After Wanda was cleared to travel, we hit the highway. In this case it was the Trail of the Mountain Spirit National Scenic Byway, a looping road through the Gila National Forest in the rugged Pinos Altos Range.

A sharp painful achy heart that reached up Wanda’s neck and shallow breathing woke Wanda up at 6 am. She was scared, and her fear was contagious. We jumped in the car and tore off for the closest emergency room. This turned out to be the Gila Emergency Hospital, 30 miles away in Silver City.

After sticking her with needles, tubes, diaphragms, x-rays, EKGs, taking about a gallon of blood, and pumping her up with fluids, it was determined that she was suffering from extreme dehydration complicated, perhaps, by elevation sickness.

She still has the heart and lungs of a teenager. Her blood pressure and pulse barely cracks a sweat. She had no signs of a heart incident. Her pain broke around 10 am. After $100,000 of care, we find out that she needs to drink more water. Whew, it looks like I will enjoy my Wanda for a bit longer.

According to the doctor, it isn’t uncommon for flat landers to come out West to the mountains and develop symptoms of elevation sickness. Silver City was at 5,700’. Our last hike, for instance, according Gaia GPS, started at 5,600’ and we went up to 6,700’. Today, we hit 7,800’ on our drive. This isn’t Pike’s Peak territory (14,000’), but pilots are supposed to use supplemental oxygen at 7,000’.

They gave her a relaxant, which pretty much put her to sleep for most of the day. Still, we drove the Trail of the Mountain Spirits National Scenic Byway (where do they come up with these long names?) that loops through the spectacular Gila National Forest. One northern spur culminates at the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument. Wanda dozed in the van while I hiked the mile long trail up to the ruins of the cliff dwellings.

Unlike so many drippy wet caves, these were desert bone dry. They looked rather comfortable and the view wasn’t anything to sneeze at.

I know that we will probably be seeing lots of cliff dwellings coming up, but these were my first authentic Native American examples of cave living.

Up near the Cliff Dwellings we saw a stream of back packers like a line of ants going after a treat. I inquired about them and found out that they were through-hikers on the Continental Divide Trail. This is the longest trail in America. It starts on the Mexican border and snakes its way to Canada. It takes about 6 months to complete. I would have expected a handful of hardy hikers to attempt the trip, but not this steady stream of hikers - amazing. I wonder how many make the whole trip?

I could live in these caves. One could really fix them up to be very comfortable.

The Gila River that flows below the Cliff Dwellings.

There was a camping section for equestrians and their horses to stay and explore the many trails near the Cliff Dwellings.

We saw desert mountains, alpine mountains, scrub-bush mountains, canyon-laced mountains, bare mountains, and thickly forested mountains - quite the variety of ecosystems in such a compact area. We also saw volcano remnants from 60 million years ago. And we saw the biggest open pit copper mine I have ever seen, and we witnessed the big pit at Butte Montana. The oddest thing was the dirt, left after the ore was extracted, was literally piled as high as a mountain. This was the Chino Mine and I have to do a little research on it if we ever get a phone signal again.

The narrow road, with its 180º switchbacks, steep grades, cliff drop offs, no shoulder, and no guardrails was a real white knuckler. Yet, I saw one 35’ class A bus-type RV towing a a car clawing its way up the road. How he made those switchback turns is beyond me.

Silver City’s downtown was a colorful walk with lots of great murals and old western buildings.

Back at camp, my inspection found no water leaks - keeping the fingers crossed. I also wanted to state that our 200 watt roof mounted solar panels have performed better than expected. With all the sun we have received, our batteries have been topped off every day. In fact the solar charger has been mostly just idling, that is running in the float mode, or nearly a trickle because the batteries are full. There are three charging modes: 1) Bulk. This is full charging for when the batteries are down. 2) Absorbtion. The charging slows down as the batteries are very near full. To squeeze the last bit of charge into the batteries requires a slow charge. 3) Float. Basically, just a trickle here and there.

Dave and Wanda

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