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Showing posts from March, 2017

Finally, Pacific Ocean!

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Saturday, March 25 I made a super early start this morning (at 4:45am!) as I still had some tough climbing and 81 miles to ride, and I REALLY wanted to finish today. It was quite beautiful early morning riding--with just me and the stars.  I would turn my bike light off occasionally to admire the stars, but given the mountain environment, I didn't leave it off for too long. I didn't want to ride off the side of a cliff on my last day! Since it was a pretty rural area and the road wasn't a major artery (like Route 90 in Texas), I had the road to myself.  I think I saw only 3 cars the first hour or so.  It wasn't nearly as eerie as Texas probably because I could see house lights off to the side--and sand and mist weren't blowing around.  I listened carefully when dogs barked to make sure the sound didn't come closer.  It's bad enough having dogs come at you, but I didn't want to deal with such encounters in the dark! The fact that it was a b

California Dreamin'

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Wednesday, March 22 The place I stayed last night, the Westward Motel, was quite interesting and eclectic.  I wish I had arrived earlier in the day so that I could have appreciated and enjoyed it a bit more. Each of its four rooms was uniquely decorated in a "homey" style, and there was a communal kitchen available for guests.  All in all, it felt more like you were staying in someone's house as opposed to just sleeping in a roadside motel. I ran into quite a few riders heading east, all identified by their shiny new gear--and trauma from having started in San Diego and immediately making a 4000-foot climb.  Since I just completed the Emory Pass in New Mexico, I'm not that excited about the upcoming climb before San Diego either... I made good time the first hour, but then the winds picked up and my progress slowed down.  I also had to get back on Interstate 10, which was not quite as agreeable as riding on Interstate 10 near El Paso since the traffi

Dog Days of March (?!) in Arizona

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Sunday, March 19 Apparently Arizona is experiencing a spring heat wave.  Phoenix hit a record daily high of 95 degrees yesterday and it was potentially going to set another record of 93 degrees for today. (Just in time for me to bike through the area!)  Given that, plus having a not insignificant distance of 76 miles and an elevation gain of 2595 ft (with 1821 ft down), I hit the road by 6:30am. Highway 70 sure had some rough shoulders.  The route today was plagued with cracks in the shoulder about every 10-20 feet.  This forced me onto the road when it was really bad, but there was enough traffic that I could never stay on the road for long.  Another problem I ran into was the vegetation--usually with thorns--growing next to the road that covered the shoulder completely.  This was a new road hazard for me, and one I didn't relish discovering... Today's route took me through the San Carlos Apache Reservation.  Along the way I saw some of the famous Saguaro cactus t

Encountering Scenic Views and Fellow Bikers

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Thursday, March 16 The stars last night were beautiful.  Once my eyes adjusted to the darkness--after working on the previous day's blog sitting outside the public library--I could really see the sky fill up. Seeing such stars is something I have been missing out on because I've lately been staying at hotels whenever they were available. I ended up having a fairly restful night camping at the Hillsboro town campground, and then I took advantage of the pre-dawn darkness to do more of a deep clean at the campsite spigot. Bracing! The climb started immediately as I left town.  I had a steady climb for the first 16 miles until I hit Emory Pass at 8228 ft (the highest point on the Southern Tier).  The total gain in elevation was 2972 feet, with only 49 feet going down!  It took me a good 3 and 1/2 hours for this climb. On the way up I startled a young wild boar.  I had seen a number of road kills in the previous states, but this was the first live boar I saw on th

Leaving Texas (At Last)...

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Monday, March 13 Today would be my first day of riding on Interstate 10.  In Illinois, it is illegal to ride on the Interstate, but in some western states it appears such riding is allowed as there may not be an alternative, given the low population density.  As you can see below, there is a pretty wide shoulder to ride on. I had about a 9-mile section initially which involved a stead climb out of Van Horn with the moon still shining brightly above.  The route then switched to a frontage road which I pretty much had to myself the entire time.  Things did get a bit strange when the frontage road ended, as I had to cross both lanes of traffic to get back to the westbound shoulder. On the whole, there wasn't too much to see today, but it was interesting to see all these pecan trees after having come across so many pecans in Texas. Shortly after starting, I crossed into the Mountain Time Zone.  This created a bit of a dilemma for since I started the day with the inten

Cactus Capital, UFO Lights, and Prada "Art"--Three Days in the Desert

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Friday, March 10 Waking up to rain meant that my extravagance with the motel room got pushed into the money-well-spent column.  I slept surprisingly well given that the room was as close to the highway as one could get--without actually being on the highway.  Fortunately, the traffic died down quite a bit after 9pm. For breakfast, I had to make do with what I had on hand, and had for breakfast a peanut butter, banana, and honey tortilla wrap, supplemented by granola. The rain had stopped by the time I started biking, and the terrain was much the same as yesterday, except even MORE isolated.  The first town I hit was Dryden, 40 miles away.  There was a fair amount of up-and-down with 2600 ft of gain and 1175 of descent. I ran into a father and a daughter biking east.  When I discovered that the father worked at Adventure Cycling Organization, I wondered if he's getting paid to do this... It occurs to me that I need to be more vigilant when stopping to take a break.