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!