written by BigAddison
The first sign of life I enter in the Captain’s log this morning is doing the moon walk as the dawning sun breaks across the South POL of the Luna County NM surface.
Riding a bike on the grounds of Luna surfaces can be extreme and challenging. My exploration always starts with the southwest high-desert atmosphere. While suitable, clean, clear oxygen levels exist for breathing, the temperatures can fluctuate 100° degrees Fahrenheit between solstices. Always with an eye on the weather conditions as they also can fluctuate between a vastness of serenity, to a dust wall of a haboob in Nano-minutes.
Winter means late morning departures to allow the sun to warm up the freezing mornings across the stark ruggedness of the dormant flora and hibernating fauna.
Early Spring will still have a morning chill as the desert slowly begins to prepare for its reemerging splendor, which the vitality of is predicated by the amount rainfall throughout the winter months.
March and April (same for the Autumn months) are basically “heaven on earth” for the inhabitants of the Lunaverse. Molting the doldrums of winter for the newness of desert life that begins to erupt all around them, turning the bleak winter landscape to a wonder of living color bursting from the sand, and the air filled with a cacophony of mating calls from emergent hibernators, and the returning winged migration.
In late Spring, things start to warm up, triggering the annual windy season you can set a watch to start at the beginning of May. This is when your base camp will be daily tested for anything that isn’t compliant with an unrelenting eight hours of 30-70 mph winds, gusts and Microbursts. Fortunately for riders, there’s a fairly certain reliability the window of opportunity to ride wont close until high-noon. By then, you’re best to hunker down at camp unless you and your ride are in need of a good sandblasting.
June into July brings the heat to this part of the planet. Ranging from hot to scorching, one must head out at dawn to avoid such exposure to the sun. Like today.
The Luna Surface provides scant opportunities for shade or water. Wide open plains filled with cactus, creosote, and every other kind desert flora all designed to scratch, prick, or injure human flesh. You don’t brush by the shrubs as they will snag your clothes or skin, or “catch” you right off your bike.
Likewise, you don’t go blazing down trails either, for two reasons. First, you simply must avoid rolling over every small shrub or stick in your way, or end up with two flat tires in the middle of the desert. Secondly (as I learned very quickly), hitting an arroyo (dry sandy flash flood river beds), that cross your trail will instantly bury your front wheel sending you alight without the gentle landing. After learning this lesson. I invested in elbow and knee pads. I also learned how a bike helmet will protect your head as it bounces off the hard desert clay.
Mid July through August is Monsoon season, bringing torrential rain and winds across the state.
Fortunately the monsoons typically gather in the late afternoon making for some very dramatic views across the plains as lightening lights up the dusk, thunder claps shuddering the ground, and sheets of rain visible across the expanse of the desert plains. Here’s a little sample from the Hole in the Wall Getaway just a few days ago.
Today I set out on my LRV (Luna Roving Vehicle) to document a site that has been previously visited by our security agency known as “Border Guards”.
The Border Guards are positioned here to protect the sovereignty of the United States from invasion by foot or air. They landed this “Movement tracking” quadpod atop high ground scanning southward towards our border with the lands of Old Mexico, from which bipedal aliens with every kind of intention (both good and bad), try to cross in. Often smuggling illicit cargo so poisonous that a single sand size grain ingested will kill a full grown adult in minutes.
But, they weren’t the first to land on this vantage point. Evidenced at the feet of the quadpod by what seems to be a grave site, or death marker erected here by previous inhabitants. Adorned with tributes left by those that survived and return to honor their fallen.
By studying the remains it can be deduced the fallen was a follower of another, and more ancient visitor to this planet. One called Christ, reported as the “God” who created this planet, and the entirety of the cosmos. Legend has it this man-god came here, ministered himself over the many other gods, fed the spiritually poor, and was murdered for his efforts. Additionally, this “Christ” is said to be ever present, and will soon show Himself again to gather His people (both dead and alive), to repatriate His heavenly habitation.
Now that’s some otherworld visiting!
Leaving the apex of my journey across the Luna surface, I set my course back to my base camp to merge with a lonely highway that runs along the border demarked by a high steel wall erected to stay-off unapproved intrusions, or another invasion from our neighbors to the south. Like they did 100+ years ago by the infamous Francisco “Pancho” Villa, hailed to be a “Robinhood” by some, and a murderous terrorist by others. I guess those opinions are based on which end of Pancho’s guns your standing on.
Off the beaten paths of range free cattle and Border Guard quad runners, I can forego the manual pedaling and glide with autopilot across the hard surface of the highway, only having to avoid the road hazards littered by the not so fortunate nature of having close encounters with mankind.
No doubt the Lunaverse can be hostile to navigate, but the challenge is well worth the effort. The timeless expanse has an aura that has been aptly named “The Land of Enchantment” by the native settlers that first experienced it long before it had borders, and they symbolized its nature as their brand, and called themselves the “ZIA” peoples.
One last stop on this mornings excursion brings me to rest and reflect upon the “Sea of Tranquillo”
Appearing with the torrential rains of the monsoons, the Sea of Tranquillo offers its waters to house the fowls of nature, and its view to forget the fouls of humanity.
Ride on friends, ride on…..
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