Day 10, Riverside to Caballo Lake, 100 mile!

By the light of the full moon, Bill drove us back to Riverside so we could cycle the twenty-five miles back to Silver City. The temperature was thirty degrees.

Upon approaching Silver City, we crossed the Continental Divide. We also started to shed clothes as temperatures rose quickly.

When we reached our motel, we stopped for a second breakfast.

We followed Route 152 through the desert and we went past the Santa Rita open pit copper mine.

Then the route began the long climb to Emory Pass. Again our SAG team delivered Subway sandwiches.

After lunch we continued the long climb. We passed through Ponderosa Pine forests with a gurgling stream below us and patches of snow along the side of the road. The scarcity of cars made the ride very peaceful. However, our legs began to scream that they had had enough climbing. Don and Bill came down the pass and brought the good news that we only had one more mile to go. We pedaled faster and made it to the top - 8,228 feet. We were thrilled and the views were spectacular.

Next came the descent. For the first six miles it was curvy and we were very cautious. Then came long straight runs where we flew - whee!
We were only planning to ride 83 miles to Hillsboro but our loving husbands encouraged us to continue and Ruth realized that we could reach a 'century' (100 miles) by riding to the banks of the Rio Grande river. With the wind behind us ,we pedaled hard and arrived at Caballo Lake with tired legs but huge grins on our faces!

Tomorrow we pedal to Las Cruces followed by a highly anticipated rest day.

Mary Jo and Ruth

'It sounds crazy to me... but in a nice way.' - The desk clerk at our Silver City hotel