Wayne Andresen's 2016 Coast 2 Coast Bicycle Ride Blog: Day 20: Thursday 03/24/16, Marfa, TX to Marathon, TX

Day 20 distance: 57 miles

Total miles: 1135 miles

Elevation gain: 1129 feet

Map of today's ride:

I left Marfa, Texas, this morning at 8:00 am. At that time, my phone showed a current temperature of 37 degrees. Everyone had dressed for cold weather riding so it was tolerable. We were riding to the east, NE, and then to the SE during the ride as can be seen in the map above. Although there was a light headwind when we left Marfa, after about 8 miles of riding, the wind increased to to 18 to 20 mph. Fortunately it decreased to a more manageable riding wind after about another 10 miles. The rest of the 57 mile ride was tolerable and pleasant. When we arrived in Marathon, Texas, our destination, early this afternoon, the temperature was in the mid-sixties.

Tomorrow is a rest day, but most of the coasters are heading to Big Bend National Park for the day. Bubba rents enough vehicles so no one is crowded while shuttling everyone on this trip. It is a long day, and since I visited Big Bend last year, I decided to take a real rest day tomorrow. However, I am planning on doing a short blog on our laundry procedure and tent camping.

Typical scene for the first 15 miles out of Martha along Highway 90.

John Murphy, starting to ride up the pass between Marfa and Alpine, Texas. John is from Erie, Colorado, and he and his wife are on Bubba's SAG staff. Every few days, the SAG staff gets an opportunity to ride with the regular coasters. The shadow on the road is the shadow from your blogger, apparently in a poor position as a photographer to allow his shadow in a blog picture. :(

Another tree greening out on the pass we rode up today. Spring is late this year, as last year at this time, we were spotting many wild flowers by this point in the ride.

Sul Ross State University, part of the Texas state university system, is located in Alpine, Texas. It serves a 19 county area in far West Texas and has approximately 2000 undergraduate students.

View from a SAG stop outside Alpine, Texas. I believe that is some type of yucca in the foreground. This area was covered in flowers last year at this time.

A pretty rock outcropping along Highway 90.

Meet Ron, a self-contained bicyclist heading the opposite direction from our C2C ride. He said he had left the east coast two and a half months ago, and would be further down the road except he had taken four weeks out of his journey to go sailing at the British Isles. When asked where he was headed and when he planned to get there, he said he didn't know. He had just sold his house, was free, and just on a bicycle ride to go wherever he felt like going.