Today we awoke in Silver City, New Mexico at the foot of the Gila National Forest.
Bikes and blue skies
After the last couple of days, I was not sure how well I was up to climbing, but the extra weight loss couldn’t hurt.
The Silver City Tour of the Gila starts in Silver City so I knew that would be a good reference point for finding a few rides. I remember that one of the stages headed out of SC did come climbing out to the cliffs and came back a few miles and hit NM35. However, if memory served me correct, that route was closer to 80 miles. Knowing how the last couple of days have gone, I figured an out and back might be the best ride. I plotted a course from the Rose Valley RV Park out for about 20 miles taking us to the peak of Black Mountain (7269 feet elevation) and back giving us around 3500 feet of climbing.
It was a great ride. Silver City is already at 5800 feet of elevation, and we were climbing to 7500 ft. However, the rollers we pretty impressive.
7080ft and ready to climb
After the ride, we pedaled into town and stopped at a local bike shop. Dana grabbed a pair of wicked socks and based on George Ganoung’s recommendation we looked for Nancy’s Silver Café. What an awesome restaurant. The chicken enchiladas with green chile and a fried egg were out of this word.
After that, a latte was in order, and we found a cool little coffee shop called the Jumping Cactus. Grabbed a latte and set and talked for a while then headed off to the RV Park.
Grabbing a latte
The weather for tomorrow does not look great. We are expecting 50+ mph gusts tonight and then rain starting tomorrow at abut 11 am. It looks like the temperature is going to drop too. Any luck we will head out around8ish, get in 3 hours and get back before the rains.