​A long night was met by the first streaks of dawn.  At that first crack, I finished packing up amidst the receding smoke.  Cattle mooed around me with the morning come.  I jumped on my bike and pedaled past the CDT trailhead I had visited the evening before.  I rounded the cinder cone adjoining my night's campsite and there, a smoldering mess of trees and landscape lay.  I took one photo of it before pushing on.  The photo of the morning's reveal of the previous night's fire looked SUPER LAME but definitely was one of those times when a photo just didn't capture the reality of a scene.

slept well and woke up ready to take on the Great Divide.  I packed up and left the Toaster House, stopped at The Gatherin’ Place for one last breakfast meal, and then pushed into lands north of Pie Town.  The route was washboarded, not overly.  I was able to weave around and through the many ridges making up the road.  In the distance, the peaks of the GIla receded away.

Distant peaks looked gorgeous, studded with juniper under the blue sky and red dirt road beneath me.  I reached TLC Ranch by mid-morning.  It’s a ranch with open access for CDT hikers and Great Divide riders to grab fresh water and even a place to camp.  Under a canopy tent I stocked up on my water supplies and headed back out.  The route led past distant ranches and abandoned buildings through an iconic view of western juniper-filled uplands.  Slowly I descended into high desert grasslands.  A wild burro ran ahead of me along the road for 10 minutes.  Its speed matched my own, and I laughed as it ran forward while constantly looking back at me in bewilderment.

​Pie Town, NM is an incredible place full of deeply kind people.  After traversing the heat and remoteness of the Gila, it is the exact place to find some respite.  After a long and deep night’s sleep, I hopped down to the local post office to pick up my package of dried beans for this next section, plus a new map section as well.  I then stopped at the Gatherin Place where they served up some excellent pie and breakfast.  Later, I biked to Top of the World, a small general store 3 miles outside of town.  I picked up food to get me through Grants.  On return, I cleaned my bike on the front lawn of the Toaster House, washed my clothes in the shower, and drank a ton of water + ate a ton of food.

The morning came quickly after a night of quiet rest.  I rose early again to beat the heat.  This time, I awoke at 4 in the dark and was packed up and on the bike by the first rays of light.  The morning was once again cold and crisp.  I began pedaling through the ponderosa pine forest.  Light filtered through the branches of the pines bringing streaks of gorgeous golden rays onto the dusty dirt track.  The road rolled up and down hills and at the crest of one, a massive herd of 18 elk began running across the road as I approached.  It was amazing to see the females and young stampede across.

​After my self-imposed lack of night’s sleep, I let first light be my indicator to get moving.  Surprisingly (or not), the canyon campground was cold enough that I put on warm gear to start riding.  I zig-zagged up the other side of the route to exit the canyon.  Looking back down from a ridge, I realized how far into the Gila I was now and how far I had yet to go.  A brown haze sat thick on the horizon indicative of the fire brewing someplace.  With little more thought, I set my mind to getting to Beaverhead Work Center as quickly as possible, preferably before the day’s heat started.

I woke up early after a great night’s sleep at Mesa Campground right above Lake Roberts.  I was determined to get my food and start early on the route.  Today would mark me completely leaving pavement behind as I headed into the Gila.  

I got down to the Lake Roberts General Store right at 8 am, just as the handwritten sign had said.  However, it still was not open yet.  I sat around stretching, charging my electronics, and repeatedly checking my watch.  Sometime near 9 am, someone finally opened up the shop.  The selection was narrow, but I found all I needed.  I was going to make due with salty pretzels, tortillas, and buttloads of cheese.  I immediately jumped on the pavement and continued along the Trail of the Mountain Spirits.  The land seemed harmonious in the morning cool.  The end of the scenic run arrived and the route became more traveled with vehicles.  I talked to a construction crew who mentioned a fire somewhere in the Gila that I needed to be careful of.  They pointed to the faint brown haze on the horizon as evidence.  I kept that in mind.

I woke up and sucked the last enjoyment of my air conditioned room from my hotel room before biking to the Silver City Post Office to mail some gear home, which meant I left Silver City properly around 9:20 am.  The route today would be all-paved, some of the last major paved portions for the entire Great Divide Route.  The highway here is an officially scenic one named the Trail of the Mountain Spirits.  With it, I officially climbed into the Gila National Forest and crossed the Continental Divide at 7,000 feet.  The beautiful scenery of the dry ponderosa pine-studded mesas and mountains reminded me greatly of Arizona.

I woke up at the crack of dawn to make sure temperatures were cool as I made my way to Silver City.  The morning was beautiful and I could feel that I had gained a couple thousand feet of elevation from the start of the ride.  Hilly desert landscape fell out behind me as I crossed the Continental Divide several times keeping to a gentle ridgeline.  I dropped into washes and passed by loads of open range cattle before hitting the pavement of a highway leading into Silver City.

​I awoke early in the morning to beat the heat with the rising day.  Jeffrey was up when I got up and filled me in with updates on the whereabouts of the Tour Divide racers from Dot Watchers.  He cooked me a massive breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast which I downed given my sparse appetite from the night before from the combination of heat and headache.  As he saw me off, he took a photo for his own archives of riders who pass through.  With that, I was off along the pavement heading to my first unpaved sections of the route.

​After finishing the AZT, I slit my foot open on a piece of glass in such a way as to remove any chance of starting on the Great Divide on my designated date.  Instead, I went to Colorado with my family for a couple of weeks and took nearly a month to ensure no infection would ensue.  I reached out for help getting to the border and my former students Emanuel and Sierra volunteered.  I was SUPER grateful that they were willing to drive with my down to Lordstown, NM the night before and then return my car to Phoenix the next day.