Zooooooooooooming out of the Rockies

OMG

OMG

This is a new contemporary Prayer/exclamation, but it fit today. First let me tell you about yesterday.

Yesterday, Thursday, began in Albuquerque. We needed to stop there for a bike shop, so we were about to get a late start since the shops don't open till 10 am. Great bike shop named Two Wheel Drive. They put a new tire on for Dave and we bought lots of inner tubes full of slime. Once we left the shop our view was this would be a "short day" with only a 30 mile or so ride to Moriarity, NM. Welllllllll once we left the shop we began climbing and we climbed for most of the ride, over 2200 feet with lots of grades that were quite tiring. The weather was so bleak it was depressing and then it began to rain some.

We made it into Moriarity just before the storm that had been chasing us hit the town. Huge storm and snow!!! Snow!!!! So we ate a hearty Arby's dinner and went to bed intending on getting up at the crack of dawn to go the 80 miles we needed to the next town with hotels. The forecast called for snow overnight, so we went to bed not knowing what the morning would hold.

Thankfully the skies were clear, but the temperature was about 30 f. 30!!! We bundled up and got on the road to discover at least we had a following wind. And there was, it built from about 10 mph from the west, to gusting winds of 20-40 mph following us.

The first 25 miles were spent climbing to the final 7100+ summit in the Rockies. Once we went over that at Clines Corner, the combination of downhill and wind drove us very fast. For long stretches I was cruising at 30+ mph. We roared off the Rockies, on one downhill I went 45 mph which is really fast for a loaded cyclist.

We went so fast that the whole 80 mile ride too six hours. That is with a 25 mile climb! I could feel the wind pick me up and push me up hills. It was amazing. The nice thing is that getting in so early we are getting a lot of needed rest and some bike work.

The scariest part of the day was watching a wooden orange crate pinwheel along the field parallel to me, then it turned and headed to me and despite efforts to avoid it, I hit it. Amazingly the only damage was to my front fender. No damage to the tire or spokes or anything. So I can end that episode with a TBTG.

Funniest thing was that the one open Rest Area left in NM (as best I can tell) is being maintained by a non-profit doing job training. Outside the restrooms they had the sign you can read in the picture, essentially asking people to vote on how well they liked the rest area!

Tomorrow we head off to Tucumcari, our last stop in NM. Tomorrow we should hit 1,000 miles.

Long Days Swift Sleep

We have just finished three 70+ mile days. We climbed up to 7335 feet at the Continental Divide, plunged a thousand to Grants NM and climbed again toward Albuquerque where we arrived today. At the Continental Divide, yesterday, we declared boot camp over. We are officially broken in. Three 70+ days including climbs and cycling into 20 mph+ gusting winds from the SE have shown us that we can go a goodly distance.

At the end of our 15th day we believe we are now 800 miles into the trip. More than 1/4. This has not come without cost. Bleeding, cracked lips, somehow unstoppable tire punctures, and wind have bounced us around. So we get up, ride all day through gorgeous unending landscape and then fall into bed. Last night I fell asleep at 8:30 and woke at 6 am this morning! We are tired puppies, but we get up and keep going.

One confession, though, after an I-40 shoulder flat, Dave was offered a ride to the "tire place" by a truck load of Navajos heading home with a water tank. Dave made them stop and ask me if I wanted a ride too and at that point my frustration level with flat tires was through the roof so I took a ride too. It was only 13 miles, but we will deduct that from pledges.

Here's the interesting thing about the ride though that makes sacrificing 13 miles and total purity worth it (even more so than reducing the danger of a roadside tire change). The driver was Gilbert Brown a Navajo who lives right at the AZ, NM border. So as we are riding he tells us that he served as the Navajo traditions advisor for the film Windtalker. That's the Nicholas Cage movie about the Navajo code talkers who played a role in preserving the security of our transmissions in the Pacific theater but speaking them in Navajo.

So there we are with this guy, total unassuming, who happens, from time to time, to server as an interpretor between the Navajos and the Anglo world. We talked about the film, about the state of the Navajo Nation, about the Bureau of Indian affairs and other things in those 13 miles. In 13 miles we got a pretty complete update on how one significant Navajo thinker sees the state of his people. Wow!

Now Brick Landon has been worried about us being in Apache territory and Comanche territory, but I have to tell you that the First Americans with whom we have spoken have been nothing but gracious and generous of spirit. Mr. Brown, stopping with his son and grandson to pick up a fellow in distress was a kindness to strangers that speaks volumes. We could never have found such a resource even if we had weeks to search him out.

We continue to find people whose cur curiosity iousity ab0ut us and what we are doing get matched by our curiosity about them. So far we have had a charmed trip, save for the flats.

Now as you might suspect our legs are getting stronger and stronger. But somehow the flab around our middles is not quite getting the message that we expect flat abs as well as tight leg muscles by the end of the trip!

And today we spent lots of time on old Route 66. It mostly ran alongside the 40, but between Laguna and Mesitas it was preserved in its original glory. These were the most beautiful six miles of the trip so far as 66 wove around a very rugged butte as is wove its way to I=40.

Flagstaff to Holbrook, AZ

Today began with a speedy 55 miles from Flagstaff to Winslow Arizona of Eagles' song fame. The second half to Holbrook, just 32 miles was a slight climb and much warmer. 87.5 miles is nothing to scoff at though. Lots of long flat vistas with the San Francisco peaks, behind us.

Here is Winslow Az and with the famous statue connoting "standing on the Corner in Winslow AZ." There is a whole mural painted there that is pretty cool. As you can see Dave and I seized the newly remodelled town center spot to park our bikes.

Tomorrow is another 90 mile day since there are no hotels between Holbrook and Gallup New Mexico. That however will put us into a new state on a Monday again, so we will see how often we can cross a state in a week. On the level we can do pretty well, so we are hoping for a good, if pushed ride tomorrow to get to Gallup.

Riding the Crest of the Rockies

Today we took a light day, given the intensity of the climb yesterday and the altitude. Both of us are having some challenge at 6700+ feet. So we just took today slowly. Got up slow, left town slow and took our time coming to Flagstaff.

I think we were riding along a ridge since we had lightly rolling hills. The weather was gorgeous and we made good time. Highest spot 7335 feet! A new high for the cyclists. Then down into Flagstaff, have some lunch and get to a motel on the far side of town fairly early.

Just 37 miles, but 37 good ones.

Tomorrow on to Winslow, AZ.

Route 66

We arrived at Mythohistoric Route 66 at 12:45 today and immediately went to the 66 cafe in Ashfork. Dave's omlette was good, my bbqued beef was awful. So it goes on Route 66. Then we climbed from 4300 feet to over 7000 feet in 16 miles. We are pretty tuckered out from our continuing ascent into the Rockies.

We are in Williams AZ tonight, the last community sidelined by I-40. It is s delightful town with a great steakhouse where we had dinner. We don't splurge a lot, but today's climb was our longest and felt slower than the climb on Wednesday which was actually steeper. Either way our climbing legs are good, but we are tired of climbing.

So tomorrow we climb some more as we move to Flagstaff. We crested over 7000 feet today, but will go up as high as 7300 feet before we finally head downhill. We are looking forward to cruising out of the Rockies, although they are lovely. The weather is perfect for us.

Both if us have noticed that the altitude is having some effect, so we are taking it slow. It is only 33 miles to Flagstaff and if the hills are not too bad it means a short day. 51 miles today and the long ascent tired these two geezers out.

Rockie Roads

Sorry we have not written much since Sunday, but we have been climbing hills for three days. We left Blythe Monday morning after a 90 mile ride the day before.

Immediately upon entering Arizona we began climbing. Heidi Straub (and I apologize for not remembering her married name) told me several years ago that the Rockies were easier to climb than the Appalachians. And the truth is that the roads are pretty well graded. That does not mean that they are easy. Indeed you climb long, but mostly reasonable grades all day.

So Monday we went from Blythe to Salome AZ. This is just a spot where things have gathered, and there was a real 1930's era road house motel. Dave and I each had a room so we ended up actually spending more than unusal for less quality. But it had been a long day of climbing, so we took our rest. There were three climbs to get there and Dave was plagued with flats. So we were glad to get to even a lower quality place that had a bed.

The next day we set out for Congress. more climbs and then a flat hit me. Congress is actually in a better location and clear has pretensions to be a town. You can tell by the big green road signs. Nice little motel, the Sierra Vista, smallest in AZ with 4 rooms.

Then came yesterday. An 1800 foot climb to Yarnell AZ up a long winding road. There was really nothing else between Yarnell and Prescott and no place to stay so we pressed on to climb the second climb at the Quartz Mountains that took us to 6100 feet.

More flats and a very tough second climb left us really tuckered out when we finally got to the final final summit. There were a group of men there who asked what we were doing and offered us very cold water. Great Road Angels.

Finally zoomed down into Prescott in order to get to a bike store, we checked in and walked across the street to the store but it closed at 5:30 pm! Who closes at 5:30?

So we are having a rest half day, doing some laundry, resupplying our inner tubes and will just take a short ride. Despite conquering these two hill we were still exhausted. Both of us noted the altitude effects as well.

I am adding pictures to the site with the mapping. I will get some here too, but go to our site where the gps logs are displayed and you can see the scenery right with the ride!

The Deserts

Today we rode 90 miles! This is the leg of the route in this part with the disclaimers saying, "No services for a long ways, pack food and water. Turns out that there was food and water at 30 and 60 miles. But in between, there was desert. There were flatland farms, then scrub desert, the sand dune desert, the chocolate mountains, then scrub desert, then more farming.

All of this took us 11 hours to ride across. Ad venture cycling suggests having a sleeping role should you not make it all the way. But we did!!!!!

So I am so tired I am going to sleep. Tomorrow into Arizona and the Rockies.

Jacumba to Brawley, Day 4

This is perhaps the most anxiety producing ride in the first week. We leave the sleepy border town and head up into the mountains to meet up with the 8. The downward mostly 6% grade is scary for drivers and truckers but can be petrifying for cyclists,.

We were taking the road after some significant aftershocks had shaken the area. Poolside on Friday we watched water slosh in the fountain as the dog Sheeba fetch rocks from it. Since the mountains in this area look like precariously piled marbles, we expected to see lots of debris on the road. There was actually very little.

We got to El Centro and then on the last leg up to Brawley Dave had his first blowout on his new bike. He was in luck, because in an otherwise pretty desolate area there was one patch os lush soft green grass. Took awhile cause we kept messing up the inner tubes, the the learning experience made it quite worth while.

Boot Camp Day 3 Pine Valley to Jacumba

We are sitting here by the pool in Jacumba having finished once again the mountains. We have been building our strength slowly, very slowly. So we are a day behind in our schedule, but we are having fun when not grinding up mountains. You can see it on the I trip server For those too tired to click through here is the pictorial elevation map.

You can see Pine Valley in the dip after the first peak and Jacumba in the dip before the last little rise leading to the screaming descent on the 8.

As we sat here another quake hit about 30 miles south. There have been innumerable quakes in the area. People here seem nonplussed. Octillo and Seely through which we ride tomorrow have had a ton of quakes.... so we will see.

We have met interesting people along the way. Jacumba is full of eccentrics and today the spa has a ton of cyclists. Some are here for a local race up and down to the Golden Acorn, there are four others riding to Florida with HUGE RV as their support vehicle. It would be cool to have a support vehicle and not have to carry gear, but then you have to bring along one very patient person who is happy to drive 50-80 miles a day and wait a lot. Kathleen did that for me on the Underground Railroad trail and in Quebec, we had a great time meeting for lunch and such, but it got old ofter 10 days or so. The pursuit person has to have some fun too.

After the ride today we went to the pool, Dave hit the spa too and then we played with the hotel dog sheeba who loves to fish rocks from the fountain. The pool guy tells us she is very ancient and in such good health because of this regular bathing in the mineral springs. Dave explains that geothermal power that makes the springs warm is caused by the rubbing of tectonic plates that make the earth quake!

Our schedule has become: 5:30 wake up, 6:30 on the road, stop when it makes sense. Tomorrow we will do a very reasonable 65 miles and should be in our hotel by 2 pm.

We are doing some local eating and some supermarket eating. Frankly neither of us wants a heavy dinner so light eating in the evening is better. Pictures a little later.

Pictures from Dave

Boot Camp

Well, folks we are in Pine Valley. We did not get as far as we wished to and here are the rationalizations: 1) The wind continued to blow from the east, making riding more work; 2) We are carrying more gear because we are going all the way across the country; 3) We climbed 2500+ feet in the course of four hours, as opposed to just 1900 feet yesterday; and 4) We pooped out.

We might could have made it, but then, although very proud and puffed up about ourselves, we would have been pretty dead meat without enough time to recover before taking on the desert. Oh, it was hot too with those East winds. Despite all the difficulties of the climb, each one makes us stronger. Tomorrow we will climb only about 1100 feet or so total before we begin the downhill to Jacumba. We'll get there early and get a good rest and then be ready to take off to Brawley on Saturday andnacross the Chocolate Mountains on Sunday..

We are both looking at our gear and asking why in the world is it so heavy? What can we get rid of and what do we really need to keep. We are both carrying minimal camping gear, in case we get caught some night with no motel nearby, but we might be able to do without it. We have lots of gizmos and some cold weather clothing to get is through the first ten days or so, but really it is hard to see what we could get rid of. I am sure it will become clearer.

The ride from Alpine to Guatay is just a bear. Long, long slow climbs at a four or 5 percent grade. Even on the 8 this morning the grades seemed steeper than last year, though there is no possibility that that is true.

Now the good side is that despite the fatigue, pushing more weight along the road has to make us stronger. More work, more muscle development.So we will come through the mountains stronger than we did last year and ready th launch out into the leveler parts of the ride. The good news is that for both of us, riding on the level, fully loaded we are able to maintain 13-16 mph. This is very good and bodes well.

Day One

Wow, what a send off. We had family, friends from the parish, Gerry and Nancy Hardison our missioners in Africa, who are home for the month, Bodie, one of our actual parish dogs and The Rev. Canon Suzi Holding who came to bless our bikes and douse them with Pacific Ocean Water. All these fine folks came out at 7 a.m. to send us on our way and we are most grateful.

We also had the pleasure of Stuart Sale's company, who knew several shortcuts to reduce the steepness of parts of the climb. He was very gracious supporting us as we road with our bikes loaded with gear. He is actually much faster than we are. Thanks Stuart.

Our original hope had been to get to Pine Valley, but the combination of heat and the long hill into Alpine had us stop over there again. We went further up the hill to a little "apartment" hotel place with nice people. Few amenities, but a nice room and a great bathroom.

We were glad we stopped as the winds from the East picked up about an hour later and would have made the last part of the ride into Pine Valley difficult. So here we sit, writing and pondering dinner.

Lunchtime spot..... Jack in the Box. Dinner is as yet unclear.

Vagabond Priest asked what the contraptions are we are riding. They are called Recumbents and are basically bikes that do not irritate one's bottom, hands, shoulders or neck. They are the most comfortable bikes to ride... slow on uphill, but great on level ground.

Last Minute Preparations

So we are less that 15 hours from launching out trip. Lots of last minute packing and loading the bicycle. As of now the bike is 90% loaded. I took it for a test ride to make sure that it was balanced, and it was ok. I just wish I could dump more weight.

Dave and I had lunch with Gerry and Nancy Hardison getting the latest news from Kenya. Our Mothers' Union Orphans project is now in 40 of the 41 parishes. It is flourishing as is the Liberty Initiatives Network, the development related projects. As is always the case some things advance and others stall.

Here we are after a good local lunch!

T minus 43 hours

So the rule of all things is that when you go to do a little job it becomes bigger. In the first few days of our ride we will go up to 4,100 feet and then scream down the east side of the mountains on the 8. So I decided to install new brake pads a simple enough chore. In the process I discovered my rear brake was itself bad... a piece fell out that should not do that. So I bought and installed a new brake. When I went to reattach the cable that makes it stop, it was bunged. So first thing this morning the bike is at the bike shop getting new cables for the trip.

So I am now lining up the electronics and charging everything. Washed out my panniers and they are drying. Clothes are in a pile and will get packed. So everything is on schedule except for the trip to the bike store.

Dave and I will get together to look at maps today and then tomorrow I will have lunch with the Hardisons to bring them up to speed.

Oh, and I was working on the brakes when the ground began to move and dance about in the earthquake! What fun. Turns out one of the centers was Jacumba Hot Springs where we plan to spend our second night. Woo Hoo to an auspicious beginning.

Preparing for Crossing the Continent

Dave Brown and I have just eight days left until we launch our cross country ride. We will go from San Diego's Dog Beach to Virginia's Yorktown, mostly along cobbled together parts of Adventure Cycling's Southern Tier, Grand Canyon Connector and TransAm path. The most significant departure will be riding I-40 / Rte 66 from Ash Fork, AZ to Joplin MS. Should be a delightful ride as we capture all the lost glory of Rte. 66.

Welcome to Cycle Centric

Greetings cyclers, I have gathered a peleton of interesting and informative cycling blogs and resources to inspire and inform. I will be keeping this blog more active as I get ready for my cross country ride. Thanks so much for stopping in, enjoy what I have gathered.

Mike

Cabrillo video

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New Human Powered Vegicle

Yesterday I test rode the prototype of a new Human Powered Vehicle (HPV). Named ElliptiGo it uses an elliptical trainer motion to drive the read wheel. So you ride in a standing position, looking much like a Segway rider while shushing your feet forward and back.

It takes a few minutes to adjust to the new set of muscles and movements, but it really does cruise along pretty well. Production models will be out shortly so I will have a chance to ride one of those too. I'll put up a picture of me on the ElliptiGo a bit later today.

I am back to posting here

It has been awhile since I have written here. So with a major cross country ride coming up, this is a good time to start preparing everyone for what's to come. One piece is a new website called MapMyRide.com which has its own Iphone application. So here is the map of my ride today.