Bisbee is a historic copper mining town. It is now a quaint tourist mecca stuffed with shops, restaraunts, bed and breakfasts, and hotels. It is pretty pricey. The flagship hotel is the Copper Queen, which is the big yellow, red, and green building in the picture.. It starts at $77/night. I'm not staying there.
I'm staying at the Silver King.
The Silver King was once a boarding house for miners. The only change since the mining days is they have painted it
It still has a shared bath, a sink in your room, the original wood floors, doors, and windows. You have to climb up 26 steps to get to it, since the first floor is a thrift shop. $40. Deal.
You drive right by the pit to get to Bisbee. This is a historical pit, but I think they are actively mining out of sight of the road, because there are bigger mountains of rubble than would fit in this pit. This pit is called the Lavender Pit. The mining engineer who figured out how to profitably process the local ore was named Lavender, so they named the pit after him.
There is a grocery store in Rodeo which serves breakfast. I packed up my tent in the cold this morning and rode over there right after dawn. They told me it was 21 degrees outside. I did OK in that. I wore a hat to bed and put my shell over my head, and I was just fine while sleeping. The only uncomfortable part was getting out of bed and packing up. Once you are moving around, you warm right up. A fire would have been really nice.
I crossed into Arizona a couple miles outside of Rodeo. It was 50 miles to the next town, Douglas, and it was very flat so I made great time. I had lunch in Douglas at the restaraunt in the Gadsen Hotel, which is the fancy historic hotel in Douglas. Douglas is right on the Mexican border. I wound up riding alongside the border for a mile or so.
It's interesting to note that the houses and businesses are much nicer on the Mexican side.
After Douglas, it is a 25 mile climb to Bisbee. It doesn't get steep until the last 6 miles, and even then it's not very steep. Climbing the hill just gives you more time to look at the pit, which is right next to the road. After I settled in at the Silver King, I walked around town and then had a local microbrew and some ribs at a restaraunt up the street.
It warmed up to about 60 today, and it was great riding after about 9:00 or so. It was sunny, little wind, and beautiful desert and mountains for scenery. Here is the route.
