"Full many a glorious morning have I seen flatter the mountain tops with sovereign eye, kissing with golden face the meadows green, gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy."
William Shakespeare Springerville, Arizona to Silver City, New Mexico. 149 miles. 7600 feet climbing. The day starts off like the last two days, a steep climb south out of town. It further mirrors yesterday as we climb up from the high desert (6000 feet elevation) into the mountains. Evergreens make a welcome return. There are stream beds with actual flowing water in them. In the mountain valleys there are green meadows. This is the first green grass I've seen for weeks. The sun makes an appearance over the mountain tops and lights everything up magically. But while it provides light, its warmth takes quite awhile to be felt. I've got four layers on top as we climb to 8500 feet. I'm glad of each layer as we descend through cool air to the mountain town of Alpine. The dense forest, meandering road and close mountains make the climbing a pleasure. At 34 miles we cross back into New Mexico and instantly the road conditions improve. This state seems to build their roads much smoother than Arizona. The broken glass also returns, but we pay it less attention (familiarity breeds contempt). I think nice thoughts about the New Mexico department of transport. The road climbs from Alpine back up to 8000 feet. By 50 miles we've already accumulated 3000 feet of climbing, we're feeling good, and we think we're in great shape. I take some pictures at the top, then there's a fabulous 6 mile descent to the second sag stop. We have to climb again to a pass through the foothills before we drop down another 1800 feet to lunch at 80 miles. There are still some trees here in the lower foothills, but it's back to being mostly hot and dry. The road rolls after lunch, so we continue accumulating climbing feet, but losing actual elevation until we drop to 4800 feet at the last sag at 123 miles. It seems this is the first time in a while we've been below 6000. No one is really sure what the elevation of Silver City is, but there's a rumour there's still 1800 feet to climb in the last 25 miles (we've already accumulated 5400 feet). We're not too excited about the prospect. It's already 5 o'clock. I'm not sure where the time went. We've been riding pretty steadily and we're not the last group of riders. But we've been averaging 16 mph through the mountains so 25 more miles before the sun sets in 2 hours at 7 PM shouldn't be a problem. Or should it? The wind seems to pick up a bit. It gets hotter. The road starts climbing. The road surface turns into freshly laid loose gravel over tar. The broken glass on the shoulder is now joined by the excess gravel. There's nowhere comfortable to ride. I'm now thinking dark thoughts about the New Mexico department of transport. My feet start to hurt. Then my hands start to complain. Now my legs are getting tired. The rumour of 1800 feet to go turns out to be false. By the time we crest the continental divide at 6300 feet we're already past the rumoured statistic, we still have 6 miles of rolling countryside to negotiate, and the sun is perilously close to the horizon. For the first time in 15 days the "love train" splits up. Dick and Ann push ahead to beat the sunset. Jane and I sweep up the rear, watching the sun sink lower. We did have to take off our sunglasses 2 miles before the end, but we still arrived while it was light (just!). A quick shower and a gourmet meal at the Wendy's next to the hotel (we weren't going to walk any further than we had to), then get ready to do it all again tomorrow. Don Friedlander ------ To unsubscribe, send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Club Office: [EMAIL PROTECTED], (613) 230-1064 Web/mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.cyberus.ca/~obcweb Newsletter: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.cyberus.ca/~obcweb/Newsletter ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?aVxiDo.a2i8p1 Or send an email To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This email was sent to: [email protected] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
