Day 18 - Tuesday, May 29th - Tucumcari to Dalhart, Texas

Distance: 95.9 miles

Elevation Gain: 2100 ft. or 21.9 ft./mile

Net elevation change:  -135 ft.

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While 4 miles short of a true century, today’s ride combined with yesterday gives us 205 miles in two days. Mercifully, the climbing was a tad easier today as well as the miles, but a moderate and persistent wind was pretty much in our face the entire day.  There were no killer climbs, just a persistent up and down just far enough apart you couldn't really call them rollers. At about the 54-mile mark we crossed into Texas and promptly lost an hour as we entered the Central Time Zone. Adding insult to injury, I got a flat at about the 75 mile mark. All in all, it was a a very tough day on the bike.

Navigating today was once again simple. Go back the way you came into town for 2 miles, make a right onto Main Street (US 54), stop at the La Quinta Inn in Dalhart, Texas. While the simple directions made it relatively easy, there is also a tendency to zone out when riding on long stretches of straight roads, with little change in the passing scenery. It can get boring.

On the way out of Tucumari, there was some early evidence of farmland vs. ranch land but soon enough it is just open grassland with little change in the scenery until we crossed the Canadian River. At mile 25 we get to the center of Logan after passing just to the east of the Ute Reservoir and Ute Lake State Park. The Ute Reservoir, its dam and the Ute Lake State Park are all just west of Logan and were all built in 1963 and 1964. The dam is an earthen dam that is 132 feet high and 6530 feet long and is owned by the State of New Mexico. The reservoir has a water surface area of 8200 acres.

Why is there a river named the Canadian River in the Southwestern US? It is unclear. Let’s just say that there are a number of theories having to do with derivations of Spanish, Comanche, Kiowa and French words. None of the theories have anything to do with the river actually coming from Canada. What we do know is that the Canadian River is the longest tributary of the Arkansas River at just over 900 miles long starting in Colorado and traveling through New Mexico, the Texas panhandle and Oklahoma  Some pictures from the ride out of Tucumcari up the the Canadian River crossing.

I wanted to get a picture of the Canadian River but there was no shoulder on the bridge and a tractor trailer was waiting patiently right behind me, so that didn't work out. I didn't even get to sneak a glance.

Logan is a small village with a population of about 950 and came to be when the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific railroad built a bridge over the Canadian River. Eugene Logan was a well-known Texas ranger that came to work on the bridge.  Some pictures of the main street through Logan

The flag gives you some idea of today's wind.

Not affiliated with the Crossroads Tour 😃

Our first of two SAG stops was at mile 29 and like yesterday the van just set up along side the road in the shade.  Out of the SAG we continued on to Nara Vista which we reached at mile 50. Nara Visa is a village of about 100 people who mostly live in nearby ranches as the town itself is mostly abandoned buildings. It was a ranching town that got its start when the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad built the area. At the time a Hispanic sheepherder named Narvaez lived there. English speaking settlers pronounced it as Narvez and over time it became corrupted to Nara Visa. Henry King, a section foreman for the railroad, and his wife came to the community in 1901. At the time there were no homes so the King’s lived in a boxcar and took on boarders that were with the railroad and occasionally cowboys. The community prospered and by 1920 had a population of 651. It never recovered after the Depression and the Dust Bowl.  Here are some shots of of the ride into Nara Vista.

When I stopped to take the picture they turned away and hightailed back to the larger group, who also turned and fled.

At mile 54 we crossed into Texas, our third state line and fourth state. Texas has two signs telling you that you are in Texas.

At about mile 62 we started to see evidence of farming activity but it was impossible to tell what was being grown. This continued for about three miles and google maps indicate it is part of Douglas Lathem Farms. Based on some conversation at dinner tonight, I think this might be alfalfa for the cattle.

Our second SAG was at mile 64 at a covered picnic area that was in really sad shape. I'll spare you the pictures bird guano and lord knows what other leavings from the local critters.  There was a historical marker of sorts.

Right around mile 84 there was a sizable complex of farm related buildings belonging to CSS Farms which was formed in 1986 when the Carter and Spevak families of Watertown South Dakota, joined together to grow their first field of potatoes. Today they primarily grow potatoes in 13 states including seeds, specialty potatoes (like fingerling) and chipping potatoes for potato chip processors. Talk about specialization!

Starting  at about mile 86 the landscape changes again and for as far as we can there are cattle feed lots holding untold head of cattle. 

I am pretty sure these lots were once part of the XIT Ranch, which operated in Texas from 1885 to 1912 and totaled 3,000,000 acres spread over ten counties that at its peak regularly handled 150,000 head of cattle. The timing for the ranch wasn't good as cattle prices crashed in 1886 and 1887. The syndicate owning the ranch started selling land in 1901 to pay off bonds coming due that were owned by foreign investors. The last of the XIT cattle were sold in 1912 and the land sales accelerated. Some of the XIT land now appears to be owned by JBS Five Rivers Cattle Feeding which is part of JBS S.A., the worlds largest “animal protein company” that is headquartered in Brazil. The cattle feeding operations in the US have the capacity to feed more than 920,000 head of cattle spread out across Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona and Idaho. The origins of the US operation date back to the 1920’s and a man named Warren H Monfort who in the 1960s built the worlds first 100,000 head feedlot and pioneered the movement of meat packing plants from urban consumer districts to where the cattle are located. Monfort’s operation was bought and sold several times including to ConAgra, Smithfield Foods and finally by JBS in 2008.

We followed US 54 into Dalhart which becomes 7^th street and then made a left on Denver Ave and proceeded the final mile to our hotel for the night.

Sneak Peek at Tomorrow

We continue northeast on US 54 for 72 miles to Guymon, Oklahoma. We'll reach the Texas-Oklahoma border at about mile 50 for our fourth state line crossing and fifth state. The headwinds look like they will continue.

Guymon, OK is a city of about 11,700 and ironically it is the county seat of Texas County, Oklahoma. The economy is dominated by cattle feedlots, corporate pork farms and natural gas, with wind energy production and transmission becoming more common in recent years.  The city promotes itself as the “Queen City of the Panhandle”. Guymon was founded in the 1890s when Edward Guymon purchased a section of land and the area grew rapidly when the railroad built a line from Liberal, Kansas Texhoma and passed through Guymon. Despite the Depression and Dust Bowl, Guymon population grew to 2290 in 1940 due in part to the discovery of the Hugoton-Panhandle gas field.