Day 16. Lordsburg to Silver City

46 mi. Elev climb 3772ft. Ais 4:50. Those are the stats today. I (Suzy) personally had a really good ride today. Yesterday I talked about the “trifecta” and today all those stars were aligned. We had a really long steady climb and then a series of sawtooth ups and downs. To anyone who has ridden my indoor cycling class, today felt like “The Mesa” ride. Mostly up but a few serious downs. Hated to give up all that elevation gain just to have to reclimb it. But that’s the way it was.

Beautiful the entire way except for the scars of copper mines near Silver City. Crossed the Continental Divide and found the Continental Divide Bicycle trail. Met a couple of riders going the other way to San Diego. First female I’ve seen that is riding unsupported besides myself. I’m sure there will be more. She was probably half my age!

Silver City is a cute little town. Kind of a bit hippy, trail hikers, mtn bikers. Good food, first local beer pub. Just a one night stop. Big climb over Emory Pass (8228 ft) tomorrow. Some 6000 ft of climbing in 40 some miles.

On our third week patterns are starting to develop. Curt is an early riser (5am). So he reads until about 6. Jim and I get up between 6-7 depending upon how cold it is and how far we have to ride that day. It takes about 2 hrs from tent zipping to fed, packed and ready to roll. So at our earliest we have left by 7:30-8 or 9-9:30. Once we’re riding we stop for short rests, eat quick energy snacks, drink water, stop for lunch (pbj and fruit). Probably total stops in our day are 1-1:30 hrs. We usually get to our camp/hotel/RV park by 3-4pm. Then it’s set up camp, shower, start charging electronics and head to a place that looks good for dinner and if we’re lucky …a beer :). Head back to our camp and crawl into our nests. Post the blog and call it a day. 9pm. Start again tomorrow😊 and yes we are having a good time and staying away from crowds and every bathroom has toilet paper….so far!