Tour Divide '24: Day 7 - Beaverhead Work Center to Silver City

 I began stirring at the crack of dawn, not itching to dive into the depths of the Gila, but rather awoken by the sound of raindrops on my sleeping bag. Justin and I had a brief moment about getting the bivy setup, but why? It was 5a, let's get packed up and moving. Take advantage of this cool, overcast morning. Sometimes on the Divide you ride when you otherwise may not due to advantageous trail conditions. This was one of those times. We loaded the bikes up quickly and ate breakfast while the light rain fell. Tobi had planned to leave at 4a, but he slept in a bit and was also readying himself for departure. We wished each other well and he reaffirmed he'd be on the lookout for my GPS. I walked over to the Beaverhead sign I took the bike photo at the previous evening, maybe it fell off there by chance. Nope.

It was our earliest start of the trip, riding by 5:40a. Almost felt 'racy'. Hehe. Our goal for the day was to reach Silver City and grab a hotel. It would be another 80 mile day and everything we heard about the Gila was tough: hot, limited water and steeper climbs. Our strategy was to not redline on the climbs, pedal until it wasn't comfortable, then walk. Keep moving. Tobi had reassured us the creek at the bottom of Black Canyon was flowing. So, we had a reliable water source at mile 26 on the day. We also knew the day would generally be slow going, so if we didn't make it to Silver City, we only needed to be close enough to get to Hachita the following night. It was all about timing our pickup rides from Antelope Wells on Sunday morning.

Beaverhead Work Center, Tobi in the background getting ready for his ride.

The steeper climbs came quick and we were up and over our first two in relatively good time. In spite of some walking, it actually felt like we got somewhere.

The reward: a long snaking descent. Can you find Justin?

In between climbs, the riding was good. Made better by the thick cloud layer.

I think we were both a bit surprised to see this creek.

Nice waterfall too.

We had been at it for a couple hours so far and no sign of the sun. In fact, it was spitting water from the sky, but not enough to warrant rain jackets. This was phenomenal. How long would it last?

This section of the route was a corridor that split between two Wilderness areas: The Gila and Aldo Leopold Wildernesses.

Fire remnants on Middle Mesa.

Getting ready to descend Black Canyon.

Down we go!!

It was a long, fun rip, zigzagging through the trees.

We found our creek at the bottom, sharing it with deer. Topped off on water and got ready for the long grind out.

Looking back across Black Canyon, you can see the road we descended earlier. We ended up walking most of the climb. It was actually a nice change of pace. By 1:00p we were over the top sooner than we thought. So far, this day was going splendidly. It was still pleasant out, probably low - mid 70's.

Our pace picked up considerably on terrain like this.

A couple more climbs came and went, then we crossed the CDT. Cool wooden signage here.

Really fun descent through this scenic side canyon.

We continued to make good time as the miles were passing quickly now.

One other bit of info that was passed along by multiple northbound riders was a chip seal project on NM15. The road was closed and a few of the northbounders were not allowed passage by the work crew. This section of road was at the end of the Gila segment. NM15 would take us to the small community of Pinos Altos. We began hearing conflicting reports of this project, some saying it was now open, others saying it was still closed. We figured we'd be arriving well after dark on a Friday, long after the workers were gone. If we made it there, we were going through. But first, we still had the notoriously slow section of CDT approaching after the Sapillo CG.

The climbing flattens out on North Star Mesa.

The clouds were lifting as we began to drop off North Star Mesa.

At this point we knew we had made it through most of the Gila's climb, only one more remained, the CDT. I knew there was some hike-a-bike there, but couldn't remember how many miles of singletrack it was. I wanted to say 7, but maybe it was 12. Either way, there were some fast miles approaching before we reached the CDT at the Sapillo CG.

We'd be riding through that valley below shortly.

We had a bunch of fast downhill dirt miles, then were spit out onto the paved Sapillo Loop Rd, NM35.

Cool Scenic Byway sign.

The riding was fast through here and traffic low.

The Sun was now out in force and with the loss of elevation temps quickly shot into the low 90's. We made the turn into the Sapillo CG and wound around on the roads. It was going on 4pm and I mentioned to Justin that this campground was more than likely to have some folks out for the weekend. If we saw anyone, let's ask for cold water again. A few minutes later we spotted a large setup of popups and campers, but didn't initially see anyone. Maybe they were out and about somewhere. Then we saw a few people in the back. Justin said: You lead the way, you're good at this!! Off we went. We rode up to the group of 8 or so and said hello. I asked if they had any cold water they could spare and a lady piped up: Sure do!! We have water, soda and beer, what do you guys want? I love it when you're presented with a menu of items. We gladly accepted the water and before we could finish a bottle she added: We just grilled cheeseburgers and bratwursts, help yourself. Here are all the condiments. Again, we hesitated, mostly due to shock I think. She offered again and told us to have a seat and join them. How crazy was this? Two days in-a-row with trailside cheeseburgers and chips. We had a great time chatting with the group and telling them about the ride. One of the older guys told us how he was part of a hotshot fire crew for 13 years. Whoa. We made sure to thank him for that service.

One younger guy seemed a bit skeptical of the whole situation at first. He was new to the area and asked me a veiled question: I've been seeing a lot of these long distance hikers and bikers coming through here and about half of them seem to expect handouts and the other half seemed well prepared. I felt his statement was a bit directed at us and I pointed out that we were in fact, self-supported, and had only asked for water. He had no idea the CDT ran through the campground. I told him how some folks have different approaches to the whole long distance thing. Once he realized how long the route was, his opinion of it seemed to change for the better. We later found out he was a special effects artist for Hollywood and Netflex. He plans and executes explosions and captures it using drone footage. Pretty cool stuff. He also works in a lab analyzing the chemicals used to make sure everything is safe.

Our gracious camp hosts and the special effects guy in the foreground.

We hung out for a good 30-45 minutes then needed to get on our way. I had heard in the past that the singletrack was a bit tricky to find here, so we were on high alert to follow our track. It's a large campground, we zigged and zagged, but I eventually spotted a CDT blaze on double track. Here we go.

The entrance was tucked in between campsites off the main road, but at least there were some signs.

Up, up and away. Good tread so far.

Almost immediately, the grade kicked up and became more loose. It was tough going in the heat. We took a lot of short breaks.

Century Plants in bloom as the pushing continued.

We rapidly gained a few hundred feet and the views opened up. I could also tell it cooled down ever so slightly.

Yep, back in the desert now.

Prickly Pear blooms.

The grade relented and we could get some really cool riding in.

The trail tread narrowed as the climbing continued.

This section reminded me a lot of the Casa Blanca Canyons segment of AZT.

Huge, clear views from up here. Amazing.

It wasn't all unicorns and rainbows.

The narrow tread had it's challenges on the loaded bike. Soft shoulder and a penalty for failure kept your attention focused. The trail was contoured well, but just steep enough in sections that it was easier to walk. Toss in some overgrowth and random rocks in the tread and it was very slow going.

We topped out on this mesa, but the large random rocks in the tread increased. It was incredibly frustrating to ride.

One of the few short bits of very rideable terrain.

Overall, I think we were both a bit disappointed with the singletrack. It ended up being 7 miles long and we probably walked 5 miles of it. For the most part, the tread was good. The entire trail corridor needs a weekend of light maintenance, trim the tree branches that smack you in the face and kick the football sized loose rocks off the tread. That's really about it. It could be a much better ride experience with a little bit of work, but who's going to do it? Maybe some riders in the Silver City area. Hopefully it'll get some attention soon.

We crossed a drainage in the trail and a few minutes later Justin was yelling up to me that we were off track. My GPS was sort of indicating I was still on route, it's one thing I don't like about it, but I think I finally have me settings correct after the ride. We needed to go back to the drainage and follow some super vague game-trail looking path. Yep, we're back on route. This ended up being a very short connector to a forest road. Ok, that makes sense now. We were so glad to be done with the singletrack section and back on faster dirt roads...and it was still daylight!!

Ahh, that's better. I found it funny because I typically love, tight, technical singletrack, just not today.

Time to break out the lights.

I had mentioned to Justin that there was a slight chance we could run into some friends of mine who often camp in the area outside of Pinos Altos. I hadn't heard if they had plans to be there or not, but it was a possibility. If they were there, we could camp with them. We were now close enough to Silver City that anything else we rode tonight felt like a bonus.

It was cool to reach an area I was semi-familiar with. A few years ago we rode near Signal Peak.

We topped out on a mid-range climb and were cruising through the forest. I didn't see my friends camping at their known location and next thing I knew we popped out on the paved, or freshly chip-sealed, NM15. Whoa!! That kinda snuck up on us. It hit me, we made it through the gauntlet of the Gila, now it's a bunch of mostly downhill paved miles to Silver City. We're going to get that hotel tonight after all. It was also the first time I confidently knew we were going to make it to Antelope Wells after all these years.

This chip sealed road was ripping fast, free miles!!

A northbound rider came up the road asking what the deal was as he saw the 'Road Closed' sign before us. He had spent most of the day out of the sun in Silver City and was taking advantage of the cooler nighttime temps. Smart move. We told him he was good to go and off he went.

We were coasting down the next section of road when we could see something in the road up ahead. Probably just a deer. Uhh, nope, that's no deer. Bear!! It was a large round black bear and he rumbled off into the woods as our lights approached. I couldn't believe it, it took me over 2600 miles along the Divide route to finally see a bear on route. I could finally check that box. Neat.

The one watering hole in Pinos Altos. The route peels off the main road and cuts through town. There's a good climb to leave town and it felt like a good time to walk a bit.

We've had a lot of Continental Divide crossings today.

It was fun arriving to town in darkness as Silver City was lit up far below us as we approached.

I wanted a chocolate milk and we made a beeline to the first gas station we saw, a Chevron. Closed. Hmmm, well, it's a small town and 10:40p on a Friday night. I checked Google maps on the phone and noticed the McD's next door was closing at 11p. We immediately made our way over for our fill of calories. While there we booked a room across the way at a Motel 6 for something like $38.

We both couldn't really believe we had made the grueling 80 miles through the Gila today and were quite pleased with our effort. We also knew the next two days in the low lying desert were going to be hot, but the riding is fairly easy. Once again an early start would be wise. The forecast was calling for temps to be in the upper 90's hovering around 100º.

Meanwhile, we couldn't quite locate the Motel 6. WTH?? I know they'll leave the light on, but how about a sign? It was tucked behind the Comfort Inn, maybe we should have stayed there. It was definitely the lowest of low budget rooms. We had beds, a roof and some water did fall out of the showerhead - literally. Not much of a shower, but it got the job done. How about that? Four showers on this dirtbag cruise. The rewards of fast tour mode.

While we were getting ready to settle in for the night, getting electronics charged, etc. I saw that Tobi, from the Beaverhead Work Center, had tracked me down on Strava. He sent a message letting me know that he found my lost GPS!! Hell yeah. He said it was about 4 miles from Beaverhead, balancing on a cattle grate. Talk about luck. One more inch either way and it was gone. I told him to mail it whenever he had a chance, no rush on it since it's an extra. He wouldn't send me his Venmo account, insisting he had it covered. His only request was to mail him a postcard from my next adventure. What a guy. As of this writing, he is somewhere north of Salida, CO en route to Breckenridge. Ride on, Tobi. and Thank you!! EDIT: He was able to send it out from Cuba and I received it a few days ago.

Route:

Strava Link

Full photo album for Day 7

Here is a full Tour Divide Index from each day on the route.