Day 15

Day 15 (Monday, Oct 4)
This was our biggest climb yet (the mountain off in the distance).

 The biggest climb of the day (and I believe of the entire trip) was over 2,700 feet. We reached the mountain, and I remember looking at it and seeing what I thought was a road way up at the top. Then I thought to myself that there was no way that was the road we would be on. I was wrong.

The grade was between 4 and 9 percent for about 20 miles. Even without carrying a trailer, I think that would have been pretty rough. The entire was was this chipseal, and like I said before, Bob does not like the chipseal. I went pretty slow, and I was worried at times about what this was doing to my knees.

Soon enough, I got to the top, and there were some of the most spectacular views.


It was finally cold on top!

We stopped to take out our jackets and eat our sandwhiches before we started to decent. It was on the decent that I began feeling some pain in my right knee. At first, I mentioned it to Melina, and she offered to take my group gear. I didn't think it would make that much of a difference, so I kept it all. After a few miles of decent, we had 2 more 500+ foot climbs. As we started up the first one, the pain in my knee was worsening, and Frosty caught up to us. It kep getting worse (although I was mostly peddleing with my right leg), and I had to stop a couple of times. There was nothing for 20 more miles, so I knew I just had to try to do whatever I could to get into camp. Frosty and Melina kept trying to take my gear, but I wasn't sure it would really help. Finally, I remember the pain being so bad that I had to stop in the middle of a climb, and as Frosty came up by me there were some tears of pain running down my face. Now the brothers caught up as well, and all of them took the majority of my things to try to lessen the burdon on my knee.

We were almost in town when  (gorgeous) younger guy flew by us on what looked like a pretty nice road bike. Given the road was chipsealed, I thought it was a strange place for someone to be training. Later, we saw 5 more guys on nice road bikes, and it turns out they are Navy Seals doing a supported fundraising ride for family of Seals who passed away. Here is a link if you want to donate: http://sealsbikeamerica.com/ or you can text Seal to 90999 to donate $10.

Anyway, THANK YOU FROSTY, MELINA, MARK, AND JOHN for helping me with my gear. They all rode easy into camp with me, and I did a lot of single leg drills... We stopped at the (only) store in town, and Frosty finally found his cowgirl

I knew that I couldn't ride tomorrow. I asked to clerk if she knew of anyone that would drive me into Silver City the next day. She made some calls, and it turned out her son-in-law, Sean, had to make a trip in the same day. I called the campground, and they told me it would be fine if I set up a day early.

Sean picked me up at 5 with his 10-year old son, Riley, and they drove me to camp. We chatted into town, and he told me that they owned to store, and he supplemented his business with his own e-bay business. The county fair was last weekend, and Riley told me that his chicken got 2nd place in the best in show of chickens. Congrats! Sean wouldn't take any money for the ride, so I gave it to Riley and told him to have fun.

I got into camp, and the owner told me I could pitch my tent by by some Navy Seals that were traveling across the US. I rode over with my little Bob trailer and just laughed when I saw their luxury motor home that was pulling their 12-foot trailer.

At this point I was asking myself why I thought doing a self-supported tour was such a good idea. I soon learned that the guy who passed us earlier is part of the crew for the Navy Seal fundraiser, and the support was privided by Marty Jemison and Marty Jemison Cycling Tours. As I began setting up my little backpacking tent, Marty began setting up one of their 8-person tents (where only 2 people would be sleeping). He looked over at my little tent, chuckled, and said "oh, how cute."

They graciously invited me into their camper for a pasta dinner. They kept telling me that this was a "boring dinner" for the gang, but it was definitely a step (or two) up from what we've been cooking for the past couple of weeks! They 'put the Seals to bed' because they had a 100+ mile ride the next day, including Emory Pass, and we enjoyed some beverages and shared stories until 1am. I was pretty disappointed about not being able to ride tomorrow, but this certainly helped ease the pain a bit.