Silver City: Day 6

We were able to leave the alluring trap of Silver City today around 2 pm or so. We took care of all of the necessary errands in the morning. I started my errands with a black cup of joe at the local Javalina and accompanied my caffeine with some homemade walnut and cranberry bread with peanut butter and honey. Quite delicious. Javalina also proved to be an excellent place to use the internet and catch up on the world. Things seem to be rather status quo and the world hasn"t blown up yet, so I guess I'll stay out in the woods after all. Next I made rounds at the co-op to get some calories, the hardware store to gt stove fuel, and the campground office to get cake. Very successful adventures. Before rolling out, we hit up this sweet local mexican burrito place called Don Fedecino's- it was off the chain. Then we said our goodbyes to the boys at Gila Hike and Bike - they helped us out a lot and we certainly appreciate it. Then we hit the proverbial road. The first 30 miles went super fast due to the massive tail wind. We passed a horrific mine, a great example of land rape. Then we rolled into Mimbres for a few snackies and pushed on another 15 miles. Once we got onto the gravel/dirt road, the hardest climbing of the trip began. It was amazing. Climbing up to 8000 feet from 6000 over the coure of 7-8 milesa or so. Uncus, the single speed beast handled it great. But I did have some technical problems with the panniers. They seem to simply be falling apart. They started to rip out from the hardware today on the descents. I've been using a ton of bunjee cords to hold them on so they don't end falling on the road. I think I'll be investing in a new pair as soon as I can- probably Ortliebs. Sucks to drop the money and buy another set, but if they're going to fall apart after the first day of real descending, then it doesn't seem like they'll work out. who knows- just have to play it by ear.Dinner tonight was also rockin- i had premade rice with lentils. The bag of lentils alone acounted for 140% of my daily value of fiber- i really hope I don't have some horrific blowout today, but if it happens, it happens. Gotta keep it regular. But my after dinner beverage was quite the failure- I was hoping to make a monster vat of hot chocolate and this bag labeled double chocolate that I mailed myself. Well after boiling the water and dumping in the powder- it turned out to be frickin' coffee. A little disappointing, but now I'll have coffee for the morn. A nice treat.Tomorrow we're going to head out early because this campsite has no water and we're running rather low. The we've got 3 days or so to get to Pie Town, NM. Then it's time to eat some pie! That's the word on the street. Now it's time to go start reading the Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. I acquired the first section from Mark and am rather stoked to read it. It's going to be cold night sleeping around 7500 feet, I love it. Stewie out.