Day 17, April 7, Arrey NM to Las Cruces, NM, 60.1 miles, 858.8 miles cuml.

We have a map meeting each night after dinner to discuss the next day's route. Each person brings their map and a pencil to note how to get to the next campground, etc. Well, my bff Phil, Boise's top State Farm Agent (and he WILL sell you ANY kind of insurance you MIGHT need--he already encouraged one rider to insure his new biycle...) sends his maps back to his office when we are done. We have 7 maps, and he sent the first back in Tempe. Well, he sent the second one back from Hillsboro, NM with 2.75 days left on it, and we called him out last night to have him give the map details and he was suitably embarrassed. I guess you had to be there, but now I understand he is plotting to steal my map....

Today Phil, Becky and I had a 4 hour 10 minute ride covering 60 miles, with a great tailwind and mostly slightly down hill, all along the Rio Grande River from before bleak Arrey NM to the outskirts of Las Cruces, NM, the second largest city in NM. That time included a 45 minute second breakfast stop at Hatch, NM, where we had authentic local food -- I had a green chili omelette that was great. We averaged about 19 mph when on the road; not too shabby. We rode through lots of pecan orchards, many of which were flooded in their 4x per year irrigation from the Rio Grande. We are staying tonight at a KOA campground, still in the wind. Last night the wind was blowing 40-50 all night and it was tough to get much sleep in our tents.

Tomorrow we cross into state #4 of the 8 we will cross - Texas - and we will be in Texas from about the furthest west point to the furthest east point and it will take about 3 weeks.

Day 16, April 6, Kingston NM to Arrey NM, 31 miles, 798.7 miles cuml.

The pictures today are of a bridge over the Percha River east of Kingston, with several riders, the house in Hillsboro, the freeway exit sign for T or C and Elephant Butt and the campground at Caballa Riverside state park. Today’s 31 mile ride was the easiest so far and took just over 2 hours. From the B&B in Kingston, I did not have to pedal for 4.84 miles (approximately, but who is counting?...)as it was gradually downhill and there was a tailwind. We went through Hillsboro and I took a picture of a sign for a former house of ill repute. We turned south at Cabello and are staying at Cabello Riverside State Park, a windy dustbowl along the Rio Grande River. Becky and Luke went swimming in the freezing cold brown water. I went along with the grocery shoppers to the nearest store, the Wal-Mart in Truth-or-Consequences, NM. There is no need to revisit that place either. We are out of the mountains and into the dry west, heading to Las Cruces tomorrow after a dinner of canned chili and Macaroni and Cheese, with pumpkin pie for dessert. Yum.


Last night we stayed inthe Black Range B&B in Kingston, NM. Kingston is mostly a ghost town with a few houses left, but had 7,000 people here during its mining heyday. I highly recommend it for all who want a nice stay. We all had beds...were able to watch the NCAA final game for those few who wanted to and who could stay up that late...They are fixing awesome breakfast for us today, a welcome break from fruit loops, cheerios, and instant oatmeal around a cold picnic table.
I even had a door on my bedroom. It would not open for me in the middle of the night as the handle mechanism jammed. Fortunately I had my tent gear with me (pee bottle) so I was able to handle affairs, and in the morning I used my bike tools to remove the door from its hinges and escape. It is dangerous sleeping indoors, so readers please go sleep in your tents tonight.
Off to breakfast and riding....

Day 15, Apr 5, Silver City NM to Kingston NM, 48.1 miles, 767.6 miles cuml

Today we hit the highest point on the cross country trip, 8,288 feet over Emory Pass in New Mexico. We had approximately 5,000 vertical feet today in the 48 miles, starting at Silver City at about 5,800, going up to 7,200, down to 5,675, then up to 8,288, with lots of ups and downs in between. We had sunny skies again, with tremendous tail winds pushing us mostly up the passes, and buffetting us as we went down, nearly blowing us over. It was something I had never quite encountered where you get a side blast and just about blow over. Fortunately there was no traffic since we are still in the middle of nowhere. But we all feel good to be over the high point. A couple of short days next, to Arrey and then Las Cruces, before the long march through Texas starting near El Paso.

Day 14, Day off in Silver City, NM April 4 Easter

Today was a day off in Silver City. Some of the group stayed in town and went to the bike shop and toured around, and most of the group went by van to Gila Cliff Dwellings. Some pictures of that trip are attached. The picture with 2 people has Alice and Dave, and the lone guy is Phil.

Day 13, Buckhorn NM to Silver City NM, 37.0 miles, 719.5 miles cuml.

This was the 12th riding day out of 48 planned (plus 10 rest days). We have a rest day in Silver City tomorrow.

The pictures are of me crossing the continental divide,(photo credit to Bruce York), 2 pictures of scenic Buckhorn, and a picture of the tiny little goat-head thorns that stick on and puncture tires (we carry bikes when off pavement).
Today it was somewhere between 21 and 28 degrees when we got up at 7am, but it warmed up nicely to about 70 and sunny. We started at 4,800 ft in Buckhorn, went down to 4,500 feet and then up to 6,200 feet, with several ups and downs in between. We crossed the Continental divide today, just before Silver City. Silver City hosts Western NM University and seems to be a thriving little city, at 5,895 feet. We will reach the high point of the trip on Monday at Emory Pass, 8,228 feet. Then it is mostly all downhill to Florida.

Day 12, April 2, Safford AZ to Buckhorn NM, 77.73 miles, 682.6 cuml miles

>Bruce crossing into New Mexico, state 3!

Buckhorn RV park my orange tent

Leaving Arizona

going up

Thumb Butte

desert
flora

more desert flora

Here is the elevation map for April 2. We did 78 miles with big mountains going over 6,295 ft pass just before NM state line. It was a challenging day! You can click on the picture and zoom to examine it (photo of ACA map). I think it was the hardest day, being long, and following 2-80 mile days, ahd having the two big passes to cross. We went from 2,800' to 4,700' to 3,500' to 6,300 ft.
We did have favorable winds most of the day and had some lovely long downhills.
We left Safford, AZ, which was any-strip-town USA with the regular stores, restaurants and motels, and went over 2 passes into oblivion to Buckhorn, NM. The only "town" we went through today was called "Three Way, AZ", no kidding. Luke said it had to be the worst 3-way in the world. There was a convience store and an outhouse. Past there, there were no cell sites within miles, so we were disconnected from the world for most of a day...Buckhorn NM RV park is where we stayed, and it was a junker, but the only place within miles. I made it in first today, having left at 6:55am, arriving at 2:15 pm, which turned out to really be 3:15pm given our move into Mountain Time Zone. Others arrived by about 645pm (MT) and Luke and I were on for dinner and cooked up turkey meat spaghetti, salad and garlic bread, which went down well. We had our group of 12 plus 2 leaders plus 2 other xc riders sharing the tiny laundry room/shower-sink-toilet. It was easier to soap up the sides of the shower and spin to get clean - don't drop the soap because there is no room to bend over...
But we survived.

Day 11 April 1, Globe AZ to Safford AZ, 80.5 miles, 604.9 miles cuml.

Today we had a nice ride. Phil and I made the 80.5 miles in 6 hours as we had favorable winds. We wore rain suits at the start but only got a little wet, and shed them after 2 hours. There was little to see except desert, mountains, cars and trucks. The picture is of a dry canyon. We traversed the San Carlos Apache reservation and saw lots of Native Americans and a casino. That's about it.