Dolly's Bike Blog

March 21 – Silver City, NM

I rented a car today and with 4 fellow cyclists drove to the Gila Cliff Dwellings. Beautiful scenery and interesting historical site. Also made it to the chiropractor to be “realigned.” More details tomorrow.

So, a few more details. My fellow explorers today were Helen, Susan, Flo and Pat. The route sign said 44 miles to the Gila Cliff Dwellings, but it was definitely a 2 hour drive over narrow roads, hairpin turns and climbs. Not as many photos en route today as I was the driver. We were following the Trail of the Mountain Spirits.

When we arrived at the Visitor Center, we found this monument to Geronimo.

The 1 pm tour was to start in less than an hour, so we wandered to the trailhead and began the climb to the dwellings.

Our guide was George, a volunteer from Colorado.

Here are a series of photos from the various “rooms” in the dwellings:

We drove back to Silver City via a different route, passing this flowering cactus along the way.

I dropped off my fellow explorers and headed to the chiropractor. It has been helpful to get an adjustment whenever we have a day off.

Didn’t have much time to explore downtown Silver City, but did enjoy this mural.

Also enjoyed stopping by Twin Sisters bicycle shop, owner Anne, and this fancy decorated helmet.

Yummy dinner at Tre Rosat followed by gelato. Great end to the rest day.

On the cue sheet, it was a 46 mile day…. Carol warned us about the false flat for the first 14 miles.

She didn’t warn us about the 30 mph wind at our right shoulders for that distance. I was able to keep the bike upright at 3.4 mph, though we walked part of the way, when the wind seemed to be making us stand still. We were very happy to find the first sag stop and just get off the bikes.

Just as we entered the Gila National Forest, the scenery changed, and we saw trees for the first time in many days.

Donna and Helen were my riding partners; Nancy joined our group shortly after this photo.

We climbed and climbed, finally making it to the Continental Divide (the GPS indicated 4,000 feet of net ascent today).

Even our bikes were tired.

We were quite excited to see the sag stop at mile 37, but wondered about the Christmas tree nearby.

While a final downhill was reported, we still had more climbing to do, passing this large reclamation project; we are assuming a silver mine.

One assumes Silver City is known for silver, but this billboard suggests otherwise.

Sadly, just before entering the city, we passed this memorial to a cyclist who died in 1999.

Tonight, we said goodbye to Nancy Howard from Massachusetts, who broke her upper femur in a fall 2 days ago. We toasted her with champagne. Her wife Emily flew in last night to escort her home.

Total miles 46; average 8.2 mph.

March 19: Safford, AZ to Lordsburg, NM

After rough pavement and lots of trucks, our ride on US 70 today was delightful. We left Safford under cool overcast skies. I noticed fields being prepared to plant cotton:

After US 191 separated from US 70, it sometimes seemed we had the road to ourselves, few cars or trucks, and no motorcycles.

Stopped at this historical marker with Brenda, commemorating Lorenzo and Seth Wright killed nearby by Indinas.

We were seeing more grass in the landscape, and, of course, hills.

Forty miles into the ride was the town of Duncan. I was magnetically drawn to the 3 Sisters Bakery, where I met Mary, daughter of one of the 3 sisters, and her helper Donna.

I came away with cookies, a mixed berry pie, and a scrum dilly, the local version of the Twinkie.

Enjoying pie further down the road

Carrying the scrum dilly into Lordsburg

Several others In our group stopped at Ol Jo’s Cafe, where we met Al, whose wife had wanted to meet us.

After Duncan, we ran into road work and our adventure for the day. There was single lane traffic, but the monitor let us pass as the shoulder was smooth. After some distance, we ran into fresh wet pavement – lots of blacktop! We passed over the scraped middle section into the open lane, only to discover oncoming traffic. We took to the shoulder on the wrong side and continued on. Then the traffic began to come from behind us, including some trucks. We kept our travel lines straight, the trucks slowed way down – no collisions and we exited safely. No tar collections on our bikes..

The final 10 miles or so, we had a tailwind – I saw 23 mph on my bike computer, without breathing hard. Tonight we are in Lordsburg, NM. We enjoyed margaritas before dinner to celebrate another state crossing.

My roommate tonight is Judy Soule from Kent, CT. She is a semi-retired hairdresser, married for 40 years, with 3 sons. She has been sending postcards/letters to her 92-year old mother every day. She is fund-raising for the Hole in the Wall Gang camp.

Total 78 miles today, average 12.1 mph.