Gila National Forest

Well the bike service went very well this morning...I was there at 0815 to let the bike cool down before they opened at 0830 and they took her right in and made a start.......all done by 11am without any problems or concerns which was good. The proper plate and registration document was also waiting for me as promised.

I continued west along route 70 and then made a 70 mile dash (?) north on I25 as I really liked the names of a couple of towns right next to each other and I wanted to check them out for myself.

I wonder what the locals do for drinking games?

T or C (as those who are familiar with the town like to call it) is pretty unremarkable....in fact I shouldn't really use the word pretty at all....it does have a nice mountain in front of it and sits on the Rio Grande.....and is neighbours with

Ah sure.....I bet the craic is only mighty in this place.....even if you are only passing through!!

Well they made me chuckle the first time I saw them on a map about 6 weeks ago and I was determined to get some pics.......the detour was well worth it mind you if only that it left me close to Route 152 to Silver City which is where I stopped for the night.

Route 152 is a narrow road with very little traffic running through countryside with distant hills to come. It isn't long before you are in those hills which seem to weave together to form an endless run of bends and inclines which made for a fun afternoon ride.

Passing through a couple of little villages the road starts to climb and all of a sudden you realise that the density and size of the trees has increased dramatically and all around is lush greenery.......and then you pass a sign for Gila National Forest.

The bends start to tighten up now and the speed limit recommended gets down as low as 10mph and 15 mph for some of the hairpins. All you can see are trees and the line of the road snaking along the mountain side. You can feel the air cool as you climb to over 8,500 feet and then you start down the other side again........I even managed to scrape a footpeg at one point (not difficult on the VTX I know but it was a first for me!)

I must have been running on fumes by the time I got to Santa Rita......where there is a huge mining operation going on........given that Santa Rita is just down the road from Silver City my first guess was 'silver' but it turns out it is a copper mine!

the pale section is the result of mining