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Published: October 27th 2006
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Cyclist Shawn
He was headed the opposite way. Shawne and Jo say...
Day 21
Miles Today: 26.2
Total Mileage: 810.6
Flats Today: 0
Total Flats: 27
Who's great idea was it to do this trip in Winter? It was ridiculously cold last night. Shawne woke up around 4 a.m. and checked the thermometer at the RV park. It was 35 degrees! BRRRRRRR!!! Shawne went back to sleep, snuggling with Jo to keep warm.
We woke a few hours later and walked to the library to see what time they opened. Then we went to the gas station for fuel for our campstove (.50 on pump 3!) and went to the grocery store for supplies. Back at camp, we made breakfast and boiled the remaining eggs to enjoy later. Wepacked up camp and headed for the library (wishing they'd been open yesterday-our day off!). On the way, we stopped at another bike shop to do some window shopping.
Once there, we learned that another cyclist had just dropped his bike off to have some spokes repaired. We asked the guys at the bike shop to tell him we would be at the library just down the road.
As we worked on the blog, the cyclist showed up. His name
Looking through the fence-hole
Of course they are miners....they're like 12! was Shawn also, and he was there to work on his travelblog, too! After getting kicked off the computers at the one-hour mark, though again there was no one waiting to use them, we gathered outside and spoke of our trips. Shawn #2 was headed West, toward San Diego. We decided to go have lunch together. At first we were going to grab a burger, but Shawn #2 doesn't eat meat. We went to a dafe down the road and enjoyed a great meal of Mexican food. By the time we had shared many stories, and were very full, it was 2 p.m. and we needed to get on the road.
We exchanged info and took pictures with Shawn #2.
A parade of pickup trucks passed by us. Each truck had huge elk antlers sticking out of the bed or on a trailer. As they passed, we saw the entire elk head looking back at us.
A short climb took us in view of the Kneeling Nun. It is a rock formation near the peak of San Jose Mountain on the Black Range. A huge rock standing upright and alone gives the image of a Kneeling Nun. Just in front
of her appears to be an altar with a statue on a ledge. It is made of a sheer rock face that is the leading edge of a jagged mountain peak. (We've been stopping to read all historical markers along our route.)
We stopped at an overlook of the Santa Rita Pit Mine and watched as huge Haul Pack dump trucks transported 300 tons of rock a piece out of the mine. A pickup truck pulled past one of these machines and was dwarfed by just the tires on the enormous dump truck.
Stopping in Hanover, we searched for water. Our map showed a grocery store, a gas station, and a post office. The only thing we found was a bar. Inside, there were two patrons and the bartender. They gave us all sorts of advice and warned us of the hellish grade and terrible conditions on the road ahead. They recommended that we stay in San Lorenzo for the night since it was already 4pm. The climb was tough but went quickly, and a downhill invited us into a valley. Midway, Jo thought she heard something fall off her bike but quickly dismissed it as road debris. (We've become
numb to the sound of clinking metal on the road after the first ten times we stopped and turned around only to find it was just some garbage we'd run over.) At the bottom of the hill, Jo discovered that a major componenet of her Aero Bars was missing!
"Oh no!" Shawne exclaimed as he looked back up the five mile grade, knowing the part was somewhere up there. Jo disconnected her trailer and huffed back up the hill while Shawne stayed back with the gear. A few minutes later, her voice came over the radio..."I found it! Nobody even ran it over!"
She cruised back down the hill with the part in hand. All the vibration from the rough asphalt had caused a small 'C' clip to fall off, allowing the pin that held her elbow pad on her handlebars to slide out. At least we had the part, and it would be an easy fix.
Our map showed two restaurants, a gas station, and a grocery store in San Lorenzo. Pulling into town, we found the gas station had closed for good last month, and the restaurant was closed with a 'For Sale' sign in the window. We
Giant Haul Pack dump truck
Look at how little the pickup is! needed water badly...for cooking and for climbing Emory Pass tomorrow morning. Jo knocked on the door of the nearest house. A woman answered and put on a coat to come outside. Her name was Lydia, and she told us that the nearest grocery store was back in Silver City. We told her that we had plenty of food, but we needed water. She let us fill our water bottles from her spigot and she went back inside. It was getting cold, and the sun had already fallen behind the mountain. We had no idea where we were going to camp. Lydia came back outside with her husband Manuel. They told us we could pitch our tent by their pump house if we wanted to.
They had a large, older German Shepherd and a cute little Australian Shepherd pup. Lydia told us several times that the German Shepherd was "not to be trusted". He was a good guard dog, and has bitten strangers in the past.
We thanked them and hurried to set up camp and change into warm clothes. Lydia brought us a bag full of apples that she picked off their apple tree. Jo gobbled one up right away.
We talked for a while as the cold set in, then we cuddled up in the tent.
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