2nd day ride from Silver City

November 10, 2016

Mimbres Valley

Another day ride enabled by our rental car. Today we drove back into the hills north of Silver City to the east end of Route 35, and rode it to its west end where it ends at the junction with Route 15, the road to the Gila Cliff Dwellings we followed yesterday. We could have started at either end, but the drive up 35 is excruciatingly slow because it is so narrow and twisted.

Route 35 follows the Mimbres Valley uphill to its end at a small saddle, then drops again, ending a bit past Lake Roberts. It's a pretty easy ride - the climbs are pretty modest, and we took our time - so it came about as close to a rest day as a 55 miler can. Which was good - we were both ready for an easier outing.

The road is very quiet and pretty, but not as visually dramatic as yesterday's was. It gets quite a bit of cycling traffic - we passed several cyclists going the other way today. Not too much else to say about the ride, other than that it was quite cold today. Last night's low was 37 in Silver City, and today's high was about 55. We were biking into a bit of a headwind on our return eastward back to the car, and about froze.

On the drive, we passed the huge open pit Chino (or Santa Rita) copper mine, and stopped to gawk in amazement at its astonishing colors. Open pit mines are a huge scar on the surface of the earth of course as well as notorious ground water polluters, but they certainly are spectacular to look at. It makes you feel a bit guilty looking at them and appreciating their raw beauty.

Our dose of cute for the day. So what are these guys, anyway?

Along route 35. Rachael took a shot of me here too that I could have included I suppose, but her colors worked better with the sign.

Along route 35. The terrain gets more dramatic as you head west and cross its low divide.

Peppers drying in front of a small store near Lake Roberts. It was about lunch time anyway, so we were lured in by a sign saying they love bicyclists. We didn't find much, but we had an interesting chat with the lady running the store.

Lake Roberts, a small reservoir at the west end of route 35.

The Chino Mine (also known as the Santa Rita Mine), near San Lorenzo.

These open pit copper mines are huge scars on the face of the earth and notorious groundwater polluters, but they are astonishingly colorful.

Today's ride: 55 miles (89 km)
Total: 692 miles (1,114 km)

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