June 4, 2023
06/04/23 Gila Cliff Dwellings
I took my time getting up in the morning and puttered around, waiting for Doc Campbell’s across the street to open to get supplies for the next few days. As I was leaving the store I met Lynn with whom I’d spoken yesterday after she passed me going up the hill. She had just returned from visiting the cliff dwellings and invited me to to her campsite by the hot springs for a beer when I got back from my visit. Twist my arm!
The cliff dwellings are about 4 miles further down the road, at the end of the pavement. You have to walk up a creek to get to the path up the side of the cliff to the apartments themselves. Multiple bridges made walking up the creek easy, can’t imagine the difficulty the builders faced.
The tour is self guided, with nothing but a briefing by a ranger before starting up the trail about how not to be a dick. Which was nice, because I got to wander around there alone and ponder what it must have been like.
After about 2 hours I’d seen enough and rode back. I picked up some almonds at the store and rode over to Lynn’s to take her up on her offer of cold beer. We had a nice time, chatting over beers and a soak in the springs.
I noticed the store had decent Wi-Fi so after drinking all Lynn’s beer and saying goodbye I went over to see if it worked after hours, which it did. Not good enough to upload any photos but to at least get the narrative down. I find doing this blog a chore, but I like having it as a way to keep the days from all blending into a mush.
Just as I was wrapping up, Linda whom I’d met yesterday, came by the store to read the notice about the fire and we got to talking about bike travel. She’s ridden the Dempster Highway in the Yukon, so we are in somewhat different leagues. But she knows about loaded bikes and knows about hills and offered that in the event I wasn’t a purist she could give me a ride to the top of the hill in the morning. I had to think all of 2 seconds before eagerly accepting.
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Today's ride: 11 miles (18 km)
Total: 461 miles (742 km)
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