Hey Everyone:

Thanks for all the great ideas & suggestions!  I'm going to map several of them.  There's no problem waiting for snow to clear - it's a birthday year goal rather than a birthday day activity.

Rides in New Mexico, Arizona & Colorado are all close enough for "drop of the hat" scheduling.  Heidi and I usually travel to Oregon via eastern California / Western Nevada every year or so - thus the Inyo &White Mountains / Death Valley / East side Sierra Nevada possibilities are easy to plan.

I've driven up Silver Canyon several times and down a couple more - as Gordon mentioned there would be a lot of pushing on that one.  There is another dirt route up into the Whites from Fish Lake Valley in Nevada - Wyman Canyon, which climbs about the same gain as Silver Canyon but over a greater distance so the steep pitches aren't as long as in Silver.  Plus much more of the Wyman Canyon route is along a stream and it faces ENE rather than W so it doesn't get as hot as Silver.  If we go that way this year I'll probably give that a try.

Beginning to look like I'll do more than one of these....

Thanks again,

Howard