As far as I can remember from all the travels I’ve done and experiences I had, this one goes in the top 5! When I’m looking back where it started, it makes me smile and remember me how incredible it is to travel and to meet people.

I liked this trail very much because it gave me a total different view of the USA and the people living there. We went through small towns most of the time, places where you wouldn’t go and visit if you were coming from Europe for sure. I could appreciate how friendly and helpful the people are. I know now why they have these big pick-up trucks: to pull their huge trailer anywhere in the mountain. The food isn’t great and it’s not going to change I think, we struggled to find pasta in restaurants all the time. It’s really a burger & food chains land, no doubt! But the USA are big, huge, it’s a big sky country with amazing landscapes, reason why I came back with more than 1300 photos ...

I thought the road to Grants had been tough, but when Marco went on ahead to Pie Town (we heard that the grocery store closed at 3pm and we needed to stock up), I didn’t know that it would be so long until I saw him again.

My day started well, the legs felt fairly fresh and I seemed to be coping well with the climbing - a long steady uphill to make another Continental Divide crossing. After a short section on the highway, I turned into the West Malpais Wilderness, about which I had heard many horror stories. The track was surprisingly good and the first 20 miles passed very quickly.

With less than 10 miles to go to the highway, I got my first flat tyre. I sat down at the side of the trail and got it fixed, had a bite to eat and got back on my way. Less than 2 miles later, the bike was back upside down as I had ripped a hole in the tyre. That, and the resulting puncture fixed, I got back on my way ...