We hated to leave Silver City but we have to stay on schedule. Back to the usual McDonald’s breakfast and on the road.

The day started out with 3 substantial climbs to be followed up with a difficult climb to our highest elevation of the ride. We rode up to the top of Emory Pass with an elevation of 8,228 feet. Our total elevation gain, for the day, was 6,957 feet. Once we reached the top of Emory Pass, we went to an observation look out and we could see Caballo Lake some 37 miles away.

Our only saving grace for the day was that the temperature didn’t exceed 85 degrees.

The downhill was great. Hang on tight and weave your way down the mountain for over 19 miles until we reached the unincorporated town of Hillsboro. Here we had lunch in the only restaurant in the town. The best part of the lunch was the ice cream at the end.

The state park had a good restroom with very good showers, so no hose shower this time. The one problem was it’s not close to anything, so I had to have my first dehydrated meal. It was easy to make because all I had to do was boil 2 cups of water and pour it in the package and wait 9 minutes. Even I couldn’t mess that up. What I also like about it was the only thing I had to clean was the spoon I used to eat it.

The moon was almost a full moon so being out by a lake, in the dark, the moon seemed huge.