Cornudas has a population of 3. It consists of a bunch of rusting cars, a defunct cafe, an abandoned trailer home, and a three-room motel, which appears to have 3 permanent residents. I am rough camped in a pasture among a bunch of yucca trees off the side of the road a couple miles past Cornudas. All the bushes here have thorns. I got three punctures in my front tire going 10 feet off the road. By the time I got it fixed, it was almost dark and I decided I'd found my camp site.
This is the second consecutive night of rough camping. Last night, I was visited by varmints. Some sort of starving rodents. I caught a glimpse of one. Maybe it was a prairie dog. They swiped my moccasins from right in front of the tent door. I found them in the morning. The varmints ate the laces. My bike was lying on the ground, and they gnawed on the handgrip, too.
The real story of the day is the mountain. It wasn't a huge mountain, but it was the story of the day, and it was really cool. I went through Guadalupe Mountains National Park.
I spent all morning climbing. This kept getting bigger and bigger.
I got to the top about 2:00.
Then I had 15 miles of awesome payback. The view in the rear view mirror was incredible.
After the end of the descent, I rode through this salt flat, and past the ghost town of Salt Flat. I rode another 20 miles or so farther by dark. There are actually people living out here now. I think I am close enough to El Paso that people buy land and play rancher and keep horses. There are 10 acre lots for sale, and the ones that are sold have a trailer on them and maybe a couple cows or horses.
I'm probably camped in such a lot now, but I've only seen some very old and dried up cow manure as evidence of livestock.
Tomorrow I will be in El Paso. It's less than 70 miles away. I can't wait for the shower.
Here is today's route.
