The first 20 miles weren't that bad. We climbed and descended a few thousand feet but the winds were light and, although a bit chilly, we certainly weren't chilled to the bone (see later). We stopped for coffee in Hillsboro, NM where the locals warned us that the next 17 miles were tough. We would be entering the Black Range (also called Devil's mountains) and The Gila National Forest....and then up, up, up until we got to Emory Pass (Elevation 8,800 feet). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Range
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| On the way up... |
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| Gila National Forest |
We knew we were in for 4-5 thousand feet of climbing today and, to be honest, didn't think much of it. We had, after all, done some serious climbing in the last 45 days. We felt fairly prepared.... although were definitely fatigued from yesterday's whirlwinds.
Uphill?
Yes.
Devil?
Yes.
We had a steady climb for 9 miles from Hillsboro to Kingston. We were getting fatigued but still OK. And then we entered the mountains. The ascents became steeper with switchback after switchback. As we climbed the temperature dropped. And, hey, where was the sun? The winds picked up too.
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| Ascending towards Emory Pass |
Finally, we made it to Emory Pass. Phew. But wait. We were sweating and a bit chilled. The descent was doomed to chill us to the bone. At that it did. We descended fast. 20, 30, 40 mph. We had to stop twice to thaw out. We did jumping jacks, arm swings and ran in place just to get a small amount of feeling back our extremities. It was painful.
50 miles later we were through the mountains. We bumped into Jim and, together, we began a 21 mile grunt to Silver City. We passed Santa Rita copper mine which was quite a site.
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| Santa Rita Cooper Mine (through the fence) |
71 miles. 5,000+ feet of climbing. Sub 40 degrees. Wind. = Brutal day.
Kevin is shot and tomorrow's weather forecast calls for another cold, windy day....oh, and some thunderstorms. We may be taking our 2nd day off.
