Upon waking up I felt slightly apprehensive about being back on the road. Partly because I’ll be joining the Great Divide route, which will present a whole new set of challenges. Not least an initial 150 miles with no services. But also because a night in a motel seems to cause a bit of regression to a degree of comfort that it can be initially hard to shake off. 

 

Eventually got my stuff, and my head, together and retraced my tracks from yesterday back to the turn off to Silver City. It was a long climb up towards the city but I’d take that over yesterday’s headwind slog anyway. Nearing the top I met my first fellow great dividers who had left Antelope Wells the night before. They were aiming for 80 miles a day so they may push ahead of me quite quickly but will hopefully cross paths again (spoiler: we crossed paths a lot). 

 

Silver City could not have been more different to Lordsburg. A vibrant and artsy hub seemed pretty improbable given its location. I had to abandon the first cafe stop as there was live music on, meaning it was difficult to even get in the door. A true sign of its bohemian vibe was it being virtually the only place I’ve seen locals cycle around a city for leisure/transport. 

 

Given I’d spent the last night in a motel I was keen to push on out of town as there were a couple camping options another 15 miles or so up the road. After more climbing to over 7000 feet for the first time, I was rewarded by suddenly entering a thick pine forest. It felt like a sensory and physical relief after so long in the sparse desert landscape. Big smiles all round as I traversed the roller coaster road to the campsite. Did my good deed for the day by offering to move spots to allow a group to camp next to each other. Only to result in them taking 45mins to manoeuvre their trailer into place. Sometimes a bike and a tent are just so much easier. My good deed was repaid by my fellow tent camper opposite offering me a beer and water later on.