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.