Day 5 - Bisbee!

Welcome to Arizona!

Today we took the 80 mile option :). We left with the group and rode to Bisbee. Bisbee seems to be like the Topanga of Arizona. Cool, funky, hippy town. Lot's of history. But perhaps best of all is the Bisbee Bicycle Brothel. Such an amazing place that we're going to give it its own blogpost.

The cyclocross portion of todays ride - on the descent into Bisbee.

Downtown Bisbee. 

Joel and Mark Gunther at Bisbee Coffee Co. Mark and Joel were roommates on the PacTour Ridge of the Rockies Tour in 2008.

The Bisbee Bicycle Brothel!

After espresso in Bisbee we left the group and set out just the 2 of us for Sierra Vista. It was an adventure to be out on our own, no support vehicles, in an area we didn't know and only 2 miles from the Mexican border. We made good work of it and rode strongly to Sierra Vista where we stopped for lunch at Chipotle, 62 miles into our ride. 

On the way to Sierra Vista.

 After lunch it was just 1 road to take us back to Tombstone, 18 miles away. We found some frozen yogurt (Shuli) and ice cream (Joel) and went back to the hotel. A successful day of 82 miles.

Can you see Tombstone off in the distance?

Where those killed at the OK Corral are buried. But Jewish Memorial?

Day 4 - Back to Tombstone

We rolled out today with temperatures in the low 50s. The high was supposed to be in the high 70s, but it warmed up to 95 degrees.  It's great to have a van to leave the extra clothes in and not have to carry them all day.

We were happy to leave Willcox and head back to Tombstone.  Today's ride was 82 miles with almost no climbing, a welcome change of pace.  The beginning of the ride took us out the same way we rode yesterday - towards the Chiricahua monument - but then we turned off onto a highway called Kansas Settlement for about 20 miles.  The road is straight for as far as the eye can see and appears to end in a pinpoint on the horizon.  The majority of landscape is dirt and scrub with little to draw one's attention other than the mountains in the distance. Boring riding, and flat as a pancake.

Shuli's saddle has been less than comfortable riding this many miles, so at one of the rest stops, she swapped it out for an old school, leather saddle borrowed from Lon Haldeman. It's made by Rivet and was amazingly comfortable right away She rode it 50 miles today and will happily ride it tomorrow :-). Thanks, Lon!

Today was another windy day and we are convinced it's always this way.  We rode in a small group so we could 'pace line' and still made pretty good time.  There's an option tomorrow to either ride 55 or 90 miles.  Hmmmm.  

Vanishing point!

Day 3 - Chiricahua

PAC Tour has great oatmeal every morning with fresh fruits/berries and nuts.  Today a bunch of us opted for full breakfast in a restaurant attached to a gas station across the street from our motel.  The server seemed overwhelmed by our numbers. We ate and hit the road on the early side because it's a 90 mile day with a good climb up to Chiricahua National Monument.  

Today's terrain was quite beautiful and not the usual scrub, dirt and desert.  We had some rollers (short undulating hills) and some slight grades for a number of miles. The winds were calm in the first couple of hours.  Wahoo!

As we turned up the road towards Chiricahua, the scenery began to change.  There was more vegetation and different plants and trees.  Temperatures were rising but luckily it got cooler as we began to ascend to the top.  The Chiricahua National Monument is famous for it's extensive vertical rock formations, many of which look like they've been stacked. Some resemble sand castles where each 'drop' of sand forms a separate form upon the one beneath it.  The skies were beautiful and the views absolutely stunning.  Those of us who went all the way to the summit stopped up top to take in the views, snap a few photos and take a moment before descending.  If you ever happen to be around here, it's definitely worth a drive up.

The descent was uneventful, but temperatures were rising and the winds had really picked up.  We are still trying to figure out how a head wind stays a headwind no matter which way you turn!  It was a bit of a slog on the way back to our hotel in Willcox.  Hot, windy, slow and the same expansive drab view.  We skipped the coffee stop today and headed straight back to shower and have dinner.  We ended up getting food from the Safeway Supermarket deli, as there are slim pickings within walking distance of our hotel. All good.  Another great day on the bikes.

Echelon - serious winds out there.

Day 2 - On the Road to Willcox, AZ

Short day today. Just under 75 miles.  Did we mention that Tombstone is known as the city that wouldn't die?  Today's route took us out of Tombstone and onto I-10 for quite a ways.  Yikes.  We tried to ride as far over on the shoulder as possible, but were surprised at how much debris there was.  A few people got flat tires either from glass or remnants from radial tires, which can be sharp.  Luckily, we were able to avoid it all somehow.

Our exit was the one towards Dragoon.  A few of  us entertained ourselves (and each other) with various plays on the word or made up rhymes about it.  Ha! Lots of hours on the bike lead to some interesting (or not) conversations and diversions.  As one fellow rider commented, we've got to distract ourselves from the wind and the lackluster views! There was supposedly an art gallery in Dragoon, which made Shuli think there might be real coffee.  Nope. Onward.

Will there be espresso in Dragoon?

Shuli leading the group

At about the 60 mile mark, we were again on the 10 freeway.  We basically did a loop in order to get more mileage in for the day, since the direct route would have been far fewer miles.  We finally saw the sign welcoming us into Willcox.  Lo and behold, a couple miles before our hotel we see a sign for Bucko's - espresso, wifi, ice cream.  This was a highlight of the day.  We stopped there, as did some of the other riders, for shakes and real coffee. The place was kind of like an old western bar turned combination coffee shop/secondhand store.  The woman behind the counter was unflappable and really nice.  We loved it.

I had to stop. This is in St. David, Arizona. I called my grandmother - Grandma Goodman.

No slight intended, but there is no reason for anyone to visit Willcox, except...

... Buckos!

Clicking on the photos will show you the original sized, larger, photos.

Day 1 - Desert Winds

Before we started on our Desert Camp adventure, we had some time to visit with Joel's Aunt Chris and Cousin Anna. We had a great dinner with Anna at El Charro in Tucson - one of the oldest restaurants in town started almost 100 years ago. Great food and a really fun atmosphere. (Anna is going to come visit us in May - yay!!)

Joel and Anna

The next morning we loaded our bags onto the truck, got our bikes and headed from Tucson to Tombstone Arizona - home of the OK Corral, Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. We rode out of town in an easterly direction, but as soon as we headed south, we hit strong headwinds - for the next 50 miles! 

What a nice introduction to PacTour ;). 

Most of our riding was on 2 lane highways with little to no traffic. It was great to meet all the other riders along the way. We encountered some interesting hills as well. We would climb a bit, then it would level off, then we'd climb again, level, climb again... you get the picture. We then turned east onto Rt. 82 and suddenly, the wind was to our back. Wow - what a difference! We were going mostly downhill with a tailwind for the next 30 miles - which we covered in just over an hour.

We arrived in Tombstone and had an ice cream before taking in the historical sites complete with wooden sidewalks, old time saloons and many town folk walking around in costumes from the second half of the 1800's.

It was a tough day. 90 miles with 4500 ft of climbing. The headwinds really made it much more difficult than the numbers show. Still, we had a great time.

PacTour Desert Camp - Day 0

We're in Tucson, Arizona for a week of cycling. The tour starts tomorrow, but we got here a day early so that we could ride Mt. Lemmon. At 7am Susan Notorangelo drove 7 of us a bit of the way from the hotel towards Mt. Lemmon (we're staying on the other side of town). After a short 10 mile warm up we were at Mile 0 of the climb. Mt. Lemmon is a 28 mile climb to the ski station and rated Hors Categorie, probably because it's so long.

The grade is quite comfortable, 5-7% most of the time, as the road winds it's way up and through several different types of terrain.

Cactus!

We rode up to mile 20 and decided that we needed to leave something in the tank for the next 6 days of riding. We ended the day with 74 miles and 6200ft of climbing, so it was a smart move to turn around when we did. On the way up we stopped at several vista points. Here are some pics...

More to come. Thanks for stopping by.