Day 41: San Lorenzo, NM to Oak Grove, NM

Daily Miles: 33.2 Total Miles: 2225.6

Santa Rita Copper Mine

Today was just one of those days where nothing seemed to go right. As we headed back out to San Lorenzo this morning and I mentioned the road looked flat and Mary said, "Yeah, I don't remember this at all." Well, that was because we missed a turn and had gone about 10 miles on the wrong road. We had to double back to get on the right road, so, despite leaving the hotel around 8:30, it was 9:30am before I started my ride. And once I started I immediately started climbing again. Over the first 2 miles I climbed around 800', then descended a bit before climbing 400' more by mile 6. From there the route featured more smaller climbs and descents. After about 12 miles I passed by the Santa Rita Copper Mine, a very interesting sight. The mine was huge and still operational.

Up and into the wind

After that I had a fairly tame descent into Silver City, 22 miles into the day. I met up with Mary for lunch at the Curious Kumquat, an interesting restaurant serving almost entirely locally farmed/foraged/produced foods. It was very yummy, but as we were eating I checked Weather.com and confirmed what I already knew to be true. For the rest of my ride south to Lordsburg, I would be riding head-first into a 20+ MPH wind. Maybe it won't be that bad, I thought, since I'll be climbing quite a bit and then once I get to the Continental Divide it would be mainly downhill. I was wrong.

Reunited with the Big Guy

As I left Silver City I had a little climb that was mainly shielded from the wind followed by an intensely frightening downhill into a punishing wind. I really thought I was going to get blown over. Then things went from bad to worse. I started a 4 mile, 700' climb right into the wind. I had previously mistakenly thought that I couldn't have a headwind when I was climbing because the hill in front of me would block the wind. I was very, very wrong. This was without a doubt the worst 4 miles of my trip. I was in my lowest gear and struggling for every inch. I finally made it to the top, and told Mary I was done for the day. She suggested I ride the 2-miles downhill into the next "town", which I decided to do before calling it a day. We packed up my bike, I changed out of my bike clothes, and we drove the 2.5 hours back to El Paso to meet up with Dad. It's great getting to see him! We went out to dinner again at Track One, and now we're getting ready for bed. Tomorrow I'm heading to the airport early to head to my conference in Dallas. I probably won't be updating the blog again until Saturday when we get back on the road.