Notes from Silver City, 17/12/2009

Silver City is the hidden gem of south eastern New Mexico. Surrounded by cattle ranches, fur trappers and large scale copper mining, this cultural oasis nestles between the hills waiting to be discovered.

The small university town has a calm and bohemian atmosphere. There is little traffic on the main streets of old downtown. Bicyclists drift quietly by in unusually large numbers for an inland US city.

Art and crafts seem to be central to ethos of the city. Many of the buildings are brightly coloured, others are decorated with vivid Latin American themed murals.

The businesses in town are mostly art galleries, craft shops, health food shops, farmers markets, coffee shops or little restaurants. There is not a single nationwide branded store or restaurant to be found on the downtown streets. It's was refreshing change to discover a corner of the country yet to become homogenised by the commercial chains which usually dominate.

I am having a rest day before I cross the continental divide for the second time tomorrow.
The locals tell me the views from the Emory Pass View Point are something special on a clear winters day.

I am camped on the lawn of an RV park in the centre of town yet there is less road noise here than some nights when I have wild camped in the desert such is the subdued ambiance of Silver City..

Along with drinking fair trade coffee, eating Mexican food, and a little window shopping, I have spent most of the day conversing with the residents of this trailer park.

This morning a former US marine named Chuck and I spent hours discussing the benefits of the vagabond lifestyle and the pleasures of cycle travel. Chuck has cycled across the USA himself as well as driving his motorbike from the America to Patagonia. Now in retirement, travel is his life.

Chuck's opinion was what guys like me are doing is having our retirement parallel to our working lives, rather than having one then the other. He thought it a wise course of action seeing as the era of jobs for life is gone and the retirement age may well go up by the time our turn comes.

It was a novel angle for me, but I liked it. I hadn't realised that I've been semi-retired all these years!

Another retiree, named Gary, made a point to come and chat this afternoon. He led our conversation through the cultural changes of the 1960s; the English influence on rock and roll; the value in learning foreign languages; Britain and America's roles in the slave trade; the ignorance of the American people to what the government and other powerful organisations are really up to.

Gary was a great guy, a real product of the 1960s. Now verging on becoming an old man his mind remains as open as his heart. He fills the long winter nights playing his guitar or educating himself, finding out what is really going on using his computer to escape the blinkered world of the US media.

These are the kind of people you may meet in Silver City, it's that kind of place. At least it has been for me.

In town Louis had set up his stall in a parking lot on the main drag. He sells locally grown, grass-fed beef, lamb and goat. He rears the cattle himself on the far side of Bear Mountain.

Louis explained his take on the juniper trees on his land. He told me they are very thirsty plants. Cattle won't eat the saplings so each year there are more and more. He told me of the many dry creeks that run through the valleys, most were full decades ago when there were less trees on the hillsides.

Apparently it is getting harder to rear cattle on the land these days. As the number of trees grows and grow so do the tensions between people over water rights. Bear Mountain got it's name because it was just that, not anymore apparently.

Fires used to sweep the lands from time to time, burning off all the vegetation. However since a devastating fire up in Iowa a few years ago, fires are no longer allowed to take hold. These fires would make the land completely unproductive for 5 or 6 years but they did prevent the forestation of the grasslands. It had been that way for 500 years or more.

Trees are generally viewed as climate heroes nowadays, they capture carbon and provide a wildlife habitat. It was interesting to hear the flip side of increasing tree numbers in these arid highlands.

Less local beef production means more food transportation, which in turn means more carbon emissions. Less local water available to the settlements here will ultimately result in the expenditure of more energy to pump water here from far away, as they do in Southern California.

Being a farmer it is worth bearing in mind Louis personal financial interest in the issue of the trees. Nevertheless does illustrate the complex balancing act of managing our natural to meet the need and wants of so many people.

I has been a thought provoking time in Silver City, but now it's time for calorie loading before tomorrows big push for the summit.

Wish me luck!