GDMBR Day 5: Silver City to Rocky Canyon Campground
We planned to get an early start. But it just didn’t happen. Willy had convinced me the weight to reward ratio of my Nikon D200 was too low. So before we set out I ordered a new camera the size of a deck of playing cards from Amazon. I knew we’d be in Pie Town in four or five days so I figured I’d send the bulky D200 and with Amazon Prime UPS would have it delivered by the time we got there. The question was where exactly in Pie Town, New Mexico was “there”? I’d never tried the USPS General Delivery system where you can arrange to pick up your mail at a Post Office but I knew hikers on the Appalachian Trail used it to send supplies. It was Sunday of Memorial Day weekend so calling the Post Office in Pie Town wouldn’t help. I proceeded with my “One-click” shopping and decided to hope for the best.
Geno, Willy and I set off to have breakfast together before we departed but every place in town was closed. We eventually stumbled on a severely understaffed restaurant by the name of Grandma’s Kitchen. Even though the waitress was doing her best, service was extremely slow. There were just too many people. To make matters worse, “Grandma” was in the kitchen yelling. The net result was we only received half of our breakfast, it took almost 90 minutes to get in and out and by the time we left the waitress and “Grandma” were no longer speaking. It was 11:00 and the desert sun was blazing but Willy and I were itching to get out of town so we bid Geno farewell and pedaled off.
The first half of the day was great riding. For the first half the road was smooth and paved. It was
hilly but we still made good time. After stopping off briefly to see the oldest copper mine in America we hit another dirt road. It wound through the mountains until it finally released us near the little town of Mimbres. The rolling hills and curves were exhilarating. While it was nice to have spent the day in Silver City we were both glad to be in the saddle and having a good day of riding.
We stopped at a ranger station for lunch hoping to get more information about water availability for the next few days. Of course, it was still Sunday of Memorial Day weekend so no one was around. We had already fallen into the travelers routine of eat, bike, sleep and repeat. We no longer knew what day it was. We only knew our routine — eat, bike and sleep.
From reading other people’s accounts of the GDMBR we knew today would be the first hard day. I don’t think either of us realized what hard meant. A few miles into the ride after lunch we turned off to a gravel road warning of steep grades and sharp curves. Suddenly the “Granny Gear” on our bikes became our best friend. We slowly wound our way up the mountain grunting and sweating and wishing there was just one gear lower.
It was an afternoon of hard work climbing and riding the ridges which follow the Continental Divide but we were rewarded with our best campsite yet when the day came to an end. We sat around the campfire and cooked up a gourmet meal of Indian food with Quinoa at the suggestion of our buddy Kurt from the Silver City RV Park. He has been a lifelong vegetarian and 
camper and assured us we wouldn’t be disappointed. We devoured the meal. While we had only pedaled roughly 40 miles, the huge uphills resulting in over 3,000 feet of climbing made us ravenous. While reflecting on the day after dinner Willy calculated if we are to climb 200,000 feet by the time we get to Banff then 3,000 feet of climbing makes for an average day. Neither of us would survive 50 more days of hauling overflowing BOBs up hills like we had encountered today. This scary fact set us to again thinking to what we could jettison and send home as we crawled into our sleeping bags for the evening.
GDMBR Day 6: Rocky Canyon Campground to Beaverhead Workcenter
We knew the route for today was going to be hilly and the temps were already soaring. After a breakfast of oatmeal we decided it was best to boil some water from the nearby stream so we’d have enough fluids to make it through the day. It meant we again got off to a fairly late start, shortly after 10:00am but it turned out to be the best decision of the day. We again had some monster climbs. When there was a downhill we’d look up to enjoy the scenery but there always seemed to be more uphill.
Around 6:00pm we arrived at the Beaverhead Workstation where Forest Service workers who manage the Gila National Forest live. The place seemed dead. The
information center was closed (it still had not sunk in that it was Memorial Day) and we collapsed at a picnic table out front next to a soda pop vending machine and a telephone booth. We scraped together enough change between us to buy a Coke out of the vending machine. Itbarely gave us enough energy to haul our gear 200m as opposed to setting up camp in the ranger’s front yard. Having spent our change on a quick sugar fix Willy investigated making a collect call back to Chicago. The operator informed him the charges would be $30 for 3 minutes and 30 seconds. Outraged and tired we headed back to our tent.
We’ve started to find our groove and the daily ritual involves reviewing the route for the next day before turning in. The next town we would hit was Pie Town. For the past two days when the going got tough the talk turned to what kind of pie we’d order once we got to Pie Town. Now that we took a closer look we saw Pie Town wasn’t much of a town at all. The only reason the town finds its way on to a map is because of the delicious pies advertised by the owner of a cafe in town. According to the guide book it has a population of about 50 people, no grocery store and one cafe. I felt better now that I understood why Orbitz didn’t return any results when I had searched for hotels in Pie Town a few days before. But my stomach suddenly sunk, expecting to resupply in Pie Town we had only bought enough food in Silver City for four days on the bike. It was going to be at least six days on the bike until we reached Grants, the next major town. Six days was optimistic if the hills continued to be so big and our pace so slow. We drifted off to sleep knowing there was nothing we could do about it that evening.
GDMBR Day 6: Beaverhead Workcenter to base of John Kerr Peak
We made good time taking down camp and making breakfast. As we cleaned up one of the residents of the workstation stopped by after his morning run. He was a native New Mexican named Clyde, born and raised in the town of Truth or Consequences (That’s “T or C” to those in the know). This was his 5th season fighting fires for the forest service.
He told us all about what it was like to fight fires and live in the mountains for the summer. He also took a genuine interest in our ride. Somehow the topic turned to food and he offered to set us up with a few MREs (Meals Ready Eat). MREs are the rations given to the soldiers in the Armed Forces but they are also used by the Forest Service when they spend up to 14 days in the forest fighting fires. Willy went with Clyde to the supply shed and chose two Spaghetti dinners, one Beef Roast and one Chicken Tetrazini. After all of the mechanical problems, crashes and other strokes of bad luck it seemed like something good had come our way to help us overcome the issue of being short on supplies. Willy calls it “serentripity” when things just work out for you when you’re traveling. We both owe a big shout out to Clyde at the Beaverhead Workstation for his generosity!
We stopped for a photo about five miles outside of camp and I fell over when I couldn’t get my shoe to release from the pedal — more bruises. It turned out one of the screws in my cleat had fallen out. It took both of us to figure out a way to get the cleat to release. I was happy it happened when it did instead of when I was tearing down a gravel road at 30mph. We eventually got the cleat mounted and managed to get the picture we had originally stopped for.
A few miles later I noticed the GPS on my handlebars was at a funny angle. As I was looking at it the whole handlebar started to rotate. All of the bumps had caused the
handlebars work their way loose. While I was tightening the handlebars Willy noticed the screw the guys at Gila Hike and Bike had fashioned for me had come out and my suspension was only a few bumps away from blowing apart. I again found another screw to hold it together and made a mental note to get Loctite when we hit a town with a hardware store. Meanwhile Willy made jokes about always knowing I’d had a screw loose but he never realizing there were quite so many loose. With yet another mechanical disaster averted we continued our ride through cow country.
Shade dictates where you stop for lunch
Most of the day’s ride was flat or even slightly downhill. But it didn’t mean the going was any easier because we had a 10-15mph headwind. Late in the afternoon we hit La Jolla Canyon which might be my favorite bit of biking on the ride so far. The canyon protected us from the wind and you could build up lots of speed winding through this beautiful little section of New Mexico.
After the canyon we rolled out onto the wide open flats of the Plains of San Agustin. This is the site of the largest radio telescope in the world where the satellite dishes are mounted on train cars so they can be freely moved around the desert. It was an interesting site to see such a large, flat and open expanse in the middle of the mountains and mesas but we had more important things to focus on: water!
As we prepared to make camp that night we realized we were low on water. We stopped at a windmill and climbed a barbwire fence only to find the well was dry. We were tired and thirsty and couldn’t find a sheltered campsite anywhere. After taking a side trip
almost three miles off the route into the John Kerr Peak area we found a nice flat spot along a creek, which of course was dry. Adding to the ambiance of the site were plenty of cow pies and cows passing through. We didn’t have enough water to make the noodles we planned to have that night and we didn’t even have enough water to activate the heaters in the MREs if we wanted full water bottles for the next morning. We snacked on the other items in the MRE which were pretty good: cheese and crackers, cookies, hard candy. Each one even comes with a tiny bottle of Tabasco sauce.
While I reviewed the maps for the next day Willy went out for a bike ride. When he didn’t return after an hour and it was nearly dark I began to get worried. Just as I was setting off to find him I heard the rumble of the gravel under his tires as he returned with two items of big news:
- He had found water! It was running out of culvert and was very clear. We’d boil it just to be safe but this allowed us to fix the rest of the MREs. He dined on beef roast while I had spaghetti. They hit the spot after a long day and we were able to drink until our thirst was quenched.
- He had seen a bear! Well, in the shadows of dusk he had seen some sort of animal in the dark a little ways up the mountain. In the end he reckons it was a 3% chance it was a bear and 97% chance it was a cow. Seeing all the open range cows wandering through our camp that night I think it was probably a cow. But it is only a few days into the trip so we still plenty of time for Animal Planet moments in the future.
GDMBR Day 7: Base of John Kerr Peak to Pie Town
We made great time in the morning and were on the road by 9:00am. We both felt good
and we thought we might even make it to Pie Town for a steak dinner and pie in the evening if we pushed hard enough. But our routine seems to call for some sort of mechanical disaster each morning and this time Willy’s BOB obliged. As we were heading down a bumpy, gravel road the wheel came off his BOB. Luckily he was able to maintain control and nothing broke.
The road turned to a bumpy washboard for the rest of the morning and around noon the sun was again blazing. We weren’t happy bikers. We’d stopped at a church earlier in the day to grab extra water but we had not anticipated how hot the day was going to be. We grabbed some nasty green water out of a pond to use as a last resort but supposedly there was another work center and a seasonal spring just up the road. The work center was closed but the spring was running. The water wasn’t clear like a bottle of Fiji or Evian but we were thirsty and it tasted okay so we filled up and continued on. Now that we had water we felt strong enough to make it all the way to Pie Town. We talked about what kind of pie we’d eat and joked about what we’d do if the Pie-o-neer Cafe was closed.
As we forged on a rancher passed us in a huge white diesel pickup with dualies not unlike we’d become accustomed to seeing on these backcountry roads. But this rancher stopped and asked what and how we were doing. After a few minutes he offered the use of a well just a few miles down the road where we could stop and fill up. He said it would be clean and cold and was there not only for the cattle but for anyone who needed water. He only asked for us to shut off the pump when we were done and then drove off.
Three miles later two guys from the city are standing next to a well trying to figure out how to turn it on. We were twisting knobs, unscrewed the power panel and were just about ready to give up. Finally, Willy tried the obvious, opened the circuit breaker box, flipped a switch and an ice cold stream of water started to shoot out. It was so cool and refreshing we doused ourselves to clean up a little and cool off as well as filled up the water bottles. Now, we knew we were strong enough to make it to Pie Town!
We crossed the Continental Divide twice more that afternoon and our tanks were nearly empty as we pulled into town. The first stop was the campground but it looked to be completely empty and didn’t even have a place to check-in. We headed over to the Pie-o-neer figuring the people there could give us some information since the cafe is destination of both Continental Divide Trail (CDT) hikers and GDMBR bikers alike. As we rolled in we couldn’t believe our eyes. The Pie-o-neer was closed! They were only open from 8:00-3:00 four days a week. And they weren’t open at all today or tomorrow — we were fit to be pied!
We had counted on eating dinner and breakfast at the Pie-o-neer. Not only were we disappointed after putting in a big day of more than 50 miles but it looked like we would again be short on supplies.
We headed back to the campground, setup and made another dinner of Indian food and Quinoa. Luckily on the way back to camp we discovered another cafe had opened in town since the guide book was published and they opened at 8:00 the following morning. We planned to be there when they opened to have big breakfasts and pie. We knew we’d need our strength for such a feast so we headed to bed early.
