I stayed with Will from The Internets for two nights. Ate some of his fightsauce chicken teriyaki and hung out.
On the third night I met up with my mother’s friend Jackie, her husband Brock and their daughter Mara. Went out to dinner with them and had a great time.
Not a very exciting day – I’ll keep it short.
Got a later start than I’d have liked to, but at least it was going to be a short day. I headed southwest and quickly found the shoulder to be in terrible condition. Big bumps every twenty feet jolted my bike for miles and not an hour in I got a flat. Made quick work changing the flat and continued on my way – I was ready to make it to Phoenix and take a rest day.
After a while the road surface became acceptable and my pace quickened. I stopped at a gas station for lunch where a family who had passed me on the highway came up to me to ask about my trip.
Back on the road, my shoulder disappeared as I approached the Phoenix area. I dropped off the highway and took roads through the suburbs for the remaining miles to my host’s house, arriving in the middle of the afternoon.
Today’s mileage: 58 miles.
Total: 3391 miles.
No photos from today.
Today I decided I was going to try and break a hundred miles. Unfortunately, it was really cold outside so I didn’t get out of my hotel until 9:30. I got on the road and had to take an interstate for about 20 miles. There were signs for bikes though, which was interesting.
After about an hour of riding it started getting warm so I pulled over and changed on the side of the road before continuing on. I was making good progress and stopped in a town for a big lunch after about 50 miles.
I just kept on pedaling. Went through the town of Prescott, AZ which seemed like a pretty nice town. Coming out of the city, the road wound its way through some mountains that were very reminiscent of the coastal hills in California. Lots of turns, I’m sure I would have gotten carsick had I driven.
The last 30ish miles of the day were to be downhill, and the sun set as I approached the descent. Got a nice view of the sunset over the desert as I wound my way down the side of the mountain. Before long it was pitch dark and I rode for about an hour before reaching the town of Wickenburg and finding a motel.
Today’s Mileage: 124 miles.
Total: 3333 miles.
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.
