Silver City to Las Cruces, New Mexico October 10, 2010

We made it over the highest pass on the trip, Emory Pass, 8228 feet, in the Black Hills of New Mexico.  For 18 miles we climbed 2600 feet in 3 1/2 hours.  Now the highest point of the Southern Tier bike route is behind us.  Could it be all downhill from here?  We think not!
We have been mostly camping during the past few days but are staying with Ann's relatives in Las Cruces.  Tomorrow we will enter Texas at El Paso.  Then we will begin the 1000 miles of Texas!
Bicycle news:  Bill's rear tire started to unravel so we used our trusty spare we had picked up on day two of the trip.  We picked up another tire today to be ready for the next tire event.  Otherwise the bikes and their operators are holding up well.  One reason is the temperatures have cooled from 50 degrees at night to a high of 85-90 during the day.  Much better than 110 we experienced earlier.

Now for some pictures to document the last few days.  Since we are still learning how to "blog" our photos are not all in order.  Bear with us.

                                           Biking the canyon to the top of Emory Pass.

                                  Bill on top of Emory Pass looking out over all of New Mexico.

       Along this part of our route, we passed fields of chiles.  The town of Hatch claims to be the Chile Capitol of the World!

                                    Here we saw the washing of the chiles right after harvest.

 Pecan orchards are also frequently along the way.  Here is how they irrigate, flooding the orchard and letting it soak in.

 Pecan orchards with New Mexico hills in the background and alfalfa in the foreground.

 Chiles hanging on display for sale.

Camping, desert style.  This is getting up early in the morning to begin biking before it gets too warm.