Day 20: To Silver City

March 16, 2012

40F overnight, not bad for this elevation. I got on the road at 10. Sunrise is later now that I'm in Daylight Savings time. Today should be an easy day, so I'm in no hurry.

The weather was sunny with a northwest wind. I'm traveling southeast, so it's a nice tailwind. For the first several miles I followed the Gila river valley downstream. It's a very small river here, not far from it's headwaters. At the lowest areas the grassland gives way to desert. But the higher ground is all grassland. Mountain slopes have scattered juniper trees.

Not so much grass at lower elevation near the Gila river.

I stopped at the store in Cliff, the only services today between Buckhorn and Silver City. After Cliff the road turns away from the river and climbs steadily into the mountains, to a 6500 foot summit. I had descended for a couple miles when I crossed the Continental Divide.

Now the water flows to the Atlantic ocean. This area is the Rio Grande watershed. I will see much more of the Rio Grande during this tour.

Descending to Silver City. In the distance is Santa Rita mine, the world's largest open-pit copper mine.

I arrived in Silver City at 4 PM and stopped at both bike shops, but neither had Crank Brothers cleats. I looked around downtown for a while. It's still kind of funky and run-down. Then I found the Silver City RV Park and got a campsite for $17.50. It's quiet, yet close to town. Not bad. I had a fancy dinner at Q's Southern Bistro.

Today had a high of 75F. No worries about heat at this high elevation. Silver City is 6100 feet (1860 m) elevation.

The evening was warm and pleasant but the weather forecast calls for colder and windier weather tomorrow. And snow a couple days later.

My original plan was to pedal north into the mountains to Gila Cliff Dwellings. But I will abort that detour because I don't want to bike and camp in the snow. Instead I will detour southeast to Faywood Hot Spring in the Mimbres river valley.

Distance: 40.4 mi. (64.6 km)

Climbing: 2412 ft. (731 m)

Average Speed: 9.4 mph (15 km/h)

Today's ride: 40 miles (64 km)
Total: 1,122 miles (1,806 km)

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