March 31 El Paso....and the end of the trail

Yesterday Paul and Barbara decided that they needed to head home, so they have rented a car and are heading west for Sacramento. I am sad to see them go but I have decided to ride on so today I am headed east on my own with Dale following with the van and tent trailer.

As I leave town the terrain is becoming very desolate. I ran into a fully loaded rider heading west and he tells me to expect it to remain pretty unremarkable for the next 400 to 500 miles. With that in mind I meet with Dale and decide that I don't want to ride by myself for the remainder of the trip (2,000+ miles). Half the fun is in the shared experience and I have ridden what is the most challenging terrain of the trip - so I have confidence that a trip like this is in my future with a larger group so if someone needs to go home I'll still have people to ride with.

After regrouping Dale and I decide to head home. One of our stops was at a motel in Flagstaff - it was late at night and it was pouring down rain, almost sleet! Dale got up in the middle of the night and there was 4 inches of snow on the van and tent trailer - by morning there was 6 inches. Ummm, snow? We got a late start because we had to wait for the snow to melt a bit before we could head for home.

OK, so snow made for an interesting ending to my ride. 

I want to thank everyone who made this trip, shortened tho it may be possible - 

Particularly my husband Dale, whose dream this was NOT, 

my cycling friends who helped me prepared for this trip, 

to Barb and Paul who were so encouraging  

and to my clients who were totally understanding and were willing to wait for me until I finished my ride!

I haven't given up, there is another cross country trip in my future - just not this year!

Lesli

March 30 Las Cruces to El Paso 65 miles

After leaving Las Cruces, we rode through more pecan orchards and then little by little the terrain changed. We passed horse ranches, polo fields and more and more newer looking homes.

They are pretty darned serious about picking pecans - there were LOTS of these signs all along the road!

One of the little towns along the way had this lovely church and then just down the road from it an art school for sculpture.

We also passed a couple of wineries...

Once we reached the west side of El Paso it was much like riding through Phoenix - it's big and sprawling and took a couple of hours to ride from the west side of town to the east side, old down town El Paso is lovely, and seems to have some life as there was construction going on...

OH - we zigged when we should have zagged and ended up on a freeway skirting the Mexican border. The border patrol watched as we cautiously looked for an off ramp - YIKES! I'm glad we lived to tell that tale!

March 29 Caballo Lake to Las Cruces 64 miles

As we biked out of the Caballo Lake RV area we found ourselves riding along the Rio Grande. The terrain is changing from dry to green.

Ancient Indian cave dwellings along side the road.

We begin to come into a very fertile area where they grow all kinds of peppers and pecan trees.

There were thousands of pecan trees, none of which were blooming yet, however they were flooding the orchards. Perhaps to give them a kickstart for the new season.

 This was a really beautiful church just outside of Hatch - a major chili growing little town.

I talked Dale into buying a wreath made out of chiles and he also surprised me with some chile powder - it's really good and we have been enjoying it!

Las Cruces looked promising on the outskirts of town but turned out to be a let down. We searched around to find the heart of the city but the street seem to roll up around 5pm.

A little cafe in the Mesilla area of town...

Sigh, pretty touristy...

March 28 Silver City to Caballo Lake 77 miles

Today is the day we climb Emory Pass - a height of 8,228 - my highest climb ever. It was slow going as it was really cold - there was snow on the pass. We talked to some locals and snow this time of year is rare, but they too have had a late spring with lots of rain/snow this year.

There was a great down hill after the summit! And then we find out our day is not over...

We had hoped to finish our day in Hillsboro but there wasn't anywhere to stay soooo, even tho our "tanks were on empty" we cycled on to Caballo Lake. Another 17 miles - we were pooped!

March 27 Lordsburg to Silver City

We are up and out on the road early to beat the wind that supposedly starts every day around 11am. This ride is a slow grade up, up, up into the Gila National Forest, past the Continental Divide and into to the quaint town of Silver City.

March 26 Safford to Lordsburg 77miles

This ride started out so beautiful - lots of yellow poppies liberally sprinkled over all the foothills! And it was a gradual descent with a tail wind! We stopped in Duncan for a cup of coffee - they had cute street signs but that was about it.

We also rode from Arizona into New Mexico today.

Ummmm...that tail wind turned into a gale force tail wind and a dust storm - I sailed along at about 22 mph the 2nd half of the ride. When I turned to head into Lordsburg the wind almost knocked me down.  Dale picked me, Paul and Barbara up to drive the 3 miles to our motel. Turned out to be 65+mph wind.

Lordsburg is a PIT! We stayed at a motel because it was too windy to put up the tent trailer - apparantly wind is an issue there. Even the people running the motel are hoping to move. Needless to say we stayed the night and are happy to move on tomorrow.

What the picture can't convey is the velocity of the wind, but you can see the dust storm moving our way as we are riding.

March 25 Superior to Safford NM 100 miles*

Today we leave Superior and are heading toward Safford with the hope of finding a place to camp at mile 75. Our first goal is to get through the Queen's tunnel without mishap. It is a 3 lane, lighted tunnel but it gets a lot of traffic and so we are cautious as we approach.

Barb & Paul outside the exit of Queen's tunnel - safe & sound!

Later in the day Barb broke a spoke and so at mile 75 we realized that we needed to get to the bike store in Safford before it closed so we hopped in the van with Dale and headed into town for the last 25 miles. Barb's spoke was fixed and we were ready for the next day's ride!

March 24 Tempe to Superior 55 miles

We are up and out by 7:30 this morning. Dale is riding first and I will switch with him after about 25 miles.

Making the rider switch...

The Phoenix/Tempe burbs seem to go on forever!

Superstition Mountain - as I understand it when the Apache who were nomadic warriors were forced onto the reservation they were not allowed weapons to hunt on their new home land or go to Superstition Mountain, one of their sacred places. 

Another interesting place along the way...

Lesli on the road to Superior...

Entering Tonto National Forest

Lesli & Barbara in a sea of wildflowers.

Our campsite in Superior had a view of the creek, a nice shady tree and an incredible sunset!

Superior is a dying copper mining town - there is a British company that wants to open the copper mine again by doing a land swap, but the local indian tribe says the property is sacred ground and is unwilling to allow the deal, so far.