(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. 

Day 2-An Adventure on the Arizona Trail

It was a windy night, but I think I got some hours of sleep. Got up about 6:00. Jana was first out, and I was second at 8:30. We started with finishing the climb we started yesterday. Jana was still having problems with her derailleur. 

We made a plan to stop and wait every hour. That worked well. No one gets super far behind, and no one has to wait a long time. 

We finished the one climb, but started a longer one not far up the road. That climb was 4.45 miles with an average grade of 5%. Even though there were some steep spots, I managed to ride all of it. 

Going down after the first climb. 

Jana working on her derailleur cable. 

See the uphill in the distance?

We took break for lunch midway through the next climb. 

After lunch we set to work really trying to fix Jana’s derailleur. She was no longer able to get into the easiest gear, and we really needed our easiest gears! I thought maybe the derailleur was a whole gear off (I’ve experienced that before). We found a tree branch where we could hang the bike by the saddle, and properly adjust the derailleur cable. It was a whole gear off. After painstakingly getting the now fraying derailleur cable back into the bolt, we were able to use the barrel adjuster to get it back to able to use all the gears. However, as the cable is frayed, we are hoping Jana can get a new cable in Patagonia on Monday. 

We continued on the route. We came to where we were riding on the AZT. Well, since it is mostly a hiking trail, we were “hiking” our bikes up the steep rocky parts. 

The riding didn’t last long. 

Back to riding on more of a gravel road, we came to a cattle tank. At this point, we knew Catherine was going to run out of water before we made it to Senoita tomorrow. Fortunately, Jana brought her filter. Catherine was able to refill her water. 

Makaela helping filter water. 

Our next turn was for Kentucky Camp. It is primarily for hikers. It used to be a mining camp. Little did we know, because it wasn’t on the map, but they had everything there! Water, electricity, showers, and even oranges for hikers (and bikers)! So, Catherine filtered water unnecessarily. Oh well, these things happen. We all drank until our bellies were sloshing, and each had an orange. We toyed with the idea of staying, but it would make a 40 mile day tomorrow with a resupply stop in Senoita. Makaela really wanted a shower. I suggested she take a shower (Catherine did too), then ride to where we were supposed to get to (5 more miles). Jana and I would go ahead and find a place to camp. 

The road to Kentucky Camp. 

AZT sign. 

Part of Kentucky Camp. 

Info board. 

Jana and I took off. We started with some AZT singletrack. Not my favorite, but it was rideable for me. We came out to some rough Jeep tracks. We both had to push up some steep rocky stuff. I was glad we had pushed on, and not saved it for the morning. 

We came upon a good spot to camp. We weren’t quite as far as we had planned, but just 1 1/2 miles short. We decided to call it good. Makaela and Catherine arrived only about 1/2 hour or so after us. 

Jana, Catherine, and my tents. 

Makaela’s tent. 

The cows frequent this spot as evidenced by all the cow patties, but we all found cow patty free spots. 

We rode about 19.5 hard miles today. I’m really glad I made this day only 21 miles! The AZT is quite the adventure!

Day 1-It All Worked Out in the End!

Picking up where I left off, how was Catherine going to get her rotor replaced at the bike shop that opened at 10:00, and still ride? Oh, we had a plan for that! Jana, Makaela, and I would head out around 8:30 (it ended up being 9:00 by the time we brought our cases/boxes down to be stored by the hotel until we return in 9 days). Catherine would Uber to Transit Cycles, getting there right at 10:00. They would fix her bike, then she would Uber to Green Valley, and meet us there. Green Valley was about 26 miles for us. We would keep in touch throughout the ride.

Ready to go!

Catherine getting ready to get a ride to the bike shop…and me. 

As we weren’t on the route yet, I created (well, I mostly just let RWGPS create it) a route to Walmart in Sahuarita, then to the route on Box Canyon road. We needed to get stove fuel at Walmart. 

The ride was pretty good for the three of us. 

Jana had off and on derailleur issues, which we stopped to adjust periodically. We had to ride around the airport first. 

We even got in some gravel via some connector roads. 

We rode through some neighborhoods with lots of saguaro cactuses. 

Lake Sahuarita Park

Turtle sculpture. There was a sign saying not to touch it in the sun as it could burn you. Yep, this is Arizona!

We came to a detour. The road we were supposed to turn on was closed. We followed the detour signs which led us down a road that said “Dead End”. Turns out, they built a new road! It was leading g us back to the road we were supposed to be on, but we realized we could take a dirt road straight south. It kind of deteriorated into a bit of singletrack, but it worked out. 

Just before popping back out to pavement. We came to another park that had a filtered water bottle filling station. We decided to go ahead and fill all our water containers there. We were each carrying 10+ liters of water. It has to last us until Senoita in two days. Man, were those bikes HEAVY!!!

We just had 1/2 mile to Walmart where Catherine was waiting for us. The owner of the bike shop, Jenna, had given Catherine a ride to Walmart. How nice is that??? Catherine was able to get food and water there. We also got the fuel. There’s was a taco truck, so we had lunch too. A very productive stop!

Handy Walmart parking lot taco truck!

7 liters of water buried in that!

Another 3+ liters there. 

Catherine is back!

The four of us headed out into the headwind. At the turn onto East Continental we had a brief moment of tailwind before turning into more of a crosswind, and our climb of the day. It was supposed to be about 10 miles and 1500 feet, but it sure didn’t seem like it. It didn’t initiate the climb profile until we had just a couple miles to go. Still, we were ready to be done, and it was slow going. 

We did get to ride on this bike path for awhile. 

Finally, we made it to the actual route, and the turn onto Box Canyon Rd. Now, we just needed to find a suitable spot to camp. Not far along the road there was a turnoff. Clearly others had camped here before. We were home for the night!

Just my tent under a mesquite tree and a barrel cactus. Welcome to desert camping!

The wind was blowing pretty hard, so it took awhile to get set up. Later, dinner was cooked, and we all retreated to our tents. Even though it was a bit of a rough start, it all worked out, and we are where we intended to be. 33.3 miles for the day. 

Goodnight from Arizona!