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.
You’re in a cool part of the world there, getting to see the Grand Canyon. I’m glad you were able to do it. When we lived there, we took the pricey heli flight from Vegas that lands in the western end of the Canyon for a lunch. I found it a bit dubious because they do go down from time to time, and our pilot, while a cool dude, did a high-g acrobatic maneuver over the Vegas Strip on returning. I could def have done without that. Hope you enjoy where you are and get to stay a while. If you ever take the flight try to do it on a very non-windy day 😉
Get the tires replaced in Phoenix.