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!