Day 9 April 2, 2006

Day 9
April 2, 2006
Roper Lake State Park, AZ to Lordsburg, NM (via Clifton, AZ)



…we awoke to a leisurely-paced Sunday morning, knowing that we could spend extra time getting packed since we were scheduled to ride up the Coronado Trail and camp in Alpine. “Chilly” Bob had suggested the route before he packed up his RV and headed out.



Most of the RVs rolled out also, and by noon the campsite was quite calm. We had time to sit and relax, get the story updated to the web for the last few days, and decide that today would be the ‘turning point’ on the trip. We’d gone about as far west as we could with the limited vacation time allotted, but we didn’t want to head back the same way we’d come. Instead, we’d head up north and then hook around to the east.

We hit the road by 2pm, just in time to make check-out. North on 191 towards Clifton, the wide open sweepers were amazing. A quick fill-up at the Circle K in town, and we were on our way.



Or so we thought.



Clifton is a mining town. The copper mine stretches for miles, and the only way over the mountain is to wind your way up through a labyrinth of hairpin turns with steep inclines. Trucks over 40 feet long were not permitted due to the tight radius on some of the turns.

And here’s where even well laid plans sometimes fail. Rebecca is afraid of heights. Add to that her fear of hairpin turns, and disaster struck hard. She panicked. Fear overtook her, and she simply could not continue to climb the mountain. She stopped on the side of the road as early as she could and waited to be rescued. For a few minutes, she waited and watched as other riders whizzed past on sport, adventure, and touring bikes. She tried to relax and take in the beauty of the mountain around her, but it was only enough for her to rationalize going back down into town and figuring out a different route.

Eventually, Gavin and Erik came back, asking if she was Ok with the standard thumbs-up. She vigorously shook her head no, and was directed to go up one more curve to a pull-off where Deb was waiting patiently. Once stopped and off the bike, she was able to take some deep breaths and drink some water. Gavin assured her that it would be Ok, and that we would go back down if she wanted to. She did, but only as a passenger.

Willing to help in whatever way necessary, Erik agreed to escort Gavin and Rebecca down the four miles that we’d ascended on his bike and then ride back up as Gavin’s passenger to bring the extra bike back down.

Now past five o’clock, a quick stop at Dairy Queen (the worst one ever) for some refueling and a pow-wow was in order to decide where to stay the evening. Once again, four bikers and a monkey were homeless with sunset only a couple of hours away. We knew another go with the rangers at Roper Lake State Park may be pushing it so we had to move to plan B. According to the web, the Gila National Forestry Park offered $5.00 primitive camping & was only 10 miles away.

We headed out of Clifton in search of the turn off only to find a 27 mile scenic byway with a treacherous hill for an entrance, rutted corners, washboard gravel and no signs of civilization or mention of any campsites. Erik was elected to scout ahead to check the conditions of the road. Misled by a pullover, Erik waved the group down only to find out that this was not the campsite and the road ahead was not paved & went on (seemingly) forever.





Now heading back from whence we came, daylight had faded. Safford was where we had started, but was not where we wanted to end the day. While making some phone calls to motels in the area, we spoke with some locals and discovered that not camping in Gila was a smart move. It seems a local girl was pulled out of her truck and buried by the side of the road under a pile of rocks. Creepy.

We decided to push on to the east to make some progress before calling it quits, and decided on Lordsburg only 75 miles away. Once there, we grabbed the quickest, cheapest, easiest motel room we could find.





It wasn’t much, but it was a warm bed and a roof over our heads without having to set up camp and worry about taking it all back down in the morning.