Through Silver City to Lake Roberts
Strava 74.6 km, 1272m, 4:24, 273 shifts, 71.28 kph max
We got up early again and headed to Silver City for breakfast, some bike shopping and lots of groceries. It was up and down and I had one of my shifters die part way through. I installed a fresh battery and was good to go. A gasket was not installed properly (I think). In town we found a nice café that had scones, giant cookies and quiche with squash.
After breakfast we went shopping for some camping meals, at the local outdoor shop and the local bike shop. Wytze bought a jacket and another water bottle holder for his bike. We bought some bike snacks then went over to the food coop. All of these places were within a few blocks. We bought a bunch of food for lunches and breakfasts plus fruit and yogurt we ate across the street. $130 just at the coop!
Packing all that wasn’t easy but soon we headed out of town. It was a hot climb up to the Continental Divide where it started raining. A wind gust blew my bike over and it landed on the rear derailleur 😭 but with a little bending it works, although it’s off a gear. No more bike shops for a long time unfortunately.
We started down a beautiful descent through trees on a little road but soon got pummeled by a massive rain. Now it was quite cold even in jackets so we took shelter at a place with cabins, the owner was very nice and chatted with us while we waited and ate more.
When the sun came out and the whole feeling changed. We cruised up and down, jackets on when the rain came, off when the sun came out. It was nice riding through the mountain air up at 2300m, fresh plants, big trees and very little traffic. We pulled into the general store/cabins at Lake Roberts, and sure enough they were closed as advertised. But they were restocking and were friendly enough to offer a 🍺! We also had a soda each, very tasty.
They let us use the WiFi which turned out to be key: the reservation I had made for a cabin for tomorrow night back in Silver City required payment in advance which I was able to do by phone and email. WiFi calling FTW.
That taken care of we headed over a final hill to the lake itself and camped at the Forest Service campground. Fresh water (absolutely key) and an outhouse and space for our tents. We paid the small fee, met the campground hosts and I chatted with a couple of guys riding just New Mexico, South to North like us. No internet but I could text Katie by satellite with my Garmin InReach.
We cleaned up, washed some laundry, set up tents and Daniel and Wytze swam in the lake. We fired up dinner at 6:30, a test of freeze dried food. There is a great variation in “serving” size. The ones we shared are 1490 calories but other two-serving packages are only 800 or even 600. With a little bread and cheese and a kiwi for dessert it was pretty ok.
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