GDT Day 51 -Black Canyon to Mesa CG

Sun. Sept. 25, 2016,
Lower Black Canyon CG to Mesa CG

Start - ~6750'
High pt  7900'
Lo pt. ~6100'
End Elv ~6100'
Climbing ~3000'??

Miles ~30.5
Total time 6:30
Ride time
Day with BOB 49
2 continental divide crossings, #26 & #27 ?

It is cold this morning, and the sun is slow to shine in on the valley. Added to that, the fill in my sleeping bag has migrated to my feet, leaving my upper body uncomfortably cool just before dawn. I add to my morning chores a massage for my sleeping bag. However, this may be my last night tent camping as I am meeting Glenda today, and some pangs of regret are felt, as well as anticipation of completion of this long ride.

The day turn out to be another great sunny, breezy autumn day, if a little brisk.
The riding starts with more steep Gila twisty turny climbing out of the valley. I gain the ridge which evolves into a gently round and rolling mesa, covered with juniper, aligator juniper, some gnarled live oaks and pinons! After some rolling climbing, it is down down down steep, rocky, tortuous twisty descent into Rocky Canyon.
I stop at the boot on to check the nice CG, and who should drive bu a Anthony from the work center 2 days ago. He stops and chats, and I see that he has a few flowers pucked. He ask whete I sm headed to day. When I tell him I am mertong glenda ay mesa CG on lake Roberts,  he says he is too, to pick up his brother who is fishing there. He offers me some elk, and ask what kind of vehicle we have. What a generous guy. I profusely thank him for his kindness, and he says no problem, it help propel him forward in life. A true trail angel.

I restart my ride and next verse is same as the first, and that should be the last big climb for today. When I reach the mesa top, I start scouting for pinons, and I stop a number of times to collect nuts.  Thus I slow down my day, but weather is good, and I will be meeting Glenda at the CG. Also road is better than yesterday, with the fresh and deep gravel missing today. The views from the top show seemingly endless ridges and the varigated  mesas to higher peaks off in the distance to the south. And the east. And the west. This is a very large, mostly untrammelled area surrounding the route.
I crossed the divide again on my way down; gently at first and into steep winding switchbacks as I descend towards the Mimbres valley. I gain Hwy 35 for 8 fast miles through more healthy forest and open ranchlands, complemented by rising red cliffs as I head down valley. While it is Sunday afternoon with perfect weather, and I am heading to recreational Lake Roberts, there almost zero cars on the road as I cruise to my meet with Glenda.

Glenda had met Anthony and his brother Angel, and we now have an elk steak, a roast, and also 2 trout Angel caught for dinner.
We cook fresh fish this night, what an end of a wonderful day.

GDT Day 50 - Beaverhead Work Center to Lower Black Canyon CG

Sat. Sept. 24, 2016
 Beaverhead Work Center to Lower Black Canyon CG

Start - ~6750'
High pt  0'
Lo pt. ~0'
End Elv ~6580'
Climbing ~2000'??

Miles ~26
Total time 6:00
Ride time 4:15
Day with BOB 48
?? continental divide crossings

Sir strip
Bike repair tubes, tire, fender. Flag
Tried for some nuts
Wall lake
List straps
Upupup, DOWN
soft road, where not rocky
Empty campground
Interesting forest
Healthy ponderosa, oaks, alligator juniper

Today is a short day milage wise, bit it is also noteworthy as I get into the much discussed Gila mountains proper, with their many twisty climbs and descents.
The ridges and mesas are so varigated, with many mellow little drainages and valleys punctuated with occasional steep canyons, that milage is not the only measure of challenge.

It is another sunny morning, though chilly. It was cloudy and spitting rain on us last night, but this morning the clouds are belowus, as fog in the flat valley only a wee bit below. After switching out tires and tubes, checking the trailer repair, and reattaching the trailer fender due to a fender plastic tear, I get a late start. The weather is a perfect autum day, with a mild wind to keep me humble. It rolling up and down, sometimes steeply, with tons of frsh gravel.to soften the road, to get to Wall lake, which is guarded on one side by a good looking cliff. Then I begin a sustained, yet mellow climb up though a series of drainages, holding incredibly healthy ponderosa forests. I begin seeing oak trees of good size, which I normally don't associate with ponderosa forest coming from Colorado.
I eventually gain a ridge line and head down, and then do it again. And again. And yet again. Next verse, same as the first. Some times I gain ridges and descend quickly, other times it is sustained time on a mesa. It is drier up here with juniper, aligator juniper, pinon, and anothw different oak species, with small ovall leaves, apparently adapted to the dryer conditions. Many of the pinons are heavy with cones, that are heavy with nuts. Weather and time is good, so I stop to collect pinon nuts along.the way here and there when the trees have laden cones I can reach.

I have been seeing wooly caterpillars on the move over the last week or so. I do not pretend to understand what kind of winter that portends, but I think it is telling me to get a move on and finish this wandering adventure I am on!

The route is going through a narrow corridor between two large wilderness areas; the Gila and the Aldo Leopold. My last steep rocky descent takes me to to my destination.

The campground is on the floor of the Black Canyon, a wide spot that is a meadow with a stream. Given it is essentially surrounded by wilderness, it has not been grazed. It is pretty green from the wet monsoon season -  I think to myself (ok, so maybe I spoke out loud, I have been riding by myself alot), so this is what it should look like. I also saw the same effect in a much larger valley bottom earlier. I have seen damn few places like this along the route, but I guess I have also been enjoying the occasional burger along thw way too.....

This stream also supports the Gila trout, a unique species that can tolerate much warmer water (80 degreesF) than those found further north.
While the meadow is not over grazed by cows it is also only lightly used by humans and the campsites are overgrown. I am alone again tonight, just me and the woodpeckers. I set my tent up under a giant oak tree, the likes of which I have not seen in western mountains further north. It watches over me as I sleep, dropping an occasional acorn on my tent to tease me, and to remind me as to whose meadow it really is.