Dispatch 01: Presidio to Pandale
This is the Great Plains Project, and I’m Brandon Weaver. Photographer Jerod Foster and I are riding motorcycles 3,500+ miles from Presidio, Texas, to Fortuna, North Dakota, right through the middle of America.
Day ONE: We rose before dawn by the light of a thunderstorm erupting across the Chihuahuan Desert. A cold front chilled the desert morning. The storm sat atop Casa Piedra Road and drenched it’s gravel surface. That 50-mile-long piece of our day’s route, with its sandy creek beds, would be too arduous for our heavy adventure bikes.
We diverted to Highway 67 to Marfa—not a bad compromise—and climbed out of Presidio, dropped through the ghost town of Shafter, and passed the Chinati Mountains. We pulled into the border patrol checkpoint, slowed, gave a nod to the agent, and he waved us through. The ride through Marfa was a display of the town’s past and present. Tractors and stock trailers meandered past the fancy coffee shops, art galleries, and gourmet food bodegas. We moved westward, descending past the remnants of an ancient volcanic eruption, and into Alpine.
After refueling, the air turned hot, but another thunderstorm gathered energy on the horizon. Puffy cotton candy clouds bordered a dark patch of rain in the distance. The smell of precipitation and creosote permeated my helmet. The asphalt glistened, and the air was cool once again.
After Marathon, it was all business. We had big miles to cover for the day’s terminus: the Pandale Crossing River Resort. We headed north out of Langtry on 25 miles of gravel. The caliche road climbed and descended along rocky ridges with soft sloping edges. We were still in the Trans Pecos, but Big Bend was firmly in our past. The first indication of settlement was a speed limit sign—30 mph. A smattering of rustic habitats dotted the hillsides. We stopped on a concrete bridge, the waters of the Pecos River flowing beneath us. We turned off our engines and listened. The sun had just set. The Pecos reflected an ethereal blue sky with wispy clouds. Darkness came quick as we rode into camp and pitched our tents on the banks of the river.
