today had a very grand canyon type feel. It was rather open with some amazing rockstructures throughout. Also reminded me a bit of castle valley outside of Moab. The pictures most definitely do not do it justice, but that tends to be the case. The only down side was that as normal in the desert, there was an extreme lack of water. We hit a spring for lunch about 40 miles into the day at Ojo Frio springs. The best water we've encountered of the trip, but it still had a funky sulfur taste. It happens. So the day progressed and we biked, and biked, and biked a little more. Eventually we hit Cuba, NM along route 550. First stop was at the gas station to pick some brewskies- not just brewskies, but Fat Tire amber ale- the mother of god of beers. Then we picked up some Subway and had to kick it out to the Circle A Ranch, about 5 miles out of town. It kinda sucked to ride the extra miles after a big day, but it was all worth it. The hostel is super cool- two CDT hikers and a bunch of geology students doing a summer expeditonary trip. The shower was spectacular followed by dinner and the beer. As of now the beer is going to my head and I'm going to enjoy socializing with some of the goonies here. Tomorrow we move on in the morning and start with a pretty big climb.Should be nice, hopefully we can finally get out of the desert tomorrow. Please god, let that happen. Laterz.