You can’t go bikepacking every month if you don’t start in January

By all accounts, we have had a mild start to winter here in the Four Corners region. Perhaps inspired by sunny 40 and 50° “winter” days, or perhaps inspired by the slow but nevertheless forward progress of healing in my knee, I declared to Jesse a few weeks ago “I’m going out for an overnighter in January”, when then morphed into “and then doing one every month hence for 2025”. With mostly mild days and nights in the 20s, this goal seemed totally manageable. And then the Arctic blast hit and January was ticking away. Uh oh. With knights touching down to zero and even below, my commitment wavered. My knee wavered, as I had setbacks of increased pain and a spasming psoas muscle making it nearly impossible to weight my left (“good”) leg. Would this foray into the cold really happen?

I felt determined. And finally the Arctic blast relented and on a weekend, nonetheless. Yay, Jesse could actually join me if he was so inclined. Rare cloud cover brought temperatures into the upper 40ss during the day and a low of 30 at night! And last week’s physical setbacks had released me from their frustrating grip. Let’s go! Let’s go!

Saturday evening as the invisible sunset approached, we pedaled 3 miles to the pre-selected destination on top of the hill, knowing that the planned mountain views and the explosion of color that is the New Mexican sky when the sun is low in the sky would not materialize on this cloudy evening, but maybe in the morning? As we pedaled up the final climb, bags overflowing with our warmest clothes, and for me two sleeping bags, hints of sunset teased us through the cloud cover.

We made it to our chosen camp spot just as the last of the light trickled away. You know that time of day: do I need a headlamp? do I not need a headlamp? Yes, we needed headlamps. Under the dull yellow glow of our weak lights we set up our tent and went for a short stroll to an overlook to enjoy the twinkling lights of Aztec and in the distance Farmington.

I’ve mentioned before that instead of being called the Land of Enchantment, which truly it is! New Mexico should or at least could also be called the land of extraction. Especially here in the Four Corners area oil and gas rule the roost. The mechanical sound of pumps is everywhere and despite being on public lands finding actual quiet seems to be a nearly insurmountable task. We had chosen the spot partially for the potential views, but also because during the day it seemed like it might be far enough away from any pumps to not listen to that grating, grinding, pulsing mechanical sound all night long. Once we had settled into the tent and stopped wrestling our taffeta bags and put our books away for the night, there it was: clunk clunk. So much for a wilderness experience.

Still I was happy to be sleeping outside for the first time since my surgery October 1st and riding my bike to my sleeping destination for the first time since spring. But I am also determined to go to the local BLM field office and find out if there’s a map that shows where all the rigs are located to try and determine if it is actually possible to avoid them locally. Hopefully each month I will have the confidence and ability to ride farther and this will allow us to access those rare quiet corners.

I tried, and mostly failed, to take a picture that showed the ethereal nature of the juniper trees covered in their shimmering berries.

Tucked deep inside my double sleeping bags sipping warm tea from a thermos and wearing too many layers to count, I slept well and never got cold . Really, for winter at 6,000 ft it was an incredibly mild night. That said, Jesse who always overheats in a sleeping bag was cold for the first time ever in our many years of camping! So I wouldn’t call it warm out there! But our water bottles were not frozen inside the tent in the morning, therefore it was not that cold.

Morning came and it was finally light enough to take some pictures, and in fact as predicted, the clouds were starting to part and thus the slight mountain view.

Our brief ride home started with a steep downhill which meant that we were wearing every single piece of clothing we had with us. Due to the cold temperatures we hadn’t even planned to make or usual morning ritual tea, in 20 minutes or so we would be back in the house and make breakfast there.

We did it, we went bikepacking in January in a place that actually has winter! I can’t wait to see what February brings.