At 1 in the morning, I wake up to the rustling of the tarp fabric.  I ignore it and will myself back to sleep.  But then, sometime soon, it starts making a noise again.  I wake up and realize a strong wind is hitting our shelter on the broadside.  I nuzzle Janna lightly and ask her if she thinks the test will be okay in our exposed and salient location.  She says yes and drifts back to sleep.

The wind continues to build, occasionally bursting with such power as that the fabric ripples and echoes with noise that wakes me up.  A wind storm has decidedly built during the night.  The patter of rain starts and I ask Janna if we should pack up and move the shelter in the dark.  She says she feels confident it will be okay.  I shove earplugs in deeply and go back to sleep.  Around 6 am, I wake up as the wind is in full force.  Janna is awake and looks exhausted; she admits she hasn't slept for a while to the noise of the tarp shaking and whipping in the wind. 

​We woke up pre-dawn at 5 am because we knew the day would be nearly 70 miles along with nearly 30 miles of singletrack.  We rolled out in the glistening end of dark as first breath of dawn tinged the top of the horizon of the bowl Las Cruces sits in.  We pedaled north out of the NMSU campus and joined a sandy uphill road.  Luckily, this exertion got our metabolic heat pumping to fight the frigid 30-40 degree temperatures.  Soon we passed a gate to cars and climbed right below the A on A-Mountain.  The Sierra Vista Trail shot south from here, providing epic, rolling, curvy, and not-too-technical singletrack to mix up the experience.

​The full moon rose and stretched wide and bright in an arc shining through the tent.  We slept long and hard after yesterday's rocky ascent up White Gap.  Light streamed into the shelter as morning full glare indicated a late start.  Packing up, we sped down dusty, rocky, rutted double track before ascending up a small hill all whilst threading the one non-wilderness strip in a landed of designated wilderness.  We spilled forth onto the top of a hill with a paved county road leading back to Las Cruces.  Flying down it, the miles rolled by.  The rocky Las Uvas eroded away as butte turned to flat basin filled with creosote.  One bend coming out of the Sierra de las Uvas revealed an incredible view of distant Organ Mountains proper to the south.

​The night rang silent and still with nary a breeze to rustle the Triplex.  Morning brought diffuse and washed light to the land as Sun rose along dust-bidden peaks and mesas into a smear of cloud.  It was cold, but not too bad, so we sat among the creosote eating cold soaked breakfast oatmeal.  When breakfast was done, we saddled the last of our water and gear on our bikes and descended to Coyote Canyon Wash proper.  The air was tightly cold here, wrapping the yucca studded dust trail in the blur of timid light.  

Following a fall slammed with life and events that spooled out itemized to-do lists, all I wanted to pursue was a backcountry adventure.  With Thanksgiving Break approaching, I decided on a southern desert bikepacking adventure; immediately, the Monumental Loop came to mind.  The Monumental Loop is a 257.3 mile bikepacking route based around southwest New Mexico in the Las Cruces area.  It hits up all four units of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument, rides along the Rio Grande for several portions, hits up stellar food and famous green/red chilis, and traces several desert wilderness areas.