Day 14: Silver City NM to Kingston NM (very small town in mountains)

If you could describe a perfect ride, today would be it!!! While the temperature was a bit chilly, the light winds were behind me most of the day and the scenery was out of this world.   After a night’s rest in a hotel in Silver City NM I headed off to Kingston NM about 8:40AM.  

Morning Send Off...

The ride immediately started to go up and never stopped.   I love climbing so no big deal, I just put the legs in low gear and enjoyed the view.  


Early on the most interesting site was Hanover Mines, a major pit mine.  The pictures don’t do it justice for the size of it place. 

Amazing Site to See...

After a few more miles of riding, Sandy did her normal drive by around 29 miles and 3K feet of climbing.  Just as she pulled up, I notice the snow… as I climbed the snow cover increased but the roads were totally clear and dry. 

This is becoming a daily ritual... 
I love my ham sandwich!!!

Later in the ride I entered Gila National Forest (Same Gila I road yesterday).  The most spectacular views were in the valley just as the road climbed out on the east side.  Like a few days ago, I could only stop so many times to take pictures.  Today I was riding with long fingered gloves so every picture required me to take out one thumb to work the phone. 

Road into the valley...

Tons of great shots, these are just a few.

This is the valley I road up to Emory Pass

The peak of the ride was at 8,228 ft above sea level at Emory Pass.  This is the highest point I have ever been riding on my bike.  I took a few minutes at the top to call my parents to describe the view – words cannot describe it. 


Words do not do this justice...
I was in awe.

After Emory Pass the ride was a fast 6 miles down hill to Kingston.  When I arrived, Sandy was on the side of the road with news that the owners of the B&B we wanted to stay at were “in town” and would not be back until late.  We took the time to make some dinner at a campsite on the Colman stove and have a beer.  

We ate with our friendly goats.

After dinner, I decide to drive up the mountain to find cell service and expedite the processes.  The owners of the B&B were nice and said we should go make ourselves at home and her sister would be over to check us in.  As I am writing this, we are the only one in a very coolie decorated house.  The floors are squeaky but very nice, and warm with no wind.

The Old Town of Kingston.  In its hey day the town had 7,000 people.

Our B&B for the night



The place is cool...

Today’s ride stats:

Start Time:   8:50 AM Mountain Time     Finish Time: 2:37 PM Mountain Time    

Elapse Time: 5 Hr. 47 Min.                         Ride Time: 4 Hr. 39 Min.

Distance:  46.98 Miles                                 Average Speed: 10.7 mph

Climbing/Descent: 5016/4701 Ft.               TSS:  145

Average Power:  151 Watts                         Normalized Power: 176 Watts

Calories: 2529                                              Ave/Max HR: 118/140 bpm

For food today, the highlight was a ham sandwich for lunch along with a banana & muffin.  During the ride I had on cliff bar and a few Bloks.  For drinking, well I did not do a good job again.  I had a bottle of water at lunch and one water bottle.


A few days ago, someone asked what are Bloks… they are quick energy chewy things, taste like gummy bears. 


For tomorrows ride the target is Las Cruses about 85 miles away, mostly downhill.  We plan to be back to camping, yay!!!!

Comments

  1. DaveNCathiMarch 2, 2021 at 8:24 PM

    Thanks for the Bloks description. Pictures are beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ertle the Sr TurtleMarch 3, 2021 at 4:27 AM

    Great pics, I. bet there was a lot of cool stuff to do around that area. Too bad your in a hurry!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ertle the Sr TurtleMarch 3, 2021 at 5:23 AM

    Oh! And you're gonna need a new piece of paper for day 15!

    ReplyDelete

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