Super Biker Woman's Bike Touring: Day 2-An Adventure on the Arizona Trail

Sunday, March 30, 2025

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.