Day 13; CDT 10: Grants, NM to Silver City, NM

Today we rode 272 miles, hit a peak elevation of ~8400', and spent 9 hours traveling from camp to camp.

The first half of the day was sunny and warm. We rode fast on well groomed fire roads that took us through terrain shaped by lava flows, wide open plains, and forests of Pine. After 130 miles, we stopped in Pie Town, NM for lunch and pie. When we arrived, we found that the CBS Sunday Morning crew was there filming Bill Geist interviewing the owner of the restaurant. The producer asked if they could film us ordering pie and if Bill G. could come talk to us. We agreed and CBS bought our pie.

We were filmed ordering pie, eating pie, talking about the pie, and talking about why we were there. They also filmed us leaving on our bikes and asked us to drive them back into the parking lot and enter the building. The segment will air sometime in the fall, so we hope that not all of our footage hits the cutting room floor.

The second half of the day was spent on a combination of fast gravel roads winding through fields of wild flowers, and tight twisty gravel roads winding up and down the mountains of the Gila National Forest. The weather turned cooler and actually rained on us for a brief period.

Highlights from the day: Contrast in terrain from Cactus to Lava rock to Pine trees and fields of wildflowers, big bugs, large ant hills (everywhere), not many people, Hawk Moths, Herds of Elk, Pie Town and the CBS crew, the Santa Rita Copper Mine, and no mechanical problems.

Tomorrow will be our last day of riding. We have a relatively short ride with mostly asphalt roads that will take us to the Antelope Wells, NM border station. From there we will pack up and head home.

Please scroll to the bottom for videos and a link to CBS Sunday Morning Pics

The following are a sample of pictures from the day:

Lava Rock - Leaving Grants, we saw lots of Lava rock and lava formations,

No rear rack today. The rack failed in two places, so it was removed.  It is fixable and will be redesigned to last more than 2000 miles.

Typical of the terrain around Grant's

Celebrities!

Bill

Aliens 

Hawk Moth - flies like a hummingbird

Old abandoned reservoir

Wild Flowers - we saw a lot of these today

Large herd of Elk in this field, these are just some of the more than 2 dozen we saw

Elk

Lance

Santa Rita Copper Mine

VIDEO

Pictures from CBS Sunday Morning (we are in one picture)

CBS Sunday Morning Pictures

Video Segment from CBS Sunday Morning