Still tracking in Gila, New Mexico

Erik is near the Elk Mountains in Gila National Park.  Riding at 2000 meters.  I wonder if he will get to Pie Town tomorrow.  Lat 33.06882, Long -108.11153

 Erik is camping at the top of the map.  He rode all of this today.  Those are serious zigzags up and down the mountain range.

I decided to have a closer view, and cut the day into 3 maps...

Start of day

Update from Erik:

I didn't sleep all that well...the light of the full moon, the unfamiliarity of the tent and the aches and pains of the ride made it hard for me to get to sleep.

I woke around 6. Jill had left about 2. We had breakfast and was on the road by 7. It was only 10 degrees! The ride started with a 15 minute climb, the first of many.

We discovered that the "camp site" we stayed at wasn't really the camp site we thought it was...we reached that camp site after about 5 km.  We had several huge climbs today, and lots of big descents as well. The washboards were brutal if you don't avoid the worst parts.

Gay saw a deer, and we passed the remains of a rabbit that had been eaten, Pete Castelli said it would have been by a mountain lion.

We reached a camp ground with water around 10, and stopped to filter water and eat. Both water filters stopped working. One of the water filters got blocked so it took a while.

Finally we continued on around 11. Another massive hill climb, followed by another huge descent.

By this time the temperature was up in the 40s and I was struggling a bit.  Finally we reach a place called Wall Lake , where there is a "guest ranch".

  Greg and Peter Gilbert go in, and are given gator aid and a banana each, which we shared.

 Apparently three black bears were seen around here recently, so we do have to be careful.

The heat was really getting to us by this stage, so we found a bridge a few km further on and stopped to rest under the bridge out of the sun.

 We cooked pasta and sardines for lunch.  We stayed there until about 4:30. I did a Tai Chi set under the bridge, on a small area of uneven ground.

 We were getting low on water, so we tried filtering some out of the stream that ran from the lake, but the second water filter also stopped working! So now we had no choice but to press on.  We then had more endless climbs and descents. 

 At one point, there were thunderclouds overhead, and a few very welcome drops of rain in the 35 degree heat, but unfortunately that's all we got.

We finally arrived at the Beaver Head camp, where we stopped for the day around 6. This is a big camp where forest fire workers are based.

 We were given a big box of apples and cherry pie, and allowed to camp with fresh running water right beside us. Luxury!

We got more information about water sources further ahead, and did an inventory of our remaining food and fuel. We're running low, but should be able to make it if we're careful.

I washed and shaved using the outside tap.

 This is luxurious camping.

 

We ate dinner of couscous and instant noodle soup with salmon, loaded up all the water containers and prepared for an early start in the morning to avoid the heat. We covered around 60 km today, and hope to do quite a bit more tomorrow. Apparently the worst of the hills are over. Whew!

 Gay fixed both water filters, which we'll need tomorrow. The adventure continues...