I don't know how much you've camped before, but when you're inside a tent, it feels like you're inside your own tiny kingdom. A wild bear would look at my tent and think, “Mmmm.... I love these things. Soft on the outside, crunchy on the inside.” But from the inside, there's a sense that these thin, translucent, rip-stop nylon walls are somehow capable of withstanding not simply an ursine onslaught, but also a forest of redwood trees falling on it, armor-piercing bullets, or even a thermonuclear blast.
One thing's for sure, these thin walls, plus my sleeping bag, do provide a measure of relief against the cold. And, at 5:00 when my alarm went off, it WAS cold. I REALLY didn't want to climb out of my sleeping bag this morning.
Erin was packed and ready to go half an hour before I finished. He politely waited for us until Klaus said he didn't really need to wait. He left right after that.
There is a 30% chance of rain today so I stuffed my sleeping bag inside my waterproof pannier bag this morning. I'm not exactly sure how I fit it inside my pannier
Because of the temperature, I wore a short-sleeved shirt, a long-sleeved shirt over that, a jacket over the shirts, a balaclava, a bandanna around my neck, tights for my legs, tights for my arms, and low light glasses. I'm going downhill for a while, so I'll be going fast (which means a lot of wind) and I won't be exerting myself enough to generate much body heat.
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| From mark on a bike 08 |
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| From mark on a bike 08 |
Even dressed like a rolling eskimo my fingers and toes got so cold they hurt.
Black Jack Campground has no facilities so we packed out our trash. That means we put it in a plastic bag and tied it to the bike.
A quick two miles after leaving the campground we stopped at the New Mexico border.
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As we descended the scenery became green, a color we haven't seen in a while.
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Though it didn't last long...
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| From mark on a bike 08 |
We stopped in Buckhorn (you can tell we're in the west with a cool name like that) for lunch and passed through Cliff (pop. 400), Riverside (pop. 0), and Mangus (pop. 0). This is where we stopped for lunch, the only building in town:
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(No, we didn't drink our lunch. It was the only building in town)
We passed a prison and paused for a picture.
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It was cloudy today, and the wind slowed our progress. Sometimes, when it's THIS windy, even drafting behind Klaus is difficult.
This is a typical ranch along the way:
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We passed Treasure Mountain and Lop Ear Creek. Lop Ear Creek??? I always wonder how some of these places got their names. Certainly not from Mr. Lop Ear. There's bound to be a story behind it. We continued our steady climb and finally reached the continental divide which, interestingly, isn't the highest point of our trip Still, the divide is always a landmark on any bike trip.
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| From mark on a bike 08 |
This is looking down on Silver City:
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| From mark on a bike 08 |
After twenty minutes of coasting we arrived in Silver City just as a few scattered raindrops started, then stopped. I called a few motels and we also looked at some of the rooms. We got a cheap one, but not the cheapest, and made sure it had wireless internet.
The young woman checking us in told us Silver City was rated as the "Fifth Best Retirement City in the Country."
Wow. Makes me want to pack up and move here.
We ate at the Red Barn, a steakhouse, where we both ordered burgers.
Tomorrow is a rest day. We'll see what the town holds in store for us and, who knows? Maybe it'll be so wonderful that we'll just retire here.
I retired to bed at 12:15.
69.88 distance
11.5 average speed
39.2 max
6:04:24 time
656.2 total mileage
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