Hi everyone!  Al, Mo and I went down to Las Cruces, NM to ride the 245-mile Monumental Loop.  We headed out on a nice spring day, enjoyed some mellow singletrack and grunted up some rough 4WD roads. Day 2 took us into Hatch for delicious burritos and some chili pecan brittle.  We loaded up with 15 liters of water and headed for the difficult White Gap climb/descent.  It was in the 70s and felt very much like the desert. Walked over here hoping for shade and left quickly! 3-4 miles of hike-a-bike  As we headed back to town on day 3 it got hotter and our water supply got smaller quickly. We were considering treating some unpleasant looking H2O from a cattle tank when we lucked out with a passing rancher who had a cooler with two ice-cold waters left.  Did I say it was getting hot... We made it back to the land of AC and Slurpees with an easy decision to skip the second half of the ride due to temps in the 90s.  Nice trip and a great gear shakedown...