It was a chilly morning but at least the rainstorm had passed. After a prolonged breakfast we hit the road, hopeful that the day off had lent some rest to our tired muscles.
Leaving town we crossed the Little Colorado River for the sixth and final time. We’ve been following the river for two hundred fifty miles, first crossing it near Springerville where it was no more than a sandy channel devoid of water. We first saw water in the river near Holbrook, and it was larger still in Winslow. Now, in Cameron it sits at the bottom of a canyon two hundred feet deep and a quarter mile across. We won’t be seeing it again though – it joins with the Colorado River a little upstream from the Grand Canyon – so we bid it farewell for the last time and continued north.
There’s something magical about the geometry of road trips. Two lines on a plane, unless perfectly parallel, will always cross at exactly one point. Bicycle touring routes are far from perfect geometric lines that extend infinitely, and as we know too well America is far from a perfect plane. But two non-parallel cross-country bike routes will inevitably intersect and today was the day of intersection with my trip nine years ago. I rode the ten mile stretch on US 89 between Tuba City and Cameron in 2010, pushing south through heavy headwinds on my way to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Today we had a much more leisurely ride heading north on the same stretch of road. I was a little disappointed not to remember much of this little stretch of road, but time will do that.
The day was again to be simple – follow the road north with two thousand feet of gentle climbing in the first third of the day followed by three thousand feet of descent to Marble Canyon on the Colorado River. After a quick lunch at a gas station we continued our way towards the high point of the day at six thousand feet. It started raining just enough to warrant rain jackets so we pulled over, suited up, and continued on our way, hoping to outrun the incoming rain. For a brief few minutes we thought we were free for the day, before the storm returned in full force.
The clouds opened up a deluge of rain upon us as we crossed the pass, and it was soon followed by painful hail. We spotted a shack on the side of the road that once was used for peddling Native American pottery and took shelter underneath its tin roof. Soon the pullout in front of the shack was filled with cars and RVs that dared not brave driving in this downpour as lightning lit the sky all around us.
To the south, where we had come from, the sky was filled with dark clouds and rain as far as the eye could see. To the north were fluffy clouds and blue sky – we were right on the edge of the storm. After twenty minutes or thirty of waiting, the rain finally began to lighten up and we escaped the storm. The final thirty miles were much easier as we had gotten most of the climbing out of the way in the morning. We crossed the Colorado River and found a room in the lodge at Marble Canyon right as another rain storm approached.
Notes from Donald: “I’m really glad we came across one of those abandoned vendor structures to take shelter from the hail just in time.”
Today’s Mileage: 72 miles
Total: 650 miles
