Encountering Scenic Views and Fellow Bikers

Thursday, March 16

The stars last night were beautiful.  Once my eyes adjusted to the darkness--after working on the previous day's blog sitting outside the public library--I could really see the sky fill up. Seeing such stars is something I have been missing out on because I've lately been staying at hotels whenever they were available. I ended up having a fairly restful night camping at the Hillsboro town campground, and then I took advantage of the pre-dawn darkness to do more of a deep clean at the campsite spigot. Bracing!

The climb started immediately as I left town.  I had a steady climb for the first 16 miles until I hit Emory Pass at 8228 ft (the highest point on the Southern Tier).  The total gain in elevation was 2972 feet, with only 49 feet going down!  It took me a good 3 and 1/2 hours for this climb.

On the way up I startled a young wild boar.  I had seen a number of road kills in the previous states, but this was the first live boar I saw on this trip.

I have to say that the views on this climb were great, and this scenery is what I imagined when I started this ride.  However, I think I like hiking mountains better than biking through them with a loaded bike.   :-)

I had been mentally prepared for the climb to the top of the pass, but I wasn't prepared for the subsequent climbs.  When I got to the top there was a scenic overlook off to the side, but I just opted to walk up the short road as I was done with climbing! You can see the impressive panoramic vistas I was treated to in the photo at the top of this post.

Then I was pretty disappointed that after only 7 miles of going down, there was another minor climb, then another major climb as the road swung down to the Mimbres River.  The total elevation change for the day was 5604 ft up and 4921 down. After the first 16 miles my legs were pretty much jelly, and I was glad for the mountain bike gearing! (This was the first time on the trip I got into my smallest chain-ring.)

Along the way I passed by the Santa Rita open pit copper mine.  Amazing to see the earth moved around like that!  This was the most exhausting day of the trip, and the rolling hills the last 20 miles beat me up pretty good.  I was one happy camper when I finally reached my destination.

Day: 29
Time: 9 hours
Distance: 56 miles (Hillsboro-Silver City, NM)

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Friday, March 17

I got some relief from all the hard work the previous day.  I had a long ride of 76 miles ahead of me today, but I only had 1880 feet up and 4157 feet down.  Of course the first 36 miles were still pretty rolling, but after that it was a pretty easy downhill ride.

Heading out of Silver City, I passed a cow that had gotten out and was standing next to the road.  It looked a little lost...

Along the way I crossed over the Continental Divide, which was cool.  I thought of the Bob Seger song, "I could go East, I could go West, it was all up to me to decide."  Well, maybe Bob could since he was on a motorcycle.  At that point, I only had the one potion: West!

I passed a couple of bikers heading East today.  I didn't get a chance to talk to a young woman who first passed, and then I saw two guys who had joined up on the road.  And finally a brother and sister who were trying to stay only at hotels.  It is possible to do that, but you have to plan your route carefully.

For lunch I stopped beside the road at an overpass and tried to catch as much shade as possible. While I was there, I noticed that the wash or gully was filled on one side with tumbleweeds.  It would have been very painful to fall in there.  I'm not sure one could get out!

Today I passed into Arizona after only 3 days in New Mexico.  Since Arizona is on Mountain Time but doesn't observe Daylight Savings Time, I'm essentially on Pacific Time and thus two hours behind Chicago.

Cruising into my destination for the day, I ran into additional bikers.  It was a husband and wife duo from Arkansas who were part of a group of 8 doing a self-supported ride heading East with with two support vehicles, or SAG wagons.  They were staying at the Simpson Hotel.  After being on my own for so long, some company sounded great, so after I verified a room was available, I checked in as well.

Day: 30
Time: 8 hours
Distance: 77 miles (Silver City, NM-Duncan, AZ)

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Saturday, March 18

Today I only had a short 40-mile ride as the only options were 40 miles or 120 miles.  It was frustrating, but there was nothing I could do about it.  On the positive side, it did allow me to enjoy a big B&B breakfast (and some good coffee for a change!) with the group of 8.  Again, it was fun to spend some time with fellow bikers--even if they are traveling in relative comfort by not carrying any gear...    :-)

On the way out of town I had a dog chase me for a bit somewhat halfheartedly, and then I noticed that I was missing my pepper spray.  It must have bounced out when I was coming down the pass the day before yesterday.  My phone had fallen out on the way down, but luckily I didn't accidentally run over it myself.  I had to scramble to pick it up before a car could run over it, and I was relieved to see that it survived the fall ok.  I guess the Samsung S5 "Active" is indeed designed to be more rugged.

I ran into a big group of Adventure Cycling riders on a supported ride--in that they don't have to carry their own gear.  I was hoping the group leader might be able to point out some lodging options not listed on the maps, but unfortunately he didn't have any additional info to share.

My destination of Safford/Thatcher were back-dropped by the Pinaleno Mountains which had a nice snowcap.

I arrived by noon, so I had plenty of time to kill.  I was tempted to try one of the 3 local Chinese restaurants--for a change of pace--but I was reminded of what Bill Bryson said.  In his experience, folks don't travel 10,000 miles to impart 2500 years of culinary history (well, not in a sleepy little town at least).  So I opted for the usual Tex-Mex.  I also took the opportunity to pick up another pepper spray as I don't want to have any problems the remainder of the ride.

I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to map out the remaining days.  Again it was frustrating as it is hard to put together reasonable days of riding mileage because of where the lodging choices are.  I'm targeting to finish next Sunday, March 26.  This means I'm going to have 3 tough days next week to meet this schedule.  But come hell or high water, I need to be in San Diego by Sunday as I booked a flight for Monday afternoon!

Day: 31
Time: 4 hours
Distance: 40 miles (Duncan-Safford, AZ)