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Published: March 2nd 2017
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Hello from New Mexico, where the second stage of our bike tour is well underway! We arrived back in the States from New Zealand a couple of weeks ago, and within a few days were back on the bikes and navigating our way out of Tucson's urban sprawl. It was quite a shock to the system after riding through such peaceful little towns in NZ, but we were able to find a cycle path that took us all the way through the city and up to Catalina State Park, where we camped for the night under a beautifully clear sky.
Since we hadn't originally planned on continuing to cycle tour after NZ, we weren't too sure what kind of route to take, but we realized that the ACA cross-country Southern Tier route wasn't too far away, so decided to head for that. We rode north through the town of Mammoth, where a very friendly police officer allowed us to camp in the small park on the edge of town, and then made our way to the mining settlement of Superior. We were able to camp there for free as well, in the backyard of a large ranch which even offered us
the luxury of a fire pit!
The road from Superior to Globe was awful, with almost no shoulder and heavy traffic, as well as tight switchbacks, so we were pretty relieved to reach town safely. We treated ourselves to a filthy little motel room there, for the princely sum of $41 (including tax!), and lay awake all night listening to the sirens and traffic blasting past! Anyway, we didn't contract any infectious diseases from our night in the motel, so the following morning we started out on the official Southern Tier route, passing through the San Carlos Apache reservation. Sadly this is a very impoverished area of Arizona and we were pretty shocked to see such grim living conditions, more reminiscent of places we've seen in Latin America.
Camping is generally not permitted on Indian reservations, but we had heard from a fellow cyclist about a church in the tiny settlement of Bylas where we might be able to stay. Sure enough, the Lighthouse AOG church, under the guidance of Pastor Vernon Poncho, opened its doors to us and gave us shelter for the night. Pastor Poncho was a wonderful and gracious host, letting us use the church showers and
even giving us the church's WiFi password so we could check our emails! We did have a little nighttime visitor in the form of a church mouse, but having learned from previous traumatic incidents involving members of the rodent family, I'd already insisted on setting up the tent inside the room, so was safe from any nocturnal nibblings!
Bidding farewell to our pastor friend, we headed on to Safford, where we had our first night using the Warm Showers hosting network, which links cycle tourists with hosts willing to offer a meal and free place to sleep. Our host, Hal, was a retired history professor who generously shared his small apartment with us and even took us to the movie theatre that night! Once again we enjoyed the kindness of someone who had never met us but was happy to treat us like friends. That's always the part of cycle touring we love most.
So after Safford we rode through a small outpost called Three Way, and then high up into the Gila National Forest, which is a beautiful area that we already knew from our big ride in 2015. It was a beautiful climb up to 6,300 feet and
On the way to Superior
Ken taking a break at the top of a tough climb. on the descent we met Casey, a friendly guy from Buffalo, NY, who was about 8,000 miles into his bike tour of all four corners of the US.
We arrived in Buckhorn, another tiny town, and added to our growing list of weird places we've slept in by spending the night in the laundry room of an RV park! It was pretty cosy and we were glad to sleep indoors as nighttime temperatures have been below zero most nights - we've woken to ice inside our tent flysheet on more than one occasion!
We're now in Silver City, a place we really like from previous trips, and have enjoyed a rare rest day before we head to City of Rocks State Park in the Chihuahuan desert tomorrow. More to follow in a week or so....thanks for following our trip!
Fi and Ken
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