Category: DC to California 2010

The winds of yesterday had died down by morning but it was still freezing cold so I waited a bit before getting up this morning. I was out of the Navajo nation so I had changed time zones as Arizona doesn’t follow DST, putting me effectively in the same time zone as California.

There was a snack bar right by me in the park but it didn’t open until 9 (formerly known as 10) so I waited around an extra hour so I could eat some food before getting on the road.

I made my way through the park, visiting each of the recommended view points of the canyon. It was sort of overwhelmingly touristy, but the views were nice at least. There were lots of steep hills and I didn’t make it out of the park until 1. Then, after a long lunch I finally was on my way south.
I was headed towards the town of Williams and I knew immediately that I wouldn’t make it before sundown. But I wanted to make good progress towards Phoenix so I kept on going.

My iPod had died during the hail storm a couple days ago and now my iPhone was out of batteries. My solar panels also appeared to be dead, and so I had to ride the whole day without music. Oh, the horror.

I pulled into Williams about 20 minutes after it got dark and found a motel.

Today’s mileage: 80 miles.
Total: 3209 miles.

I managed to get out of my hotel at a decent hour which meant that places weren’t open yet for food so I grabbed some cookies at a gas station and hit the road. After looking at my maps last night, it turns out I will be visiting the Grand Canyon after all, and I was headed there today.

It was windy. Really windy. Luckily it was coming from the south and I was going west. For 8 miles, that is, until I had to turn south. It probably took me 2 hours to go 15 miles south into the wind until I was able to turn west again. I tried to stop for lunch but I arrived at the only restaurant in this town right after two busloads of tourists. More gas station food.

On my way out of that town I got a flat in my front tire. It took longer than normal to fix because I had to constantly keep the wind from blowing things away and my bike over. Also lubed up my drivetrain since it was getting pretty noisy.

I knew I had a big climb today but I hadn’t been counting on the setbacks from the wind and flat. I started my ascent, most of the time facing headwinds. My direction had changed but because I was following the side of a mountain, the wind was being pushed around to always blow right at me.

At one point the road turned sharply and went downhill for a bit. I got up to 25mph but was unable to feel any wind on my face – that is to say the wind was blowing at roughly 25 mph. I continued my climbing as the sun set and it started to get very cold. Eventually I reached the entrance to Grand Canyon National Park and luckily there was a campground right next to the entrance that had open sites. I set up camp, got in my sleeping bag and tried to stay warm from the subfreezing temperatures until sleep came.

Today’s mileage: 57 miles.
Total: 3129 miles.

There were warnings of thunderstorms and tornadoes this morning so I took my time getting out of my hotel, hoping they would pass me by. I grabbed a quick lunch at a fast food place where several of the people there came up to ask me about my trip.

Got on the road at noon or so and it seemed the storms had not passed me by. It was very windy and dark and I could see darker clouds to the west.
I started out pretty slowly and there were a fair amount of hills. It started lightly raining so I pulled over to put on my rain jacket, only for the rain to stop. I continued on and as I rounded a corner I saw a low lying cloud bank and lightning flashes.

“What’s a little rain going to do?” I thought. On my left, the cloud bank hit a tall hill and splashed up over its peak. It was moving so quickly that it seemed like water. The temperature suddenly dropped. Felt like a ten degree drop but it could have been less. Then the rain came. It was pretty cold but bearable until the hail started. Then it got painful. Lots of lightning very close as well. After a mile or two of biking through the hail I stopped at a gas station and waited a few minutes for the storm to pass.

I moved on but a few minutes later the rain and hail came again, this time not lasting very long. I was completely frozen by this point so when the rain stopped I pulled over and put on warm clothes and kept on going.
The miles flew by today. Not really sure how or why, but I never stopped for a second lunch or real break.

I arrived in Tuba city and went to look for a motel when a man walked up to me and shook my hand. He was a native Navajo (did I mention I’ve been in the Navajo nation for a couple days now?) and was hitchhiking to New Mexico to visit family. He walked me to a motel and then asked for dinner. I was slightly disappointed – tons of people here beg for money and I was hoping he wasn’t one of them. But he suggested we eat together so we went to sonic and talked for a while before I bid him goodbye.

Today’s mileage: 70 miles.
Total mileage: 3072 miles.

I slept, watched a couple movies on netflix, and received a package with some tubes and a new pump.

I was up at seven this morning and packed up camp while talking to the other people at my site. Because of all of my bike problems, I had been arranging with my parents to have some extra tubes and a pump shipped to a town 90 miles ahead since I was over 200 miles from the nearest bike shop. And since I had no cell coverage I was making liberal use of the park’s pay phone. That took me back.

But before my long day I decided to see the sights at the park. It was a seven mile hilly road around the park that took me by the three natural bridges. They were pretty neat but the whole situation was a bit too touristy for me, and personally I found the canyons just as interesting as the bridges themselves.

Leaving the park, I had to backtrack another seven miles to turn south and head towards my destination for the day. I was now leaving the ACA route.
The road had more rolling hills but nothing I couldn’t handle. The worst ones are when you think it’s a short hill but it winds up being a fake summit and the hill keeps on going. If I approach these hills with the attitude that they’ll be over quickly, I wind up exerting too much energy and wearing myself out. No matter, at this point I take it all in stride.

After 20 or so miles, I came upon the edge of the mesa. A thousand feet below was the valley floor, and dozens of signs warned of the upcoming dangerous road. The speed limit dropped from 55mph to 5 mph and the road turned to gravel as it wound through tight switchbacks down the cliff wall. Luckily the gravel wasn’t very deep so I didn’t have much trouble with balance.

On the valley floor, walls of cliffs towered to my north and east while impressive buttes peppered the landscape to the south and west. Storm clouds glided across the sky, reaching down with tendrils of rain. It was very flat now and I began making good time.

I reached the town of Mexican Hat, UT for lunch and ate at the sole restaurant in town, a slightly glorified fast food joint. Filled up my water bottles since it had been 80 miles since I last saw a town, then got on the road again.

After crossing the San Juan river, I made my way up some rather steep hills before it turned flat once more. I was hit with intermittent periods of rain but they didn’t really last long enough to warrant putting on my rain jacket. The road curved from the west to the south and I entered monument valley. This is probably where car commercials are filmed – long straight roads with magnificent buttes on the horizon.

The road took me straight between two buttes after a long climb. Once I passed through them, the wind picked up and dust filled the air. Strong crosswinds with massive gusts blew me back and forth as I squinted to keep sand from my eyes. After a few miles of this the wind died down and I entered Arizona.

More flat and straight roads. A big storm cloud lay directly in front of me, but my road curved and it missed me somehow. The miles kept ticking by, some slowly and some quickly, and I reached the town of Kayenta just as darkness fell.

Today’s mileage: 95 miles.
Total: 3002 miles.

That’s the three thousand mark!