Day 13: Lordsburg NM to Silver City NM

 I peddled out of Lordsburg with the traditional sign marking the days.  I was happy!!! 

The day started happy...
We ran out of fingers.

I few hours later, I was not happy.  What a tough ride…  Yesterday, I was thinking today would be tough.  I missed it by a long shot.  Today was much harder than I anticipated.  I try not to bring to much of the ride stats to the description of the ride, but the average speed tells it all, 9.7 mph over 46 miles.  Today was a total grind.  When I finished, I told Sandy if I had known how hard it was going to be, we would have stayed in Lordsburg.  Even Sandy had was concerned and happy to see me finish.

The ride today was dominated by uphill, into the wind peddling.  The winds were gusty at 15~20 mph, with most of the force coming mostly head on or slightly to my right.  Early in the ride the entertainment was dominated by Tumble Weed.  Unfortunately, they would come and go so fast an action shot was not possible.  The poor guy below got caught by the guard rail for me so I could take a quick photo. 

They are cool to watch crossing the road.

There were great views most of the day.  Most of today's ride was in the Gila National Forest. 

This was todays ride...

The highlight of the trip was passing the Continental Divide.  Before I tell you, what this is take a guess.  Well, the simple answer is this…. When you pee west of the Continental Divide it will end up the Pacific, when you pee east of the Continental Divide it will end up in the Atlantic.  OK… think rivers and you will understand. 

The highest point of todays ride...

Aside from the toughness of the ride I had two flats today.  One annoying front tire flat.  I told myself when I finish the ride, I was going to change the front and put this misery to and end.  When I looked at the hole I think it was caused by the tube liner I put in a few days ago and will give it one more try.  The 2^nd flat was a hard stop… a piece of construction wire went right into my back tire.  The immediate sound had me stop… and instant flat tire.  I was quick to pull the junk from the tire but regret that I did not snap a picture.  Being in such a hard ride this one made me mad. 

I thought this was a cool picture.

After peddling for a few hours, I made it....

After a beer and shower, Sandy and I had some time to go to Old Town Silver City for dinner and a another beer.  We went to the Little Toad Creek Brewery & Distillery.  They had home crafted beers and good food.  

Old Town Silver City, NM

The wind was the dominate story of the day.  The temperature was cold most of the day but with so much climbing I really did not notice.  When I arrive at the finish the temperature was 50F which had to be the high for the day.

Today’s ride stats:

 Start Time:   9:25 AM Mountain Time     Finish Time:  3:02 PM Mountain Time    

Elapse Time: 5 Hr. 37 Min.                         Ride Time:  4 Hr. 44 Min.

Distance:  46.1 Miles                                   Average Speed: 9.7 mph

Climbing/Descent:  4,062/2319 Ft.           TSS:  153

Average Power:   163 Watts                      Normalized Power: 179 Watts

Calories:  2783                                              Ave/Max HR: 1231/137 bpm

For food today, Sandy and I met up about 10 miles into the ride.  No real reason other than she was fast getting out of last nights hotel and I was going slow.  I took the opportunity to have nut muffin and cold water.  For the rest of the ride, I had cliff bar and about one bottle for water. 

The stoppage time today was fixing two flats, the break with Sandy and snapping a few pictures along the way. 

Tomorrow is going to be tough and the final big climb of the entire ride.  The ride will be about 45 miles with 6K feet of climbing.  We will spend the night in a B&B then head down hill to El Paso.  The winds will be unfriendly again tomorrow, but we need to keep moving forward.  My legs are feeling good, the wind needs to stop.