Hello All,
 
I had a spur of the moment opportunity to take a short vacation. Since I start to work again Monday 20th, It may be a while before I can do something like this again. I left Carrollton Tuesday for Balmorhea. The weather was muggy and I was thinking sweatfest. However, by the time I hit Odessa, it was mid fifties and mist. A few miles west of Odessa the speed limit jumps to 80, oh yeah! Got to Balmorhea about 4:00 and set up camp. Put my tent in the back of the truck. Spent a wonderful cooool evening and night and awoke to the yapping of coyotes. It was 50 degrees and my buns were cold! I made coffee and waited for the sun to come up and maybe warm a bit. Not so, by 8:00 it was 51 and I said what the heck. Put on the gear and set out. As I made my way down the road or should I say up the road, I discovered that my camera had blown chunks. Cuss, cuss . The first 10 miles are a gradual incline maybe 2 degrees with occasional curves mostly straight. The second ten takes up up steeper inclines into the mountains. The climbs get steeper and longer as you go up to Wild Rose Pass. I sopped there to allow my heart a chance to get back into my chest. The climb there is 3-4 miles long about as steep as the grade on Whiterock lake. Right off the pass you drop about 1000 feet in about 3 miles. Just coasting with no input I made 39.5 mph. Man was that a gas . The Corsa is rock solid at that speed and there was no traffic, the road was smooth and great. More climbs follow and I arrive at Ft Davis. Temp is still 51 but I am pretty warm now. I run around Ft Davis a bit, eat a great BBQ sandwich and head back. I was anticipating a 20-25 mph average all the way back. Its down hill all the way. However a stiff wind developed blowing right up Limpia Canyon and no matter which way the road led, the wind blew strong in my face. So strong I could not hear from the whistling wind in my ears! I still had many 18- 20 mph  mile loooong stretches coasting into the wind! It was almost 65 miles and I averaged 13 mph with 4 hours of climbing! Many of those climbs were 5 mph lung busters. I would imagine on a calm day the 32 miles back would take a bit more than 1 hour with little input.  The traffic was scant and 99 percent friendly. There were gravel and cattle trucks about every 15 minutes. I waved at everyone and it was gratifying to get that friendly waa waa from the truckers. All but one, there has to be one, moved all the way into the opposite lane as they passed. I got many smiles, waves and friendly honks.   I made it back at 3:30 took a shower and headed back to Carrollton. This was one of my goals for the year and I am going to try again next year.  Some cell phone pics at  http://public.fotki.com/drahcir1/balmorhea-to-ft-davis/
 
RichardC

There's just something about riding in West Texas.  I've always encountered friendly drivers and truckers, but I just figured they never saw that many recumbents and were curious.  I"ve heard that from Alpine to Marfa and back to Ft. Davis is a good route as well.  I've got an OLD book --A Guide to Bicycling in Texas--by George Sevra ( back in the Two-Wheel Transit days) that has a couple of routes around Ft Davis and Big Bend, but since I purchased it in 1986, I'm sure it's way out of date.  Sounds like you had a great time and thanks for sharing.

PS
 
When you do the elevation you will have to enlarge the grid to get the full altitude.
 
RichardC