Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Air Pressure Gauge?

Seems like we should take a collection and buy Aaron a air pressure gauge. The current strategy doesn't seem to be working - at least in New Mexico. I bet he is going to be happy to leave the "Land of Enchantment."

Monday, June 29, 2009

Day77

Miles 38.36 Total for trip 2975.55
Avg spd 7.95
Max spd 29.08
Climb 1183
Alt chng ++13

This morning was a sad day. I have had the same tube in my BOB trailer since I bought it about 4 yrs and 5000 miles ago. The tube had a slow leak. Every couple weeks it would be flat when I woke up. I would pump it up and it would be fine. This morning it would not hold any air so I had to change it. I put a new tube in it and pumped it up. I got to a mini mart after about 10 miles today and changed my rear tire, since it has had a slow leak for the last few days. I used the air machine at the mini mart to get a good fill on my rear tire and the BOB tire. I was around 3 miles from the mini mart when I heard a loud pop. Sure enough my BOB tire blew, and no I did not have another spare tube. I tried to fix the tube, but it would not hold air. I call the picture above, Wool Sock in BOB Tube. I cut up a couple wool socks that I have not used for over a month and taped them into the tube so at least the rim would stay of the ground. The next 20 miles to Cuba NM I learned that a flat tire on a BOB really slows you down. I was worried that the big city of Cuba would not have anywhere to get a 16" tube. Cuba only has 600 population. True Value came through for me and I got 2 tubes. I put on a new tire(I have been carrying it since leaving Boise) and tube. Wow what a difference.

I had planned on getting about 10 miles out of Cuba, but there is a Rainbow Gathering in the forest around Cuba so I thought I would just stay in town and get a good rest.
Happy 4th of July to everyone. It looks like I will be in Hopewell Lake NM on the 4th.

Day 76

Miles 80.80 Total for trip 2936.59
Avg 8.81
Max spd 34.42
Climb 3299
Alt chng ++577 The picture above is from my campsite for the night. The cool thing about the campsite(along the side of hwy 509) is that after I was there for about 30 minutes I heard a car stop a little down the road. I was waiting for someone to come tell me I could not stay there for the night, but was surprised by a nice sound. The person that stopped there started playing a flute. They played for about 15 minutes during the sunset. It was a great sunset.
The Great Divide Race started on June 12th in Rooseville, MT. I went by Kurt around 2pm about 40 miles out of Grants. We talked, I marveled at his lack of gear. The racers cannot get any help along the route. I don't think he had more then a couple quarts of water on his bike. He said there is a fine line of taking too little gear and the speed they can go with little gear. He told me about a tandem that was a couple hours back. I thought it would be tough to do the race on a tandem so I got a picture of them as they went by. Another racer was going by a house with a few dogs out and I heard him yelling at the dogs. As he went by I asked if the dogs were nice? He said they tried to bite him. I was in a strong head wind and knew I could not out run the dogs so I went into stealth mode and was by the house before they even saw me. Sweet.

I was riding into this storm. I had a strong headwind for around 11 miles and was not looking forward to setting up camp in a storm. The low system that I heard about a couple days ago must have come through, because the cloud broke up and I set up camp in blue sky. Looking forward to getting to Cuba tomorrow.


Day 75

Didn't do a whole lot. I picked up a couple cheap seats from Walmart. Watched Wimbledon and went to an Chinese Buffet.

Friday, June 26, 2009

Day 73 & 74

Miles 70 (this is a guess since my speedometer does not work with mud caked on it) total for trip 2855.39 Where do I begin. Lets begin with the cool scenery from above. I was going toward this peak all of day 73. Most of the day it was sunny behind the peak, but the closer I got the more cloudy it became.
Lets start from the end. The picture above is of my seat at the end of day 74. This is after about 35 miles of riding on the seat. I road the flat and downhill sections and walked the uphill sections of today's travels back to Grants NM.

The upper pic is before a much needed bath. The clay/dirt would not come off with just pooring water on it. The high powered was did a great job. After the was I could shift my front derailleur again. The rear derailleur worked better but still needed some adjusting. Just a few more miles to the great town of Grants.


The above picture is the best sight I have seen for around 24 hours. I stopped to filter water on day 73. My water filter had been working great the entire trip. I pull it out put it in some sad looking water and start filtering. Nothing happened. I took the water filter apart and still nothing happened. I had to take my water bag off of my trailer to filter the water into. Without a working filter I could not get any drinkable water. I was frustrated and forgot to get to my water bag I had to take my GPS off of the bungee cord. So after I left the water spot the GPS fell of my trailer without my knowing. So the GPS unit kept on beeping ok for the next 20 hours or so from the same location.(I found the GPS unit on my way back to Grants NM, yippee)




The above picture is made possible by a wreck. This wreck happened after about 10 minutes of heavy rain and hail. I was about 10 miles from my lost GPS unit (I did not yet know it was lost) and the rain and hail caused the clay I was riding on to be very slippery. I saw a group of large rocks that would be ok to stay for the night. I turned my front tire a small amount and the top .5 inches of clay slid from under my front tire. I did not have a chance to correct so I hit the deck. My seat, yes my seat again broke, my front bag bent but did not break, and my trailer clips bent so I could not unhitch my trailer to fix the flat rear tire I had. I looked at the damage and saw that I had lost my GPS unit so I looked for it around the area that I wrecked. I could not find it and thought it was lost, but as luck would have it I found it later on day 74. I was trying to fix my seat, in the middle of a thunder storm, mud from head to toe, trying to figure out what to do when I decided to try to get back to Grants NM. There was an abandoned house about a mile back I decided to sleep in. I fixed the seat as well as I could to try to get back to Grants and I tried to fix the water filter, but the filter still did not work. I made it to Grants about 5 hours earlier then I though I would and got a hotel room. I will get a couple seats at Walmart and try to fix the derailleurs myself. I am looking forward to a great sleep tonight and plan to spend another night in Grants. I will be taking an alternative route to Cuba NM on all pavement.









Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Day 72

Miles 33.41 Total for trip 2785.39
Avg spd 9.82
Max spd 34.42
Climb 1483
Alt chng ++442

The top picture is the mountain range on the way into Grants NM. The bottom picture is a couple trees that were right above my campsite.


Today I was getting my food pickup at USPS in Grants and I would be stopping in at Mcdonalds. The ride today from my campsite to Grants was flat so I averaged around 14.5 MPH. The remainder of the ride to the Coal Mine Campgrounds will be all uphill, but is only around 10 miles away. Grants seems like a nice small town. I found internet at a little computer store since the library would not allow any uploading of pictures.

My next 10-12 days are in some unpopulated areas so it will be a while before my next update.


Debbie it is great to hear you all had a good time in Seattle.

Love you all Aaron

Day 71

Miles 52.2 Total for trip 2752.38
Avg spd 11.82
Max spd 30.95
Climb 1084
Alt chng --787 Great rainbow last night after it rained for a few minutes.

Awesome scenery considering it was an alternate.

There were 2 pie restaurants in Pietown so I had to finish my duty this morning and hit the second one for breakfast. I had a sensible breakfast of ham and eggs with key lime pie for dessert. All three pieces (pecan oat, coconut cream, and key lime) were great.

Today the ride looked like it would be fairly flat so I planned on doing more then the 28 miles the book had planned for me. I got the first 28 miles done and took a break at the campsite, which turned out to be just a flat area. I was going to try to make it about 30 more miles today. I was trying to outrun a couple rain clouds, but they were gaining on me throughout the day. At the end of the dirt road I had the option of taking the Chain of Craters Backcountry Byway, which specifically says may be impassible when wet, or I could take hwy 117 that did not seem to have much traffic. It seemed like I was going to get rained on either way so I decided that rain and pavement mixed better then rain and clay. The scenery on the 117 was great so I was happy with my decision to take the alternate and it was 18 miles shorter to Grants so I could get into town early and take care of some things. I found a great BLM campsit about 20 miles out of Grants. I meet some guys who did the Great Divide Ride a couple years ago and said they had a great time. They were on their way to ride 3 weeks through Colorado.

Day 70

Miles 32.98 Total for trip 2700.18
spd 7.91
Max spd
30.08
Climb 1978
Alt chng --29
Top picture is where I stayed the night in Pietown. It is known as the Toaster House, because it has a lot of toasters hanging up around it. The bottom pic is of Nita & Don who are the keepers of the Toaster House. Nita raised 5 kids in the house and now it is unlocked for hikers and bikers of the Continental Divide.


This morning I was hungry, but knew there was a nice campsite 3 miles away so I would stop there and fix a good breakfast. As I was riding the 3 miles to the campsite I thought about how long it would have taken me last night compared to this morning. I figured if I could have made it last night it would have been at least 1.5 hours. This morning took me 25 mins. The campsite had nice picnic tables so I ate a good breakfast and read for a little while.

Today I was going to get back on pace with my book so I would be stopping in Pie Town. I have read many stories about the Pie-o-neer restaurant and was looking forward to trying out their pie. I had a grilled chile, tomato, cheese sandwich for the appetizer and decided to get the pecan oat pie with ice cream. Both were great. I planned on staying at the city park in town, but when the owner of Pie-o-neer heard I was on the Divide ride she told me about a Hostel in town, and she gave me another piece of pie. The Hostel is great. It is a house where Nina raised 5 kids. No one has lived in it on a regular basis since 1981 and now it is always unlocked. Any hiker or biker can stay the night. The freezer is stocked with food you can wash your clothes and get a shower. I had a relaxing evening in the house reading, catching up on my nightly entries, and mapping out my next couple days.



Day 69

Miles 67.76 Total for trip 2667.20
Avg spd 7.63
Max spd 28.64
Climb 3465
Alt chng ++793
This morning I decided to try to get back on track as far as my book goes so I needed to go around 70 miles. The map showed a lot of flat land today so I thought I would give it a try. I started out low on water this morning and my only hope for many miles was a fireman's work center called Beaverhead about 6 miles from camp. I left fairly early and was afraid everyone would be in bed since it was Sunday. I pulled in to the work center and was happy to see a water sign pointing towards a building and even better I saw a working soda machine. I filled every water container I had then relaxed, had a few diet cokes, and used the payphone to wish Dad a Happy Father's day. I have found in the few days on the Divide Trail to take advantage of every rest stop, picnic table, soda machine because you don't know how long it will be before you see another one.






I was on a gravel road when my trail took me to the 30 which turned out to be a great road. It was a hard clay surface and I was able to pick up some good speed. I was traveling through the O-Bar-O Canyon. The canyon had nice meadows and I saw a couple herds of either mule deer or elk. Both herds ran across the road in front of me no more then 100 feet, it was an awesome sight to see them running along. After one of the herds I saw a lone deer that was running awkwardly and on the other side of the road 2 coyotes ran away after they heard me coming. I might have helped that deer out. I was a little paranoid the next couple miles and looked over my shoulder for the coyotes, but saw no sign of them.

At mile 55 I was getting tired, but my info showed that at mile 60 where the road I was on and Hwy 12 intersected there would be a store and a gas station. I was just hoping that one of them would be open on a Sunday, because I was just about out of water and had not seen any to filter today. I got to the intersection where the store should have been and saw a Bible School. It looked like the store and gas station were no longer. I knocked on the door to see about water and got no answer. While I was standing there with my water bag in hand a truck pulled up and told me I could use the water hose out back just don't forget to latch the gate when I leave. I filled up with water and was on my way. I had about 10 miles to go.

I couldn't make it the last 3 miles. It got to the point were I seemed to be going .1 miles every half hour. I pulled over to take a break and thought that I probably should call it a night even though it was not a very good area to camp. I was even too tired to cook supper. SPAM straight from the can.

Day 68

Miles 35.7 Total for trip 2599.44
Avg spd 5.76
Max spd 25.26
Climb 3933
Alt chng ++193
Great sunset at the nights camp spot.

I got out of the canyon at around 8.30 am and was hoping to see the closed signs gone. No such luck they were still there. I decided to wait around until 12.00 pm to see if they would open the roads today. The first two said they were thinking about opening the road later today, but he did not know when. It was around 11.00 am that I got the go ahead to go through the closure. I was happy I did not want to go back down into the canyon again to get water.

At the top of the first hill I heard a loud noise to my left and I saw a family of wild boar. I wanted to stop and get some pictures, but the male was eyeballing me while the female and piglet crossed the road about 20 feet in front of me. I decided it would be best if I did not stop to get the camera out, I did not want to get a headbutt from the boar.


Today I was going to try and make up for lost time and get around 65 miles, 14 miles from the first day and 51 miles for the second day. I knew after the first 14 miles that there was no way I was going to get 65 miles in. I was a little worried that if the whole Divide was like the first 14 miles of today I might have trouble making it the whole distance. Throughout the day I had tough climbs up and down. Around mile 15 I hit a plateau for around 10 miles and was able to pedal easy. I decided I had enough for the day when I passed a pseudo campground and set up shop.



There were still a couple fires burning. I never did see any firemen, but I did see a fire hose.

I was getting tired of just SPAM and pasta so I tried what Dan suggested and added turkey jerky to the mix. That was just what gourmet night needed, it was delicious.

Day 67

Miles 5.69 Total for trip 2563.74
Avg spd 4.4
Max spd 12.3
Climb 723
Alt chng 00 Not looking good as I approached the closed road.


I woke up later then I have been, because I did not think the road would be open so I was not in a big hurry. I had a great breakfast then packed up and got going. The climb out only took about 40 minutes. I thought it would easily take an hour. I went about a mile down the road until I hit the road closed signs. I stood around for a few minutes to see if a ranger or fire guy would come by with more info. I ran into the lead ranger and he said the road would be open tomorrow. He thought about letting me through, but said I would have to wait until tomorrow.


I went back down the 600 feet and set up camp again. Took a little hike and got a couple books read.


Tomorrow I will do it again and hopefully the road will be open.

Day 66

Miles 38.03 Total for trip 2558.05
Avg spd 8.33
Max spd 34.42
Climb 2635
Alt chng ++938
After a good day off I was looking forward to getting started on the Continental Divide Trail. This route includes 80% on dirt/gravel roads, 10% single track trail, and 10% on paved roads. Today's trail was to be a mix of around 20 miles on paved road and 32 miles on dirt/gravel road.


Picture above is the great Mimbres River, my water supply for 3 days.

Today was going good I was a little worried that riding on dirt roads would take more out of me. I was doing fine on dirt and was able to keep my average speed above 8 mph even with more then 2500 ft of climbing.

In Silver City I read about a couple small fires that were near the trail I was going to be taking. The paper made it sound like the fires would be managed, but allowed to burn out on their own so I was not too worried about them. My mistake. I got to my second dirt road for the day and saw a big sign that said road closed. I read the signs and all the fire info and found that the road was open for a few miles, but was closed before my first scheduled campsite. I talked with a ranger that was posting some information on the board and he told me about a campsite that was before the road closure and was near the Mimbres River. I got to the road called 150A and was going to turn down to check on the campsite. A car was coming from were the road was closed and it turned out to be the head fire guy. I talked with him to see when he thought the road would open and he said there was a lot of pressure to get it opened by Father's Day. It looked like I had a few days wait ahead of me.

I started down road 150A to get to the campsite. The road definitely got worse and looked like it would be going straight down. I went down around 600 feet in a little less then a mile. All I could think of was how tough it was going to be getting out of here in the morning. The great Mimbres River turned out to be just a trickle, but enough to filter some water out of. It was a nice campsite, but I was hopping I would not be staying for 3-4 nights.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Fire!! The cause of the delay

Arron called Dave from Pie Town and revealed the cause for the delay was a fire. The authorities would not let him pass. That was my 38th guess. Now the two other burning questions: 1) Is there Pie in Pie Town? (The answer is apparently yes.) 2) How much SPAM does he have left? (None)

Sunday, June 21, 2009

What was Aaron doing?

OK, so Thursday night (6/18) Arron goes 1.8 miles off his planned path to Mimbres River. The 1.8 miles isn't the big deal. Choosing to go down a 591 feet hill was the interesting part of the story. Why would he go down that be a hill to only have to go up it the next day? But then it only gets weirder. The next day he goes up to a clearing and messes around for a while then goes back down the hill to the river and doesn't move till the next day, 6/20. Watching Spot, his movement between and within the two locations seemed to be strange... like he was looking for something.

It had only been one day since his last break (and how many days off does he really need) so what was he doing?



Friday, June 19, 2009

9,000+ Feet

I noticed that Aaron's ride in a couple of days will take him over 9,000 feet. Luckily the climb starts at 7,000 feet. Below is the profile from where he spent Thursday night (Cooney Road and Forest Road 150) to Grants.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Day 65

Day off.

Today I had some errands to run. I walked to get my last Mcdonald's fix for awhile. After a good breakfast I walked around 1.5 miles to Walmart to get some cheap tent stakes since I broke a few of mine, I also got a tube and more patches.

I went to the Post Office to get the seat that was shipped from Phoenix. Thanks DNA Cycles and Dan. It is nice to have a new seat that is not bent. I will be adjusting this seat more often so I can get more miles out of it.

After reading my book on the divide trail again and looking closer at my maps for the next few hundred miles I have decided to get cable for my bike, another tube, and links for my chain because there are no bike shops for quite awhile.

Enjoying a restful day here in the great Silver City NM.

I will probably be posting less often now that I am on the divide trail since there will be a few days between libraries and wifi locations.

Day 64

Miles 65.10 Total for trip 2520.02
Avg spd 8.73
Max spd38.47
Climb 3014
Alt chng--301
Made it to New Mexico!!!! I had to wear my arm warmers starting out this morning it was nice and cool. They did not last long.

In the picture below you see, what I believe is either seedless watermelon or other kind of melon. I first saw them growing along the hwy into Phoenix, but I only saw 1 plant and did not get a picture. These were growing all along hwy 180 into Silver City.

The motorcycle guy I talked with yesterday passed my again in the morning and again about 1mile outside of Silver City NM. He gave me some directions to get into downtown Silver City.

I found a great RV park in town and plan to spend a day off here while I get ready for the Continental Divide Trail.



Day 63

Miles 48.54 Total for trip 2454.92
Avg spd 6.59
Max spd 37.61
Climb4607
Alt chng 3191
I knew leaving today that I would be lucky to average more then 8 miles per hour. I didn't even manage 7 MPH. I had 2 tough climbs today. The first one was slow and gradual, while the second climb started slow and finished with about a 1000 ft climb in about 3 miles. It was the toughest climb of the trip. I walked close to 2.5 miles of the last 3 miles it was so steep.

During the first climb I talked with a biker. He was on his way into town to get something for his motorcycle. We talked for a little bit and he told me about the happening places in Silver City. He road by me on the way back to his house while I was walking my bike over the though pass. In the picture below you can see the road before it starts the steep cutbacks up the mountain.

The campsite tonight is about .7 miles past the pass of 6295 ft. and is called the Black Jack campgrounds. The mountain is called Big Lue Mountain. Looking forward to a cool night of sleeping at such a high altitude.



Monday, June 15, 2009

SPAM - Continued


I forgot to pass on that Arron's SPAM craving that began with the CCC's introducing the ways of SPAM addiction to Aaron has had serious detrimental effects. (See Day 40 and SPAM vs. CCC) That introduction to a controlled substance forced Aaron, like any addict, to look for his own source. He found that source at a KMART in Santa Barbara (8 cans at less than $2 each). Unfortunately, it appears that, regardless of legality, Phoenix is also a significant source of the meat by-product. He left town with 8 more cans of SPAM (Costco $2.12 each). I can only take solace in the fact that he did concede to selecting the 25% less sodium variety. Love to all...

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Day 62

Miles 61 (speedometer still not working, will try to get working tonight) Total for trip 2406.38 Alt chng ++475
Gila River is somewhere in there. I think it is dry now, but during the spring and monsoon season it is probably going pretty good.




This morning I got up from my great sleeping spot, the concrete picnic table. I got out around 6ish. I got out so early because the info I had told me the road I would be on would be tough. My map said only to take the road if you had a mountain bike or hybrid. I found out shortly after I got started this morning it was a good thing I had a mountain bike, because the road was probably as bad as any I will see on my Great Divide Ride. For all you Dodgeball fans I practiced the 5 D's of Dodgeball: Dodge, Duck, Dip, Dive, and......Dodge to try and save my spokes from breaking. It worked, I had no broken spokes.
I was happy with the ride today. I got through the tough road about an hour quicker then I though I would. I got my first break in the great city of Bylas AZ. I took about a 1 1/2 hour break in great rest area in the city.. I filled up with water before I left the city.
I was almost out of the city when I heard the lovely bark of a dog.(note to readers, I am a dog lover) I saw the dog on the opposite side of the street and thought to myself it would not cross the street to greet or bite me. As I was thinking this another dog, on my side of the road came out of the bushes and by the look in it's eyes I knew I could be in trouble. As the dog on my side came barking at me I noticed the dog on the opposite road was entering the street and chasing me. The only option I had was to ride into Hwy 70 and pedal as fast as possible. Traffic was coming toward me. They were slowing down since they could see I was in a little bit of trouble. I looked over my shoulder as I was trying to outrun the dogs and could see traffic behind me had slowed down to watch the show . I pedalled fast enough to outrun the dogs, but thought to myself I had to get my tent sticks to the front of my bike just in case this happens again.
Tomorrow will be a big climb day. My info shows me that I will cross a pass of 6295 feet.






Day 61

Miles 55 (still have not fixed my speedometer) total for trip 2345.38
Alt chng --993
I passed over the Coolidge dam today. It was a cool dam, the washes were not running but I got a good picture of the flow from the bottom of the dam.


I got out of camp around 7 am this morning to beat the weekend traffic. I am glad I got out so soon, because the shoulder for the climb up was just the white line. It was not too bad since there was not a lot of traffic. I made it to Globe and was making good time until I got a flat. I was hoping this would not be the start of another rash of flats. It looked like the tube split at the seam since I could not find anything in the tire that would cause a leak.
The mountains in the San Carlos Apache Reservation are really neat looking. Tonight my campsite will be near San Carlos Lake and it will be the first time on my trip I will have to use my water filter since the lake store was closed. The filter worked great. Filtered a couple gallons in just a couple minutes. Tonight will be the first night I don't put my tent up. There is not a good place to put it up so I will sleep on top of the concrete picnic table.

This flower was the only thing blooming in my campsite.

Day 60

Miles 42 (speedometer is not working)
Total for trip 2290.38 Alt chng ++2384



After 2 days off I was looking forward to get back on the road. I got started right from the bike shop where my bike got a tuneup and some new tires. I left Mesa around 10.45 and was anticipating some big climbs today. Once you get out of the big city of Phoenix and the surrounding cities Arizona is pretty desolate. There was nothing between Apache Junction and Superior, around 26 miles. I went through a couple hundred foot tunnel today called the Queen Creek Tunnel. It was in the middle of a tough climb with not much shoulder. I was going to try to hustle through the tunnel, but I went fairly slow. It was not the funnest thing to do. Riding through the tunnel was stress full. It is very loud and hot inside with no where to go. About 2 miles after the tunnel I found my campsite for the day. It was a USFS campsite that was very nice. It had concrete picnic tables and grass to put up my tent. I had almost the whole campsite to myself. It is probably a popular spot in the fall and winter.




Friday, June 12, 2009

Aaron Riding Out of the Valley of the Sun

Here is Aaron loaded for a trek across the desert - the temps were only in the low 90's today.



Action Photo...

Superstition Mountains in the background.

Short Video

Yes this is poor video production. But Aaron is like one of those ivory billed woodpeckers...very elusive. This is outside DNA cycles in Mesa after his bike was overhauled. And yes, I'm not sure if Aaron knew which way he was going. That could explain some of the strange directions we see him heading via SPOT. Have a nice trip Aaron....

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Day 58 & 59

A couple of much needed days off.

On the agenda:

Movie
Relax
Eat
Shower
Laundry
Relax
Movie

Day 57

Miles 47 (estimate my bike is in the shop) Total for trip 2248.38


I woke up today refreshed and looking forward to getting into Phoenix. I took another look at my tire and found a piece of glass in it. It was small enough that I couldn't feel it inside the tire and it was white so I could barely see it. I put in the tube that I patched last night so the glue was surely dry. I had around 10 more miles of the uphill to go and hoped that this tube lasted through the day.

Today was good I felt better then I did yesterday and the tube seemed to be doing it's job. I got to Wickenburg by 9 am so had plenty of time to get to Phoenix. I will have to say Wickenburg had some rough roads. At around mile 18 for the day my tube blew out. The valve stem blew and no patch was going to fix it. I had to pull out my slow leak tube that I have been saving for an emergency. I put the tube in knowing I would have to stop ever 6-8 miles and pump it up. The tube worked good for about 30 miles until the hole got bigger or a new leak started. I was walking for a while, when Dan called me and offered a ride to take my bike into a shop to get a tune up. I said that sounds like the best idea of the day. We took it into the shop to have it overhauled for the next leg of my trip.

Day 56

Miles 53.73 Total for trip 2201.38
Avg spd 7.90
Max spd 18.22
Climb 1431
Alt chng ++1092

How do I begin with today's ride? The good thing about today was that it is still 10 degrees below normal.

Today dethroned day 2 as the toughest day. I got out of camp looking forward to a couple miles of slight downhill, but was greeted with a headwind which was with me off and on for the entire day. I probably could have used a day off today, but in the desert with not much going on I decided that sitting in 95 degree heat did not sound like a good day off. I was really struggling today. I made it around 13 miles without a stop and decided on walking for a bit. Today was the day of the long slow hill. I increased my elevation 3-6 feet for every couple hundred feet of riding. This does not sound like much, but with the headwind it kinds of wears you down.

I passed a rider going the opposite direction about 25 miles into the day. We talked for a little bit and he said that at the crest of the road there will be a nice downhill for me. My map showed the hill went another 40 miles so I thought maybe there would be a little downhill before the end of the uphill. Not to be there was no downhill and the crest was around 40 miles away.

It was around mile 49 that things took a turn for the worse. I got my first flat. I pulled off the road and fixed it no big deal. Less then a mile later I got another flat. I found a piece of metal in the tire so thought that would take care of the flats. This one lasted a few miles until it went flat again. Now I am down to having to patch the tubes, the first one didn't last long and the next one did not even make it on the bike before I could hear it going flat. It wasn't the best place to camp for the night, but I decided that I needed to step back and call it a night.

I cooked a great meal of wheat pasta and crushed red pepper and went to bed.

Day 55

Miles 81.10 Total for trip 2147.65
Avg spd 10.74
Max spd 37.56
Climb 2387
Alt chng ++354 Tonight I had the best sunset yet. I was a few miles past Brenda AZ, and after an 80 mile day the sunset was a great reward.

I got out of my campsite early this morning to get a couple hours of riding in before the weather got too hot. The temp was nice around 70 to start the day. I had planed riding around 55-60 miles today but decided to go farther since I was on I-10 and could not camp along the side of the highway. I am glad I went farther because once I got out of Quartzsite AZ I got a decent downhill and found a great spot along hwy 60. I have been really lucky on the weather knock on wood.



Day 54

Miles 65.69 Total for trip 2166.55
Avg spd 12.02
Max spd 38.63
Climb 1854
Alt chng ++1010
I had a great night camping in the Midway Mountains. It cooled down to around 65 so I had a good nights sleep. In the picture above you can see the full moon I had for the night.

I left the hotel around 9.30ish and turned the wrong way. The tailwind made me do it. I realized my error only after around 1/2 mile and turned around into the wind and got back on track. I had a side/headwind for the first 14 miles until I turned into Brawley. At Brawley I filled up on water since there would be no towns for around 80 miles. The only store in the 80 miles was in Glamis. I got there around 2 pm, picked up a snack and then the store closed. It was a nice rest stop. The store had around 20 tables all under the shade and it was only around 90. It was located in the North Algodones Dunes Wilderness Area so I think summer is the slow time of the year. I have lucked out on the weather so far, it is around 10-15 degrees below normal. Hopefully the cool temps will hold up until Phoenix.

Friday, June 5, 2009

Day 53

Miles 66.50 Total for trip 2001.86
Avg 14.23
Max spd 39.63
Climb 1951
Alt Chng --3250 The above picture is of the boarder fence. There were Boarder Patrol vehicles for many miles from Pine Valley to Seeley.
Today was awesome I had a 1000 foot climb out of camp. I was able to make it most of the way, but sometimes you just have to get off and walk. I passed the above elev pic after the 1000 foot climb. Waking up this morning I noted how cool it was. I had to wear my jacket for the first time in a couple weeks. In Jacumba I heard someone say it feels like winter. I guess I lucked out as far as the heat goes for the day. I went from 3890 ft and cold to 50 ft below sea level and hot in about 2.5 hours on a bicycle, pretty sweet.

I thought it had been more then a month since my last hotel, in El Centro I saw a special of only $40 bucks so I thought a hotel room sounded good for the night. Another great day.