Late Summer and Open Roads of the Gila

After our last trip, I first had to repair the grey water tank.  That proved to be a fairly easy task using a prepared fiberglass patch kit.  The epoxy was a true "5 minute" epoxy.  If you get caught with a sloppy job after 5 minutes, you have a sloppy job forever.  Oh well, the next task was to fabricate a shield and, fortunately the patch was totally covered.


Grey Water Tank Shield



 On Monday, Sept. 17 we packed the Mercury with food, clothes, and bikes for a 2 day trip to the northern extremes of the Gila National Forest. 

This area is in Catron County, New Mexico.  This county is New Mexico's largest with the least population of any NM county.  We discovered that the population had temporarily doubled with hunters out for Elk bow hunt season. 

Our first camp was Apache Creek.  At the intersection of NM 12 and NM 32 it would give us 2 days worth of road rides on very lightly traveled roads.  Unfortunately it was populated with hunters in their RV's who ran generators all night in order to run their heaters.

 NM 12 was a gentle climb of about 1000 feet over 25 miles.  We passed through old Spanish settlements like Aergon and whimsically named places such as Old Horse Springs.

 The road surface was smooth, the winds were light, and the temperatures were in the 70's; perfect road biking conditions.

 

On our second day, we climbed over 2000 feet up NM 32 turning around at Jewet Gap for a speedy decent back to our hunter's camp.  Being highly mobile and having completed our designated rides, we loaded up and moved to a spot near the Continental Divide off of NM 12.

Jackie relaxing at a camp on the Continental Divide along NM 12

We set up a sweet camp here and spent a quiet night sleeping with the rear doors open.  After breakfast on Thursday, we made it home before noon.

So, as it stands now we have driven 3600 miles, spent 15 nights on the road and averaged 18.5 miles per gallon.  We are just begining to learn how to use our motorhome and know that we will have many more advenures.