Thursday April 2, 2015

We were up and away at first light (7:15 am). We wanted to get Emory Pass under our belts before the wind picked up. We almost managed it but, about 6 kms from the top the winds started to pick up.

The climbs started immediately as we left Hillsboro.

The scenery was stunning and the roads were very quiet at that time in the morning. We crossed over Percha Creek which is a beautiful gorge.

We laughed at the road signs.

We cycled 26 kms climbing all the way to the Emory Pass. (Personal Best – 1,984 m elevation gain). The last 6kms the grade kicked up and we had strong wind gusts I had to get off and walk the bike. I was really annoyed with myself that I couldn’t make it all the way up. I had what I refer to as my “hill tantrums” I am struggling just to turn the pedals and Ralf is effortlessly sailing on ahead of me. It is so frustrating, even after all this time on the bike I cannot cycle up hills. I only had to walk for about 500 metres as the winds died down.

Ralf would stop and take photos as I peddled on.

Ralf cycled up to the View Point at the top of Emory Pass, another 497 metres up – crazy guy.

When we got to the top I was really pleased with myself. However, it didn’t last very long. We crossed over the range and the winds started in earnest. Headwinds and wind gusts of about 35 kph!

After Emory Pass at 2,508 m (8,228 ft), I thought we would have two more small climbs and then downhill all the way to Silver City. That didn’t happen.

We descended to below 1,852m (6,000 ft) and then climbed back over 1,852m three more times. It was cold at the top, so we put on hour windbreakers and at one point put on a second layer as we were shivering coming down the hill.

We met a couple of touring cyclists coming up the other side, we had a brief chat as they were going uphill, although they did have the wind behind them. Then we saw Mike, who was pushing his bike up the hill.

At the 57 k mark somewhere around San Lorenzo I had my next major tantrum, I was exhausted battling against the winds and going up and down hills. I didn’t think we would make our warmshowers place. Then we looked at time and I realized it was only 1:30, although we had been cycling for six hours, we had told our warmshowers host that we would be there between four and five. Four more hours of cycling and more downhill than up hills at this point. We should be able to do that. We did make it by 5:00. A really tough day cycling. Coming into Silver City there were hills and I was getting off at even some of the smaller hills because of the wind gusts.

Just before the City of Silver Hills there is a massive mine, I think even bigger than Waihi in New Zealand.

As we looked at the mine at the view point, we heard the blast.

There is a rock that looks like a kneeling nun praying to a great alter, lots of legends have grown up around the giant monolith, which rests near the summit of the Santa Rita Range.

This is the elevation and topography of today\’s ride!

Our warmshowers host (Trish) gave us a warm greeting. There were two more people staying, a woman from Montreal (Sandra) and Beth-Ann from Virginia. We chatted to them for a while, then had a lovely shower and dinner was served. What more could you ask for at the end of a tough day, great food, good conversation and drinks. A good comfy bed capped the end of a tough day.

Thank you Trish for a wonderful dinner and to the other touring cyclists for dessert.

We were all in bed at around 9:00 pm.