Got myself a real computer tonight! We spent last night in Clifton, AZ, a small mining town 9 miles north of our route. We knew we had a big day today and it was the best place to stay in terms of the amount fo ground we could expect to cover. Clifton has one motel (the Rode Inn) and one restaurant (PJ's), and literally everyone we talked to was incredibly nice--from the motel proprietors (Mabel & Bill) to the waitresses, to the customers in the restaurant, one of whom is a bicyclist and gave us some good advice and also says he lives in the area because he likes the riding. Another emplopyee at the motel gave us her umbrella to use when we walked to dinner in a bit of a shower.
BIll, from the motel, even agreed to drive us back to where we turned off the route (to get to Clifton) thereby saving us nine miles and one big climb--a good thing since the rest of the day used us up pretty thoroughly. We began riding under sunny skies and forty degrees at a place not likely to be on any map named Three Way. Its main feature is a long defunct drive-in theatre with only the enormous screen still standing. Other than that it has only a small convenience store. We began climbing immediately on AZ Route 78 and climbed for the next two hours--covering a total of 14 miles. We were passed by 8 cars the entire time.
Shortly after we crested the top at 6200 feet we crossed into New Mexico, and the terrain changed right away. The beautiful orange/yellow poppies we've seen millions of the last few days disappeared, replaced by pine trees, and, as we descended, open fields. The descent also featured three places where creeks actually were flowing over the road surface--not too deeply--and we began seeing evidence of big ranches, including a sign advertising 96,000 acres for sale (no price, tho)!
After a descent marked by lots of rolling hills, we eventually got to US 180 and turned right towards our final destination, Silver City. The best riding of the trip so far ensued, as we had 30+ miles on gently descending rolling hills and--at last--a 20 - 30 mph tailwind!! We were rolling along well over 30 mph lots of the time, and covered one 10 mile stretch in just under 20 minutes.
We stopped at a convenince store in Buckhorn and Kathy will likely post a picture of a rather comely young lady I met there! At a coffee shop in Cliff--the only business in town other than a saddlery--the proprietor had health food cookies, great bagels, and everything from cappucinos to Italian sodas. Think low-budget Starbucks, but much, much friendlier.
After that we began a long, rolling ascent back up to 6200 ft in Silver City, crossing the continental divide just west of town. By this time your faithful scribe was pretty well used up from the earlier climbing and riotous tailwind, and truth be known, I wouldn't have complained a bit if Silver City had turned up about 10 miles earlier!
Tomorrow we have just one climb, but it's a doozy, up to Emory Pass at about 8300 feet, the highest point on the trip by a good 2000 feet. Once we crest it, we're done clibimg the Rockies. Me, I'm ready for some nice, flat roads, and some more of those prevailing west winds we'd been missing until today.
We had a comment wondering how we plan out trips like these. The key is the maps published by the Adventure Cycling Association, which are amazingly complete and detailed. We generally have a good idea where we'll stay for the next two or three nights at any given time, but we don't plan any further ahead than that. For example, tomorrow we know we'll be a bit tired from today's hard ride (82 very hilly miles) and we know we have a big climb to do. So we plan to do a bit shorter day, about 60 miles. The maps tell us what services are available in each town along the route, including phone numbers for motels, campgrounds, sheriff, etc., and we study them--especially the elevation contours--nightly.
More later,
Doug
