This adventure started out with fairly low expectations. The goal was to pair down my luggage from 80 lb to 50 or 60 lbs. If I was only heading out for 2 or 3 days then I wouldn't need a change of clothes for each day. Just extra socks and shorts. I knew I could get by with less and save some weight. Managing the motorcycle off-road it depends on being able to overcome the top heavy bias of the luggage.
The North Face duffel was too much. Gone now are the camping pillow some cookware, and winter clothing.
I set out east from Bisbee and in Douglas I chose to go east on 15th Street which eventually turns into The Geronimo Trail. It's a combination of dirt and rocks and gravel that runs along the US border with Mexico and then veers North somewhat to intersect with Highway 11. That's more dirt road that takes you to a town called Animus, New Mexico. It's about 70 miles at approximately 20 miles per hour.
In Animas, I headed east on paved State road 9. This road runs parallel with I-10 40 miles to the north. I stopped in a cheetah New Mexico at a small filling station that had homemade burritos from Irma's Restaurant 40 miles E in Columbus New Mexico. The most unique thing about this fuel stop was meeting others on their own adventures. Two young emergency room MDs were bicycling south from Silver City on the Continental Divide road. There was another gentleman I met there who'd been hiking for 6 years, he said. He was young and told me that his new shoes were troubling him, and he was seeking a ride to Lordsburg to pick up a different pair. The doctors described the Continental Divide road as navigable by motorcycle as well as bicycle, and having done a little research about this trail, I noted the waypoints they relayed, and decided that would be my adventure for the next couple of days.
That night I traveled out to the state park in columbus, spent the night and then had a breakfast at Irma's restaurant. Her burritos from the night before were delicious, but I was paying the price of the hot spices. I headed for the first waypoint I noted from the night before and found myself on a wonderfully meandering dirt road headed north toward silver city.
