I had met Hamish and Jess yesterday evening for dinner after they rolled into Silver City. They did have to cut one of their days short between Pie town and Silver City due to mud and rain. They wisely decided to camp immediately, and avoid what had happened earlier to us up north. They were planning on three days to Columbus, while I wanted to get it over with in two.
I got up while it was still fairly dark and biked south out of Silver City. I chose the main highway instead of the dirt road, especially since it was still dark. A nice wide shoulder and not much traffic made it a pleasant ride. I could also watch the sun rise above the horizon to the left of me.
After 10 miles I turned on the dirt road heading towards Separ, and the scenery immediately changed. Lots of yucca plants and cactus along the way. It was really spectacular riding on the ridge with mountains in the distance, smooth sandy roads, and nobody else out for the next 30 miles to Separ. I will remember this as one of my most favorite sections. I was feeling great, and was riding faster than usual.
It didn’t take me too long to make it to Separ, which is basically just a small souvenir shop on a remote exit of the I-10 freeway. I was able to get a coke and ice cream sandwich, and just sat on the picnic table outside, staring at the steady stream of trucks on the freeway. I-10 is the most southerly, east-to-west freeway that goes from Florida to Santa Monica, California. We had traveled it by van before , and it wasn’t the most scenic way to see the USA.
There was an old Buick car parked in from of the Separ store that looked it had been there for a while. The place looked a bit like a scene in the movie, “No country for old men”. I think those who have seen the movie remember the part I am talking about. Looks like it is time for this old man to head down the road before Chigurh shows up..
The next 10 miles was on the gravel access road next to I-10. Not bad since there was nobody on it, but not the most inspiring. I thought whether I could reach Columbus today since I had made such good progress, but that would still be a 120+ mile day to do that. That idea was quickly squashed when I turned south towards Hachita, straight into a stiff wind. It was a straight stretch of 30 miles of paved road with nothing in sight. This was one of the only times on the whole trip where I wished I had aero bars to help me a bit more aerodynamically. Kind of silly since I have a couple large bags hanging on front of the bike. Hachita would remain my destination for the day.
Last Divide crossing
The road to Hachita
I rode into the little town of Hachita which was like many of the other sad, depressed towns I had been through on my ride. There was a small convenience store that didn’t have much, but did have a large cold chocolate milk in the fridge. This is also where I would check in if I wanted to stay at the community center. No other choice really. I rode to the center, passing mostly abandoned, and partly demolished homes and businesses. Another sad sight and reinforcement of my decision to end my ride in Columbus instead of Antelope Wells.
Michael from the UK was the only other person in the community center, and seemed eager to talk to someone. He said that he really had not seen another cyclist since leaving Pie town. I was scoping out the community center to see where the best place to sleep was. The place was full of crawling and dead bugs. I didn’t look forward to having them crawl over me in the middle of the night. Michael was planning to end his ride in Antelope Wells the next day. I asked him why Antelope Wells, and he simply replied “It is tradition, right?”. Give it to the Brits to keep tradition. I, on the other hand wanted to end in a more vibrant and uplifting place. To each his own I guess..
In the end I decided that I would rather sleep outside in my tent, protected from those crawling bugs. It was also a bit too warm and stale inside. I went ahead and set up my tent next to the community center, and wished Michael much luck with the bugs. It started ok initially with a bit of breeze to cool things down a bit. I noticed that a large swarm of bats were circling the building, hoping they would be reducing the number of bugs around. I wasn’t worried about them. At about 9pm a large and bright overhead light came on above my tent. Great! Luckily I had my eye mask readily available, and took care of that problem. The wind then died down and it was eerily quiet with the exception of small scurrying animals around. I couldn’t tell what they were, but would hit the side of the tent every so often to hopefully scare them off. Then a couple minutes later I could hear the shuffling again. I decided that ignorance was bliss, and that I would try to fall asleep instead.
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