Cortez, CO to Pagosa Springs, CO - 114 miles

Today started out with a nice climb up to 8000 feet (we started well above 6000 though). Rode part of the climb with Mike from California. At the first stop, recharged with some food - I'm getting a thing for Pringles - and Coke. Since today was going to mostly up and down, I figured I would ride alone. The next section was basically a screaming downhill into Durango. There were some slack jawed Billy Bob types in some of the pickups passing us. But everyone gave us a pretty good berth when passing.

After Durango, some more slow rollers into the countryside. Cows and horses were in fields next to the road. Tall mountains loomed everywhere as we snaked through valleys between them. Large billowy clouds hovered around some peaks, looking threatening, casting their shadows down their sides. There can be very localized weather patterns on mountains; hopefully we won't get caught in any.

Lunch was hamburgers! I woofed down two pickle, tomato, lettuce, and onion laden burgers and pondered getting a third. Phil from Florida did not ponder and helped himself to his third. Bisti the Pactour mascot dog got a burger dropped by the cook. Bisti likes burgers!

Left and we had more of the up and down. We had gone off the main road Route 160 on some back roads; they were pleasantly lightly traveled and very scenic. Pulling up to the last rest stop in the shadow of Chimney Rock, we were almost done. More grape soda, some chocolate chip cookies, watermelon, and Pringles. The last section had some climbing. Stopped at a historical marker before town. It was the spot where a frontiersman fought an Indian in a knife fight to settle a land dispute (the Indian lost - sorry!).

Tomorrow is the dreaded Wolf Creek Pass at 10,800 feet. Someone said it already has snowed up there. Keith has been up it on his motorcycle, and says the only thing he was thinking of when he went up it was how un-fun it would be to do on a bicycle. Lon said there might be a semi official race after the first checkpoint up the pass, at mile 18. Mile 26 is the summit, and we then drop to 4000 feet. This is going to be a fun downhill.

Chinle, AZ to Cortez, CO - 141 miles

We started this day early due to the long distance. I woofed down some oatmeal with brown sugar and milk, a yogurt, some cheese Danish, and OJ. I was a little nervous going out onto the road in the semi-darkness on this Indian reservation. Late night Thunderbird drinking, pickup driving Indians combined with us bicycle-riding idiots would make anyone nervous. Luckily we greeted the sunrise quickly, as a huge 15 or so rider pace line formed. There were beautiful red rock buttes and mesas all over the place and the red rising sun made odd beautiful shadows. We stopped to take several pictures.

I ditched the Camelbak at the first stop. That darned thing is annoying on your back all day. It was essential in the desert, but it has only been getting up to 90 or so in this high desert. Two big water bottles with ice would keep me for roughly 30 miles (A Camelback is a large plastic bag, typically 70 oz, of water covered with Neoprene for insulation, and worn like a backpack).

The next segment we rode by Half Dome Rock, an interesting butte. Then we whipped along in a tailwind into the next stop. I rode with Jay, who was on his every other ride day from crewing. Refueled at the next stop, then rode with Kimberly, the Serotta couple, and Stu. Had a nice big tuna sandwich with red juicy tomatoes, green sandwich slice pickles, cheese, and lettuce. A perfect sandwich. Some AZ state troopers stopped to warn us about nutty European tourist drivers who have a predilection for riding on the wrong side of the road (maybe they are just bad drivers?). Pat, who is an ex-New York City cop, was in her element chatting away with them. Susan said they were the nicest cops she'd ever met.

Hopped on a tandem for some nice descents. Turned off for the "four corners" stop - where Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado all join. Got my picture taken on the plaque. Had a bubble-gum flavored snow cone. A big group left and we descended into Colorado. A few climbs thrown in. Nigel and I rode together, and he added to his story about his three-month truck trip from London to Nepal in 1979. He said this trip reminded him of that one because of the mixed bag of people and every one's different story. To be able to physically do this ride is a feat in itself, but getting the time off is the bigger feat for most.

The last section was into Cortez. Nigel and I stopped for a Dairy Queen shake right before the motel. Mesa Verde, the famous cliff dwelling place is around here so this is a tourist town. Plus supposedly there is a large German speaking population here and we have some motel literature in German.
The dreaded Wolf Creek Pass is coming up on Monday. I met with my Great Uncle and Aunt for dinner and they told me the road up Wolf Creek Pass is in really good condition compared to what is has been like in the past. Hopefully it won't be snowing!

Winslow, AZ to Chinle, AZ - 122 miles

After yesterday's odyssey, this was an easy day. Yesterday was a good way to make the rest of the trip look easy (hopefully). Leaving Winslow we rode by the famous "standing on a corner" corner in town. It is referred to by the Eagle's song "Take it Easy". Not sure if the Eagles made it famous or it already was famous. I rode with mixed bunch - Ed, Renny, Jim, some others. After the first stop, we entered the Navajo Nation by crossing a cattle guard. Apparently cattle roam free in here. As we went up the road, we saw some cows and sheep grazing right next to the road. I snapped a few pictures.

Pulling up to the second stop we met up with Brian and Nigel. We took off together and rode to lunch. The scenery was mostly brown plains, with far off mesas spotting the horizon on all sides. You can see around you for fifty miles in all directions. Plus we are so high up (I think around 5000 ft), the air is clear of pollution.

At the next stop at 100 miles, we gorged on more food. We had a great vantage point high above Chinle. The next 22 miles we whipped into town with a great tailwind and some decent downhill's.
We've been told the days will be getting easier as we get stronger. I'm starting to get to know more of the people on the trip. Some are going through some real pains. Apparently the "fast guys" group is no more due to various reasons. Keith is riding very strong and reported this. Some of the faster riders like to only stop very briefly and never for pictures. I like to stop for pictures and I enjoy the stops. But I still would not mind being in the first group once. Maybe in the flats of Kansas (maybe not!).

We have 19 more days of riding to go. We loose an hour as we switch time zones when we ride into Cortez, Colorado tomorrow evening. Well they are having an ice cream party soon; I will be gorging myself on ice cream and chocolate sauce.

Some other riders with laptops are maintaining a website with pictures, a map of the route, and some links to other sites. The address is http://www.caltriplecrown.com Click on the "Central Transcontinental" link.

Williams, AZ to Winslow, AZ via Grand Canyon - 211 miles

Williams is a small tourist town about 58 miles south of the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Brian, my roommate, got a crazy idea to do an extra loop up to see this beautiful hole in the ground. I was reluctant to go at first, but Larry was willing to go for it. Now this loop was not just a few extra miles. This would turn our planned 105-mile day into a 211-mile ordeal.
We headed out with words of encouragement:
"You're what?"
"Did you write your obituary?"
"You are off sag so don't call us if you have a problem"

We left as the sun was rising, around 6am. We got a good pace going and before we knew it we were at the lip of a beautiful hole in the ground. Some cute Japanese girls wanted their picture taken with us, we obliged. After a few more photos, and answering a few dumb questions about our ride from others, we left. It is always a hoot to tell people we are doing 211 miles in a day and they say "That's nice". We stopped twice more for pictures and some water and Coke. After exiting the park we hit a 30-mile downhill with breathtaking views on our left of the Little Colorado River's carvings into red and yellow colored stone. We stopped again for lunch. Six hours and 114 miles down. The San Francisco Mountains loomed in the distance. They contained the highest point in AZ - 12,600 feet. We would need to climb over them, the high point on the road being 7250 feet. We stopped for Cokes before the last five-mile section of climbing. We told the fellow in this Indian trading post our destination was Winslow and he called it the "asshole of Arizona". He also told us where our next turn was - the second "electric stop sign". Interesting term for a stoplight.

After the climbing, we cruised up to the interstate for horrendous shoulder conditions - rumble strips, eight inch wide raised gaps in the road, tire casing, bolts, shards of metal, semis, 75mph speed limit, etc. Brian semi-bonked - Larry got some food into him and we pulled him home. We pulled into the motel at 6:45, just as the sun was disappearing. Our on-bike average was 19.2mph. We kicked ass! A crowd of fellow Pac Tour riders congratulated us. We set a PacTour first by being the only riders to go off the route to do a double century (200 mile).

As Larry (who is actually crewing and only rides every other day) said, it may not be this ride that gets us; the rest of Pactour may be what does us in. We will take it easy tomorrow.
I'm really tired. Signing off,

Wickenburg, AZ to Williams, AZ - 134 miles

Today was the longest day so far, and will be the most feet climbed in one day for the whole trip (9000 feet). Right out of town a cop pulled our group over for riding three abreast. Having recently heard from my friend Rob that he got a $275 ticket for running a light in Sausalito CA, I was as polite as I could be. He gave us a warning and we continued on. We became a group of eight. A good pace line formed, easily peeling away the first couple of miles. The sun was still rising and the surrounding green hills were a welcome relief from the stark landscapes of previous days. We were at a much higher elevation too, almost 2000 feet, and this was keeping the temperature down.

Slowly but surely a wall of mountains moved toward us. They were determined to stay directly in our path. When reached the base of them and the climbing began. The group broke up to everyone's individual pace. This was a serious climb. I passed Lon, who was standing on his single speed green Rivendel. The gear on his bike was a 42X15. I'll take my 39X25 thank you very much. At the top, got some grub and drinks.

We left again as a group, and another paceline formed. We whipped along at 27mph+, with a slight downgrade and tailwind helping. A few rollers appeared and the group broke up. We hit a very steep downhill, where I hit 45mph. Looking back, it was just Nigel and Brian. Hmm, I wonder where the other people went - Kimberly, Keith, some others. We kept a pace line going as we grinded up a slow grade. Suddenly a large dog like animal darted in front of us. As it sunk in, we realized it was a wild bobcat. The large padded feet and the white tail cued us off. We started to wind up around curves in the road. The road hugged the ridges. More and more pine trees popped up around us. We arrived at a break stop. We heard from the support that Kimberly had run off the road into a ditch, while we were descending at 40mph. Apparently, however, she only had a small scratch on her leg and was going to keep riding after her bike was fixed. Amazing. Comments about "nine lives" popped up.
After a little more climbing, replete with some spectacular views, we rode into the busy town of Prescott. Out of town, there was a brisk tailwind and easy grades. We rode into lunch for some tasty tacos and chocolate pudding. We climbed some more then got on the nerve-wracking interstate. It was pretty much all uphill until we had a brief downhill into Williams, a tourist haven for Grand Canyon gawkers.

Overall the day was tough; the hills were not too bad, as the grades were gentle, but long. The heat backed off because of the higher elevations (Prescott was at 5300 ft.).
I'm tired. Signing off,

Blythe, CA to Wickenburg, AZ - 116 miles

Today continued our trek into the desert. The day started out with wispy snow flurry like bugs drifting, sticking in the oily lather of sunscreen on us. We jumped onto the highway I-10 for the next 36 miles. It was mostly a slow grind up some gradual grades. We were surrounded by rocky dark brown hills as we climbed. Nigel and I climb about the same pace so we hung together up to the first stop. There was a good picture stop when we crossed into Arizona. We hit a nice downhill and cranked for a while at around 28mph. Rumble strips made the shoulder a bit hazardous, as did the huge semis with drivers curious to see just how close they could come to a bicyclist without hitting them. Two feet seems to be the going distance.

After the first rest stop, which was right off the highway, we picked up a few more riders, which included a group from Texas - Mike, John, Clifford, Billy, Daphne, and Charles. We rode a pace line but it got a little sloppy with a few of the riders going off the front. Also rode a bit with Spencer, the youngest rider at 23. The road was a straight line off into the horizon. There was a row of endless brown-tarred telephone poles stretching off into the horizon on our left. A silvery shimmer floated above the white asphalt road stretched before us. There were some cacti scattered in the scrub bushes off the sides of the road. Most of them had their characteristic "arms" waving at us, but some were single stalks jutting out into the sky. There were signs to "watch for animals", but the only one spotted was a white lizard darting under someone's wheels (unharmed).

Lunch was more of the same as yesterday; I added some pickles as a topping to my sandwich. Some people were pouring themselves glasses of green pickle juice to get their salt fix. The ice sock was filled up and we went out as a big group. More pace line riding into a crosswind. Daphne had a nice solid pace for a while. Eventually Nigel and I crept ahead. We stopped for the last stop. Crewmember Terri had some cool desert music playing in the tape deck. Wild stuff you hear around snake charmers, it melds well with the deep blue sky, blazing white-hot sun, and barren scrub landscape
As Nigel, Clifford, and I crested a few small rollers, we started a ten-mile thundering descent into Wickenburg. Clifford was creeping up on my right and hit a gravel patch. Clifford then peeled off with a flat tire.

We pulled in around 4pm. Not the fastest day by any means. Tomorrow is going to be over 130 miles and 9000 ft of climbing (four major climbs). It is supposedly going to get cooler as we gain altitude. We will be in Arizona for three more days as we creep North to Colorado.

We had Mexican for dinner. No grand eating scenes of mention. I think after tomorrow's rough schedule I may have some scenes to report. I feel better today than the last two. Probably because it was a bit cooler today (106), and I did not get a beet red sunburn as previous days (sunscreen does work).

El Centro, CA to Blythe, CA - 104 miles

Our daily morning schedule has us feeding between 6 and 6:30 am, then a staggered start up to 7am. The first part of today's ride we rode through the fields surrounding El Centro. The fields are irrigated by some sort of nearby canal. This ditch water made the air humid. There is a sharp contrast between the fields with green vegetation and the brown unused fields. Along the side of the road and in the fields are stacked huge forty foot tall and five hundred foot long bales of yellow crusty hay. We saw a few pens of dairy cattle and they stunk.

After crossing over the canal, we made our first sag stop. It was starting to get hot - time to break out the ice sock. I downed some V-8, beef jerky, a granola bar, banana, and Gatorade to stoke the fire. I filled up the Camelbak for the upcoming inferno.

The group up to stop was Brian, Keith, Nigel, Wes, and Terri. Wes had ridden Quadzilla in July - a ride I had also done. We chatted about the miserable conditions (hills, headwind, etc.) on that ride. We pulled out of the stop minus Wes and Terri, they left before us.

Brian was being frisky and darted ahead. We were entering a park of sand dunes. This is the stuff of deserts - sand blowing across the road, rippled dunes rising at odd angles, weird shadows, no vegetation or rocks. We climbed a small rise for a fantastic view. There were some far-off mountain ranges in the distance at every corner. We will see what range we'll end up ascending or hopefully skirt around (not likely).

After the sand dune park, we noticed there was a long row of chain link fence with barbed wire. A sign indicated this was a protected turtle area. Not sure what the razor wire did for them, though. We stopped again for another water break and ice sock refill. Beef jerky, salt pills, Coke, salted peanuts are eaten. The temperature says 110 on the "Have a Coke and a smile" red bulbed thermometer on the trailer door.

We were now on some nice rolling hills. We scooted down them and then back up. Clifford from Houston joined us briefly. If you pedaled hard enough you were able to get up over the top going a fairly good clip. We also had a brief but brisk tailwind. We leveled off and the wind whipped around in our faces. Lunchtime by a lake. I have some olives, cold cuts, Mountain Dew, Lay's, canned sweetened strawberries, and peaches in heavy syrup. Salt is an important part of the long distance bicyclist's fuel (water and food are the other). Especially in the heat, where everyone has jagged white powdery salt/sweat lines up and down their black shorts and colorful jerseys.

We continue up the road and a black dog runs out. He is lathered up good from chasing other riders before us. He better relax or he'll collapse from the heat. I think he just wants to play. Another stop with a few mangy looking dogs barking at us, but staying their distance. Refill of the ice sock.
We finish around 2:30pm in Blythe, CA. It looks like a farming area combination exit off the interstate. Plenty of time for bike cleaning, shower, relaxing. At dinner Renny, Nigel and I watch Brian eat a whole large pizza at Pizza Hut. Pretty impressive considering he weighs 155!

I feel a bit better today than yesterday, probably because it was an easier day with a lot less climbing, and I'm adjusting somewhat to the heat. Looking forward to tomorrow's ride to Wickenburg, Arizona.