Day 6-A Day of Mosts

Today was our longest distance day, so far. It was also the most elevation (over 4000). Then, to top off a day of mosts, it was the coldest day (the sun was shining, but the wind was fierce, and made it quite chilly). Oh, and we got our earliest start at 8:00am (good thing, because we needed it).

Entering the land of lots of border patrol. 

This was just after starting. 

Right out of the campground we started a 5.1 mile climb. 

There were great views. 



If you look in the center of the photo, you can see border patrol vehicles. They had gone by us in the campground. They all had motorcycles in the back of their trucks. We rode right by them. 

Off in the distance is the road we were going on. 

Summit success!

Also at the summit. 

The rest of the way to Arivaca was more ups and downs.

Jana and Catherine. Makaela was ahead. 

Ruby Ghost Town. We would have checked it out, but it was closed. 

A handful of miles before Arivaca we returned to pavement. It was very nice, and easy rollercoaster hills all trending down to the town. 

My favorite sign…Whoa Nelly!

We met up with Makaela and Jana at the Cantina. We all stuffed ourselves (and got water), then headed over to the Mercantile to get some resupply. I only needed a couple of breakfasts, but they didn’t have individual packets of oatmeal. I got some Mexican pastries instead. I also have a few Pro Meal bars. I won’t starve. 

We’ve seen a few of these little red birds. We don’t know what they are called. 

From Arivaca we still had 13 miles to go to where we were planning to camp. We left Arivaca at 3:40, and arrived at our camp spot at 6:00. There were a lot of shortish climbs, and the road was much rougher than before Arivaca. 

There were a number of sandy spots, rocky spots, and generally rough patches. I had to walk a few. 

Our campsite is just off the road under a big tree. We rode just over 39 miles today. 

Day 5-A Detour, a Shower, and A Whole Lotta Headwind!

Last night I woke up about 2:30 and it smelled like rain. However, the stars were out so it didn’t seem possible that it would rain. I went back to sleep, and next thing I knew the “turkey alarm” was going off, and it was nearly 6:00.

Turkey alarm. 

We were on the road at 8:30 as usual. We just had a bit to go before taking Harshaw Rd in the other direction to avoid the scary black section of the route. There was still significant climbing, and then a 1000 foot steep descent, but it was a vehicle worthy road. We had some nice views too. 

The beginning of the detour. 



Near the beginning of the descent, looking down to the US side of Nogales (we have seen numerous Border Control pickups).

We returned to the route where the black part ended. Jana and Makaela decided to hike up the black part for a bit to see what it looked like. Catherine and I stayed with the bikes. 

Once Jana and Makaela returned, we continued on. We had about another 8 miles of sandy dirt road before hitting pavement, and another 8 miles to the Pilot Truck Stop. 

Pavement into a headwind. We had a few more climbs with the last one being a doozy, before dropping down to the Interstate and the zoo that is two truck stops (Pilot and Loves). Soooo many big rigs! We decided on the Pilot as it was on the same side of the road we were on, and they had a Wendy’s (Loves had a McDonalds). Jana inquired about the showers and laundry. Showers were $18. They recommended we share as there was no time limit. We shared two shower rooms. We also did laundry. Once showered, and while waiting for our laundry to finish, we did our other chores of getting food, and filling up water for the rest of today, and 26 miles into tomorrow. The selection for food was…well…what you would expect from a gas station. I was wanting cheese, beans, and some jerky bites to make Caramelos (basically a bean, cheese, and meat quesadilla). The was no cheddar cheese, but there was Frito Lay “cheddar” in a can. There were no refried beans, but there was Frito Lay Bean dip. I did get some BBQ pork bites. Thing is, I ended up not eating it, because I was still full from eating Wendy’s at 2:30. 

They had us bring our bikes into the Driver’s Lounge. We kind of took it over!

Once all our chores were completed, we got back on the bikes for the final 10 miles of the day to White Rocks Campground. Getting across the overpass into a headwind with 45-60mph gusts, and a major amount of semi trucks and other vehicles, was the scariest thing we’ve done the entire trip!!! Once we got the Interchange over with, we just had to contend with the headwinds and a few more climbs. 

It took almost two hours to go those 10 miles! We finally made it to White Rocks Campground. It’s a small place with less than a dozen campsites. The only other people here are a  couple of guys on bikes who started in Patagonia this morning. They passed us at the top of the big descent of the detour (clearly they chose the safer route too).

Namesake white rocks, and Makaela. 

Home for the night. 

It was a good day. Yes, the wind was a bit much, but at some point in this journey, we should have some equally epic tailwinds!

(Temporary Backup) Day 4-Visiting Another Patagonia…

…Patagonia, Arizona!

Today was, in my opinion, the easiest day we’ve had so far. At least there was no hike-a-bike and we weren’t carrying a crap-ton of water. Oh, and we had about an 11 mile descent on good gravel! Yeah, all in all, an easier day. 

Good morning shadow!

Go Jana!

We think those are the San Rafael Mtns in the distance. 

A few trees among the grasses. 

Good gravel!

I did have a most interesting bike mechanical. About an hour or less into the ride, I stopped to pee. As I was laying Billy down, I happened to look at the belt, and noticed it was only half on on the rear cog (if you don’t know, Billy has a Pinion gear box with a Gates Carbon Belt). You are probably thinking it was falling off. I’m not sure it was ever fully on. Back in Tucson, in the hotel, when I put Billy back together, I forgot to tension the belt. I ended up tensioning it at the restaurant we rode to, not in good light, so I didn’t notice the belt was only half on the back. It is possible that the belt was on all the way, initially, but in the ride to the restaurant it started to come off. Of course, I’ll never know for sure. What is kind of amazing, is that I’ve been riding for 4 days now with a belt only halfway on, yet it’s been fine. Well…it was making a funny noise when I’d be going up a steep hill. Anyway, I got the belt back on, and we continued on our way. Thanks to Catherine for holding Billy!

We came to where we were supposed to turn onto Harshaw Creek Rd. There was a sign pointing straight to Patagonia, but our route said to go left. Makaela decided to go straight as it was shorter. Jana, Catherine, and I made the turn because we could see it was all downhill on the route profile. It was a bit longer, but that was okay. 

It was a very nice ride alongside the creek, through the green trees (where there is water, there is green stuff!). We crossed the creek two more times (we had crossed it once, just before the turn. 

Catherine riding through the very first crossing. 

Jana on the last crossing. 

We came out onto Harshaw Rd, which we then rode the final 3 miles into Patagonia. We met up with Makaela. We had our “town chores” to do. Resupply food and water. Jana was hoping to get her bike looked at at the bike shop, but unfortunately it wasn’t open. We got our food and filled water at the Red Mountain Natural Foods market. We had a delicious dinner planned. We met a guy named Tomas at the market. Had a great chat with him. He has done tons of bike touring. He gave us an alternative to the next black section we would be doing first thing tomorrow. We knew it was going to be a difficult section, but he reinforced it telling us he had crashed walking his bike downhill. Later, Jana said she was still interested in doing it, but the rest of us didn’t want to risk it. My lack of depth perception makes those situations very difficult for me. Tomas showed us on the route an alternative that is all just gravel roads. 

Next on the agenda, was lunch. Jana found a taco truck, so we went there. 

Yummy lunch!

As we were heading back out of town, we stopped at Terra Sol. It’s a hostel for all travelers, but is probably visited most by AZT hikers and cyclists. We did a number of things there (I was even able to spray the belt on Billy with some silicone to quiet down the squeaking from all the dust). 

The owner is to the left. She is originally from Seattle, and has been running Terra sol for 4 years. 

There were a number of AZT hikers there. One sounded very familiar to me. I asked his name. He said Jabba. I said, the Hiking Viking! He is also a cyclist, and has done a couple rides with Ryan Van Duzer. He is currently hiking the AZT to scout it for bikepacking it. 

One reason I, at first, wasn’t sure it was him was because in the last videos with Ryan, he had a much longer beard. He had shaved it completely off in December as a fundraiser. It is substantial, but not as long as it was…yet. 

We had another 16 miles to do, most of which was climbing back up the way we had come down. We decided to take the way Makaela had come because it was paved and shorter. The only problem with that was it was now quite warm, and riding pavement is much hotter than riding gravel. The out and back was supposed to be about 18 total miles, but it was a little shorter because we didn’t come back up Harshaw Creek. At the end of the out and back, we turned onto Apache Rd. From the turn, we had about 4-ish miles to a dispersed campsite. 

Finished with the out and back. 

We set up camp, and then did a group cooking of pasta with sauce, mushrooms, olives, spinach, and some arugula on top. It was delicious!

Gourmet camp cooking!

Now that’s a meal!

So, now I can say I’ve been to Patagonia in South America AND Patagonia, Arizona!

Day 3- Sure Seemed Like A Lot of Pushing!

Well, that was a long day! Right out of the campsite there was a small downhill, then this. 

Already off the bike and pushing. At least we weren’t full up on water. 

We spent a good portion of the day pushing up steep rocky bits, even when the route was not supposed to be so rough. But, we also had some amazing fast gravel downhills. 

The views were nice!

There were numerous climbs that initiated the climb profile. This was the top of one of the longer ones (with much pushing).

Makaela happy to be at the top!

The view. 

We came down and were finally on some fast gravel. 

Open range land and ranches along this road. 

But then, it was back to rocky stuff…and more pushing. 

Everyone pushing!

We made it to Senoita, and our first resupply of food and water. First things first though, we went to an ice cream shop/diner for some food. Once we were full, we headed over to the mercantile to get food and water to last us until Patagonia tomorrow. I didn’t really need any food, so I just got a cookie. We didn’t need too much water either, but I got too much, and ended up dumping some and giving some to Catherine. It was just too much weight pushing up the hills!

We came back to Hwy 83, then had about 4 miles of a rollercoaster on pavement to Canelo Pass Road. From there we had two more climbs to the top of Canelo Pass. Fortunately, they weren’t long because we were more than ready to be done. We saw two Border Patrol vehicles on our way up. We are getting pretty close to Mexico. I imagine we will see more. 

Canelo Pass at last!

Looking down from the Pass to San Rafael Valley. 

We came down from the Pass just about a mile to a dispersed camping area. We made it to where I had planned, so we are back on schedule. We start tomorrow with a descent. 

It was a hard day today, but we managed to survive because, as Jana always says, we can do hard things.