Friday April 10, 2015

Now I know why, I enjoy cycling. There were so many times today when if we were cycling we would have stopped to take photos, but because we were in the car we couldn’t stop at our leisure and take photos. Some of the photos were taking from the window of the moving car.

We saw this smoke and were a little concerned, but there was a sign that said it was a controlled burn.

We stopped in Flagstaff for a couple of hours and had a wander around. It is a nice Town, with lots of outdoor stores, restaurants, and shops.  It has some nice historic buildings and an historic walk you can follow.

I finally bought a Buff – it is pink and I like it. A buff is a tube of fabric, which can be used in numerous ways – a scarf, a balaclava, face mask, hat, beanie and sun-neck protector etc.

We were quite surprised by the temperature change from Phoenix/Tempe to Flagstaff, it is cooler and the nightime temperature may drop down to zero degrees, which is why we decided not to camp. We drove to Tusayan and checked into the cheapest motel, but it is still expensive. I often think we are being taken advantage of, as foreign tourists. Janet and Stephen would often be staying in the same motels as us, but paying less. I was hoping to be able to update the blog tonight, but the internet is so slow here, it is impossible.

We bought the Park Pass and will try to get up early to see the sunrise over the canyon.

Thursday April 9, 2015

There was a climb out of Superior of about 350 metres. The road was much better and had a good shoulder. Why the road yesterday wasn’t this safe, I have no idea.

When we had reached the top of the hill, we had a great downhill all the way to Apache Junction. The tail-wind was awesome.  I love these giant cactus, they can grow up to 70 feet tall.

We cycled into Apache Junction and stopped to take some photos of the Lost Dutchman sculpture. There is a legend that this Dutchman (who was actually German – Deutschman) had a gold mine which produced copious amounts of gold. On his death he left a riddle “There is a great stone face looking up at my mine. If you pass three red hills you’ve gone too far. The rays of the setting sun shine on my gold. Climb above my mine and you can see Weaver’s Needle.”

We arrived in the City of Mesa, which is the epitome of urban sprawl. However, Mesa has a great cycling infrastructure.

There were dedicated cycling lanes, and rest stops for cyclists.

Apache Junction, Mesa and Tempe all merged into each other. We got totally turned around in Mesa/Tempe. We were both hot and getting frustrated, then a road angel appeared in the shape of Steve. He owned a car dealership and came out of his office, he asked if we needed help. We told him where we were trying to get to (our warmshowers host). He bought us into his cool office and printed us some maps, gave us his opinion as a cyclist which road was the best and safest way to go. Thanks Steve.

With the maps and garmin we found our hosts house. Although our host told us she wouldn’t be home until after 7:15 pm, she was at the house when we arrived. Christine let us in and we settled in while she had to go to a class. Christine is taking her masters degree in speech pathology. Her sister Margaret was home, and we chatted to her for a while. Ralf went to the local grocery store, but couldn’t find anything he fancied cooking for dinner. We went out to a local restaurant for dinner, it was really good.

We went back to Christine’s house and chatted about her trip that she plans to take this summer – the Pacific Coast Ride – north to south. She mentioned a friend who was from Germany and who is studying for her master’s degree studying touring cycling. Both Ralf and I instantly recognized Franscesca who we had met last year in France. Christine had a photo of her, and texted her, we are going to try and get to meet her when we get back from the Grand Canyon.  Amazing coincidence

Wednesday April 8, 2015

A short riding day but a tough ride. First we had a hill to climb, it was 23 kilometres long and the height was 1,402 metres (4,600 feet) add to the hill the constant headwind and the dreadful condition of the road, little to no shoulder and again cars that gave us no room.

We passed through Miami, AZ and noticed these cows on a very steep slope, the slope was next to a mining operation.

Although Miami is a mining Town, they did try to beautify the streetscape with some flowers, or did they just let them grow wild?

Once we reached the top of the hill the descent was hair-raising, again little to no shoulder, when there was a shoulder it was full of debris.

To top it all we had to go through a tunnel. Cyclists hate tunnels, car drivers do not expect to see cyclists in tunnels. We had our lights on and our fluorescent jackets but still two cars passed us in the tunnel. What is their hurry in Arizona?

We arrived in Superior and visited the downtown, it reminded me of the photos I have seen of Northern Ontario Towns, a little run-down.

Superior has some great planters (real beautification of the street) with cactus in them.

We had a great lunch in the local café/bar, then decided to get our hair cut. Ralf went for a really short cut, I tried to get the hairdresser to cut mine really short, but she didn’t cut enough of the first time, so I told her I needed it shorter. She said it would look shorter when I blow-dry it. I reminded her I was on a bike tour and didn’t carry a blow-dryer with me. She seemed shocked at that revelation, but she did take another half inch off. Ralf said “I see you left your helmet on for the hair cut”! It is a little square!

We found our warmshowers host in Superior and settled in to an Airstream trailer.

They have three dogs, two corgis and a big old slobbery Newfoundland.

Tomorrow we will be in Tempe (just outside of Phoenix) where we hope to store the bikes for two days. We are going to hire a car and head up to the Grand Canyon. We are so close, we should visit the area.

Tuesday April 7, 2015

Gene-Robert made us pancakes for breakfast, they were so light and fluffy. They had quinoa and rolled oats in them, they definitely kept us going for a while. Joy said she could boil some water for coffee, but didn’t have any coffee to make. Being a Mormon household, coffee, tea or alcohol would not be available. We decided on orange juice.

As we passed one small town I noticed these strange rock formations, that looked like houses were carved into them.

We got a response from a warmshowers host in Globe, so we made the big push to Globe. New Personal Best – distance 130 kms. The headwinds that were forecasted did not materialize, but it was a windy afternoon with some strong gusts.

We met a couple on a tandem riding the four corners of the US (I didn’t realize the US was square). They live in New Hampshire and cycled down to the Florida Keys, now they are cycling to San Diego then up the Pacific Coast and back to Maine and New Hampshire.

Today was a long ride, and the road was awful. The shoulders were bumpy and grass was growing on some sections of the shoulder, to make matters worse the car drivers didn’t give us any room at all.

However, today we saw our first big Arizona Cactus.

The skies and scenery were beautiful.

Considering the distance we have cycled in the US, the Arizona drivers have to be the most inconsiderate we have come across in the US. They drive fast and do not share the road.

We arrived at our warmshowers host at around 4:30 and after settling in we chatted to Larry. Larry and Sue took us to a Mexican restaurant for dinner and then we had homemade blueberry ice-cream for dessert.

We were both tired and were in bed by 9:00pm.

Monday April 6, 2015

It was a chilly night in Arizona. I woke up a couple of times and thought I really should be warmer the high for today was about 28 degrees C. I hadn’t realized that the temperature could change so much from day time to night time.

The sun was up at 6:00, but didn’t really warm up until 7:00 so that is what time we got out of the tent.

At the Rangers Station there was a notice telling us that the sprinklers may come on at 6:00 am and 6:00 pm. They didn’t come on at 6:00 pm, however, we found where the sprinkler heads were and Ralf put a plastic water jug over the two closest to the tent and a rock over the third sprinkler.

At 7:00 am the sprinklers came on. It looked as though the water was going to push the jugs of the heads and we had to race around to put rocks over the plastic water jugs to make sure the tent didn’t get wet. It must have looked quite comical.

Fortunately, the tent didn’t get wet and we were able to pack it away dry. We were on the road by 8:15 am.

My legs hardly had time to warm up before we were heading up the hill out of Three Way!

We climbed 393 metres in 30 minutes. I just kept spinning away, slow but sure and we crested the hill and we were heading downhill all the way towards Safford.

We chatted to a touring cyclist who had started in California and was heading to New Mexico (Las Cruces). His wife didn’t want him to cycle all the way across for the first trip. They compromised and agreed that he could cycle to his daughters in Las Cruces. What a novel way to visit your daughter.

We arrived at our warmshowers host at just after noon. Mons is our warmshowers host, he was working but his Mom (Joy) was home she gave us some fixings for sandwiches and then left to go in to Safford. We showered and did a load of laundry. After Joy returned we chatted to her for a while. Then she had to go back to Safford, Ralf went with her and I got the blog updated.

I chatted to Gene Robert (Mons’ father) whose expertise is in finding water. He has worked all over the world building wells in poor countries. He volunteered his time as a missionary for the Mormon church. He was a lovely man to talk to. Joy and Gene-Robert have been married for 65 years, they met at high school. Gene-Robert is 85 years old and sits on the local Energy Board, he was working up the mountain when we arrived. There was still snow on the top, we thought it was some type of mining activity.

I hope Ralf and I are that active and sharp as this couple are when we are 85.

Stinky the dog, decided that my clean cycling shorts that were hanging on the washing line were a fun thing to play with. He managed to get them of the line and was pouncing on them and tossing them around the back yard. At first, we didn’t know what he was playing with, then I realized it was my clean shorts. I had to wash them again, big daft dog.

Mons arrived home from work, we helped make dinner together and had a nice meal and a chat about hosting. Ralf helped Mons load some computers for a race that Mons is the director of and dropped them off at his work. Mons\’ then treated us to a nice DQ blizzard. We had an early night.

Trying to decide whether to make the big push to Globe or stop halfway at Bylas.

Sunday April 5, 2015

We were awake at 7:00 this morning and got ready to leave. It was a little chilly, Ralf wore his hat and leggings and I had to put another jacket on over my wind breaker as it was cool. As soon as the sun came a little higher in the sky it warmed up and by the time we had eaten breakfast, put the tent away it was warmer. We kept our light windbreakers on for about an hour, but it was good cycling temperature.

As we cycled this morning the song that ran through my head was “I can see for miles and miles ….” I sang it for Ralf and he replied with “I can see clearly now the rain has gone”. Later as we cycled into the headwind, the lyrics popped into my head “Against the wind….”

The first part of our ride was undulating, we had a slight headwind but nothing too bad. We made the left turn towards Arizona and had some climbing to do.

Ralf noticed that a roadie was following us and we expected him/her to catch up with us pretty quickly as we were going up and down hills and it was windy. We passed through, Mule Creek – the only thing Mule Creek has is a post office and a little store, blink and you really would miss Mule Creek.

Shortly after Mule Creek we stopped for our hourly break and that is when the roadie caught up with us. “You guys really move” Then she looked at our bikes and her face dropped, “How much weight are you carrying?” We told her and she was most impressed with our strength. She should have seen us two days ago cycling into Silver City she wouldn’t have been that impressed with us.

She told us about the “big drop” and said she wasn’t going to cycle down it today. I asked her how many ks she did on average and she nonchalantly said it depends – 45 miles, 60 miles or a century (100 miles) depends how I feel. Pretty impressive.

We didn’t really know what the big drop was, but we knew when we got to it.

Farewell New Mexico, we didn\’t get a photo of the Welcome to New Mexico when we entered, so we took a photo when we left.

We are in Arizona and what an incredibly beautiful State it is.

We crossed into Arizona and while we were taking photos of the sign, a couple on a motorbike chatted to a Ralf and a lady chatted to me. Divide and conquer, answer all the questions and ask a few in return. Ralf’s motor-bikers were from Vancouver. My lady was from Phoenix and taking the scenic route home. She was asking a lot of questions about the gear as she and a friend were hoping to do a ride this summer. Probably the Pacific Coast ride from north to south.

The “Big Drop” bought us down from about 1,865 metres to 1,110 metres in Three Way. The scenery was awesome. We stopped lots of times to take photos.

I am ahead, while Ralf is taking photos.

The roadside flowers were beautiful. Little yellow buttercups nodding their heads as we cycled past, larger yellow flowers that smiled at us and purple flowers similar to lupins but not as big all welcomed us into Arizona.

We gained an hour again, Arizona does not recognize daylight savings – what a very intelligent state, as soon as we crossed the State line the garmins corrected the time.

As we came into Three Way, both of our heart rate monitors went berserk. We were coming down a hill hardly peddling and Ralf’s HR went up to 192 bpm and mine registered 204 bpm, then I asked Ralf what his was and it was exactly the same as mine for about five minutes riding our heart rates were exactly the same, that is very odd. We arrived in Three Way at about 1:30 and had sandwiches and chocolate milk for lunch.

Why is Three Way called Three Way because there are three roads intersecting here, very simple.

We found our home for the night, which is the front lawn of the ranger station. It has a long drop toilet and a water tap. Very basic, but adequate. Unfortunately, we can see the road we have to take tomorrow – straight up again.

Saturday April 4, 2014

For some unknown reason the iPod alarm went of at 6:15 this morning. Ralf got up and showered and I looked at the clock. It was only 6:15 so Ralf got back into bed for another hours snooze. We had our usual breakfast of oatmeal and yogurt and I went to get the ‘free’ coffee provided by the motel. It was the worst coffee we have had since arriving in the US. It was so weak you could see through it to the bottom of the cup!

We decided to leave the hotel at 10:00 so that we could go to the post office and mail some things back to Canada, all of our electrical connectors that we don’t need are on their way home. It lightened our load only by 3 lbs, but it was worth it.

We left Silver City at about 10:30 and climbed 383 metres up and away from the City to the Continental Divide. We saw a roadie heading down the hill, head down and peddling fast, Ralf had a moment of envy, wishing he was on his Trek Madone and hurtling down the hill and not his Trek 520 fully loaded pushing up the hill.

We got our reward after crossing the Divide it was downhill all the way and a tail-wind. Today we descended 713 metres and hardly peddled for 10 kms. Two personal bests – fastest 40 kms (1 hr 20 mins) and fastest downhill speed (57.46 kph) scary.

On our way to Buckhorn we met Dacks who was from Seattle, he had his head down and peddling hard into the wind. I felt for him. He had some climbing to do as well as battling the head wind.

We arrived in Buckhorn at about 2:30, we found the RV site, it was not difficult as it was on the main road. Not very much in Buckhorn, the RV Site which was behind the post office and some sort of store, it was closed and further down the road the Last Chance Liquor Store which sold beer and pizzas and other hot sandwiches.

After we had set up the tent behind the post office, we had a shower and then relaxed with a couple of beers.

A fella came by at about 4:00 (Walt) we chatted to him for about an hour, shooting the breeze about all sorts of things. His time in the army as a German translator, his other jobs of teacher, care giver, and finally he decided to do something with less stress and worked in a call centre.

He was an interesting old fella, he made us laugh when he told us his dad referred to him as his kid. “I’m 72 Dad I’m not a kid” I think we all know how that feels.

As is usual when we are camping we are in bed and asleep by 9:00.

Friday April 3, 2015

I woke up to a very stiff back. All my muscles were aching going to bed, but this morning my back is hurting. We asked Trish if we could stay another night, but she is having friends to stay the week-end. We decided we would stay in the motel 6 in Silver City, it is cheap and clean. Hopefully, my back will stop aching and we can get going again tomorrow.

We went downtown on the bikes and I had my brakes adjusted at the local bike shop.

We cycled from one end of the downtown to the other and discovered a little bridge crossing a stream. Apparently, this was the main street but due to flooding it is now a creek.

We headed back up the hill to Motel 6. Once we had settled into the motel, I walked down to the laundry and Ralf went to get some more supplies as the next few days have limited services. We will be camping for the next few days.

A lot of people who live in Silver City work at the Copper Mine outside of Town. There is also a UCI designated bicycle road race that runs through this area at the end of April.

Thursday April 2, 2015

We were up and away at first light (7:15 am). We wanted to get Emory Pass under our belts before the wind picked up. We almost managed it but, about 6 kms from the top the winds started to pick up.

The climbs started immediately as we left Hillsboro.

The scenery was stunning and the roads were very quiet at that time in the morning. We crossed over Percha Creek which is a beautiful gorge.

We laughed at the road signs.

We cycled 26 kms climbing all the way to the Emory Pass. (Personal Best – 1,984 m elevation gain). The last 6kms the grade kicked up and we had strong wind gusts I had to get off and walk the bike. I was really annoyed with myself that I couldn’t make it all the way up. I had what I refer to as my “hill tantrums” I am struggling just to turn the pedals and Ralf is effortlessly sailing on ahead of me. It is so frustrating, even after all this time on the bike I cannot cycle up hills. I only had to walk for about 500 metres as the winds died down.

Ralf would stop and take photos as I peddled on.

Ralf cycled up to the View Point at the top of Emory Pass, another 497 metres up – crazy guy.

When we got to the top I was really pleased with myself. However, it didn’t last very long. We crossed over the range and the winds started in earnest. Headwinds and wind gusts of about 35 kph!

After Emory Pass at 2,508 m (8,228 ft), I thought we would have two more small climbs and then downhill all the way to Silver City. That didn’t happen.

We descended to below 1,852m (6,000 ft) and then climbed back over 1,852m three more times. It was cold at the top, so we put on hour windbreakers and at one point put on a second layer as we were shivering coming down the hill.

We met a couple of touring cyclists coming up the other side, we had a brief chat as they were going uphill, although they did have the wind behind them. Then we saw Mike, who was pushing his bike up the hill.

At the 57 k mark somewhere around San Lorenzo I had my next major tantrum, I was exhausted battling against the winds and going up and down hills. I didn’t think we would make our warmshowers place. Then we looked at time and I realized it was only 1:30, although we had been cycling for six hours, we had told our warmshowers host that we would be there between four and five. Four more hours of cycling and more downhill than up hills at this point. We should be able to do that. We did make it by 5:00. A really tough day cycling. Coming into Silver City there were hills and I was getting off at even some of the smaller hills because of the wind gusts.

Just before the City of Silver Hills there is a massive mine, I think even bigger than Waihi in New Zealand.

As we looked at the mine at the view point, we heard the blast.

There is a rock that looks like a kneeling nun praying to a great alter, lots of legends have grown up around the giant monolith, which rests near the summit of the Santa Rita Range.

This is the elevation and topography of today\’s ride!

Our warmshowers host (Trish) gave us a warm greeting. There were two more people staying, a woman from Montreal (Sandra) and Beth-Ann from Virginia. We chatted to them for a while, then had a lovely shower and dinner was served. What more could you ask for at the end of a tough day, great food, good conversation and drinks. A good comfy bed capped the end of a tough day.

Thank you Trish for a wonderful dinner and to the other touring cyclists for dessert.

We were all in bed at around 9:00 pm.

Wednesday April 1, 2015

We left Hatch at about 8:30 and headed out towards Hillsboro. It was a good, fast ride until we made our left turn on to Hwy 152, then we were going into a gentle cross wind. At around the 40 km mark (before we made the left turn) I was thinking that we might even be able to get over the Pass today. The wind was at our back, the legs were feeling good, however, all good things must come to an end. We made the left turn and the road started to rise, gently at first and then more pronounced, the wind changed from a gentle cross-wind to a full on head wind.

The first part of the ride was primarily farmland, not sure what they are growing here. Later we passed one of the largest veal producers I have ever seen. At least, I presume they are veal calves. Little sheds with calf after calf cooped up in it, some of them looked only a few weeks old.

My original route plan was to stop at Lake Caballo, but it was only 36 kms from Hatch, we revised our plan last night to get to Hillsboro, which would leave us a 26 km climb to Emory Pass and then mostly downhill to Silver City.

After we made our left turn on to Hwy 152 the scenery changed to rugged hills.

The hills have been mined in the past for gold and silver. In the 1950’s copper exploration began. In 1982 the Quintana Minerals Corporation established an open pit copper mine, known as the Copper Flat. Over a three month period 7.4 million pounds of copper, 2,306 ounces of gold and 55,955 ounces of silver had been recovered. Rumour has it that the Copper Flat Mine will be reopened next year.

When we arrived in Hillsboro at about 12:30 we spotted the Municipal Campsite. It has a long drop toilet, and a tap. It is free. We cycled to the motel and to the B&B. The motel was $65.00 and the B&B was $90.00. This is an expensive little town. We decided to camp but went to the café for lunch first. We had a nice veggie burger and swiss burger with one portion of fries for lunch and an iced tea each, $20.00 for lunch!

As we were heading back to the municipal campsite we decided we needed a good nights rest due to tomorrows hard ride and opted for the motel!

I asked for a discount for cash, but they said no, they still have to clean the room and put clean sheets etc. We are the only ones in the motel, there is one channel on the TV and no wi-fi. However, we do have a kitchenette and a good shower and it is clean. I chatted with the owners for a while. They cannot find anyone to help them run the motel so have basically given up on it. They do not care if people stay here or not, there is no phone number to call for anyone else who might want to stay the night. The owner told us that Hillsboro County has the highest suicide rate from prescription and non-prescription drugs.

They have closed the adjoining café, barber shop and antique store. I think they would like to sell all of it, but there is no market here. Unless the Copper Flat Mine comes back into operation, which is what everyone is hoping for. They are waiting for the results of an Environmental Assessment, but it is taking its time, as Ted Turner owns a ranch next to the proposed mine.

There is nothing in Hillsboro, no grocery store, no convenience store, lots of other stores that are not open or are for sale. Hillsboro used to be the County Seat back in 1939, with a court house and jail, they are both in ruins.

Now Hillsboro is a pass through town. It’s almost ghost like. I think it could be so much more with the right marketing angle.

After we had settled in, Ralf and I went for a walk around the Town. There are the ruins of the old jail and courthouse, a library and a post office.

We went into the post office to ask about their General Delivery service, as we need to get some maps sent to us in San Diego. Unfortunately, there was no-one working in the post office but the inside was really nice.

The other odd thing about Hillsboro is there is an empty police car sitting at the entrance to the Town. Obviously this is to prevent vehicles speeding through the Town.

The forecast for tomorrow is windy with gusts of up to 45 kph. There is a weather watch in place, which means with the high winds, if there is a fire it will spread quickly. I think if we get started really early, we may be able to get over the Pass before the really strong winds start. Our plan is to get to Silver City a distance of about 90 kms – it is going to be a long hard day.