Thursday - Saturday, September 16th - 18th

It was hard to leave Pie Town and the nice accommodations we had right on the route but didn't leave town until we had breakfast at the Daily Pie Cafe and of course one last slice of pie a la mode. With the new map John did his usual daily objective planning and filled us in on what the terrain was going to be like. We wanted to get a start on the 180 miles to Silver City which we planned on enough food for four days, three overnights. We also loaded up on water knowing that the first 2 days would not offer ready water sources. Mike filled his 5 gallon container with about 2-3 gallons adding a lot of weight to his trailer, I didn't realize how much he had brought until much later in the day. About 6 miles outside of Pie Town we ran across a guy walking on the road in full camo. Turns out he was a guide walking back to his truck with blood all over his arms, well above his elbows. Guess the bow hunters really are getting their elk, have run across so many in the last 3 weeks with many indicating they have been successful. The three of us kept plugging away and finally hit the 30 mile mark by lunch time and Continental Divide crossing #23 at about 8,100 feet. Heading off that summit we had a bumpy and rocky ride down, Mike especially was adjusting to these runs, John and I thought it was all in a normal day riding. At the bottom of this run we had about another 20 miles of rolling dirt roads through a basin.

After a refueling stop to get us the final 10 miles with about 5 miles of climbing John and I kept pedaling ahead, getting slightly in front of Mike. We stopped at an intersection of roads and waited for Mike, after about 10 minutes of waiting I was about to unhitch my trailer and go back to look for him when we saw him pedaling up. Seems Mike's back wheel came off on a small down hill run and the axel was bent where the tailed attaches. Couldn't really understand how that happened unless during one of the many flat tire changes 2 days ago the wheel was not tight enough on the back. Either way Mike took a nasty fall while going down hill when the wheel came off. He ended up wrenching his back further (already having hurt it several weeks prior to the trip lifting cement bags). Mike was in a lot of pain, but we could not camp where we were so I took his heavy water bag on my trailer, which helped but still there was a lot of pain. About 5 miles later we got to our campsite for the night. Mike took a pain killer from John and then later before bed a muscle relaxer. We all hit the sack by 9 pm.

Friday morning we checked on Mike's progress, which really hadn't changed much. We wet a target to get Mike out with the only likely place 40 miles down the road with several climbs and a lot of bumpy riding. Immediately upon setting out Mike was looking to get off the bike and get the pain minimized. After 5 miles he was busted and couldn't go any further. At that point a truck was coming up the hill and we waived him down. He was heading home early from bow hunting as his 4 year old son was sick and had chronic kidney problems. It was clear that Alan was a blessing for Mike as we loaded up his bike and trailer into the back of Alan's truck. Also amazing are the shirts that Rosie left with John and I with "Alan's Angels" on it. God sure does work in interesting and unexpected ways. Alan took care of Mike and helped get him on his way back to Albuquerque and then to Austin. We were sorry to see Mike go but with the climbing we still had to do to get to Silver City it was a blessing that he was able to get a ride from the middle of Gila National Forest out so readily. John and I put another 60 miles on before calling it quits. A lot of climbing and a lot rocky descents, both of which would have taken Mike to the brink.

Saturday started with a steep rocky climb that reminded us the days in Montana. After getting to the top we made a Continental Divide crossing, now up #27. By noon we had put around 30 miles behind us and stopped for bar-be-que a couple of miles outside of Mimbres. It was great all home cooked, very filling and with desert would fuel us to Silver City. Also got to have more conversations with ranchers eating next to us. Always asking questions, got the answer of his biggest problem, people that use the roads that go over his ranch causing issues from shooting cattle to just tearing up the landscape. We got back on our bikes to find my trailer tire flat again. Tried pumping it up but only lasted a mile so put a patch on top of a patch which worked for several miles. Ends up I was constantly stopping every 2 miles to pump up the trailer tire. Tried a third patch and that didn't work either so just stopped to pump it up every 2 miles. Finally got to Silver City and immediately went to the first store we saw, Ace Hardware and bought all the small tubes they had, which was three. Given we reached Silver City a day earlier than planned and everyone is flying or driving in on Monday to greet us at the border of Mexico we took a rest day.

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