Today we rode from Beaverhead Work Center, New Mexico, US to Silver City, New Mexico, US. Sunny weather with some clouds. Road conditions included New Mexico gravel roads and paved roads. Highlights of the day include our evening ride into Silver City.
Riding statistics: on Saturday September 10, 2022, the 41st day on the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route route, it took 13:15h (10:38h moving time), between 07:26 and 20:42, to cover 135 km (84 miles), including 2352 m (7717 ft) elevation gain, with an average speed of 13 km/h (8 mph). During today's ride the average temperature was 25 °C (80 °F) with a minimum of 7 °C (44 °F) and a maximum of 39 °C (108 °F).
Totals: So far, it took 12 days, 8 hours, 43 minutes and 0 seconds of cycling time to cover 4321 km (2685 miles), including 51184 m (167935 ft) elevation gain, with an average speed of 14.9 km/h (9.2 mph).
Leaving Beaverhead Work Center
As we knew it was going to be a long day we have set our alarm clocks to 6am. So we could leave early again. Sunrise was at 7am. We left just after that. We filled up all our water storage with the excellent water from the Beaverhead Work Center so we had enough for the whole day of required. We packed our tents and made our bikes ready. When packing up our tents, a spider fell out of Anna’s tent. She was convinced it was a black widow. We have made a photo so we can identify it better. If true, pfffff, happy she saw that one before it could do any harm. Once done we left the Beaverhead Work Center to continue our ride. Today we will try to make it to Silver City. There are motels, and thus laundry & showers, which we desperately need.
Lake Roberts
After the difficult day of yesterday, this day will turn out the be not much better. We again have to work hard to reach our preferred destination. We had again a beautiful scenery while cycling between the hills/canyons and in the forests. Over here (and most of New Mexico we have seen so far) the forests are really spacious and light. This has to do with all the forest fires and rain earlier this year. The fire cleaned up everything on the ground. That combined with the rain made sure there were many plants that can grow in between the trees. We were told several times that New Mexico is greener than ever. In some of the valleys today we again encountered the results of the flash floods. Roads have been destroyed, but today’s roads have been repaired (as much as possible). This meant we could cycle all (although we had lots of steep climbing), but we had to be very careful. Downhill you only need to focus on steering and balance. Uphill, you also need to pedal and that makes it quite a bit more challenging. After a long time, the mountains and canyons changed into hills, and we were cycling on top of them. Meaning we had a view in both left and right directions (when not blocked by vegetation), That also meant we were pretty exposed when dark clouds began to form. We have been riding for several hours on these ridges, but fortunately we were back in a valley when the bad weather up in the mountains started. Once again we outran a thunderstorm. We had to follow the road for 10km to Lake Roberts. When arriving there we were a bit disappointed. The general store only had a very limited assortment. So we bought some snacks (we did not really like, but we needed energy). We felt our legs and decided that we really start to get more tired of the whole trip. We left Lake Roberts in the late afternoon, knowing that we still had quite a distance to cover, which included two more climbs.
Silver City
Almost immediatly after Lake Roberts we had a climb that started. The climb had a distance of 14km and we had an elevation gain of 500+ meters. And, this time we had a paved road. We enjoyed the late afternoon weather and the quiet road. The climb went well. Meanwhile we where again in forests and canyons. Eventually the sun got set, and it started to get darker. We both had our reflective vests on, and both turned on our rear and front lights. Making sure that any traffic was able to see us clearly. During these conditions we some more wildlife than usual. Mostly deer, closer by. When we finally reached to top of the second climb, it was completely dark. Fortunately we had a very wide road, with a good shoulder for the 10+ kilometer downhill into Silver City. The traffic was very polite and really made room for us. Meanwhile two thunderstorms started in the distance. On our right, and one after Silver City. The lightning was beautiful to see. Fortunately it was all very far away, we did not even hear any thunder. After that great downhill we were in Silver City. We checked our phones for the location of the motels, picked one, and rode towards it. We checked in into the Quality Inn, got ourselves thoroughly cleaned, did laundry, and ordered a pizza from the nearby Domino’s (No delivery due to staff shortage, I had to pick it up, via the drive through). Meanwhile it had started to rain, so hopefully no impact for the dirt road tomorrow. Although arriving late, and riding in the dark, we liked it. We specifically choose to do it this time, because of the roads (we could focus on cycling and other traffic, not the surface of the road). A late evening, but worth all the effort. After checking our bike computers, we found out that today has been the day with the most elevation gain in a single day of the entire ride. So, us feeling our legs was not just being tired, we had a good reason for feeling them.
