2017 09-18 Salome to Wickenburg

The scenery is starting to get a little repetitive now so finding new things to be amazed over is getting more difficult.  Most of today’s pictures where taken either at the beginning or the end of the ride, and this is perhaps due to the harsh light during the time in-between.  Harsh bright sunlight makes for bad viewing and awful pictures.

 One interesting things along today’s ride was provided by fellow biker Chris as he caught up and passed me in one of the many desolate areas along route.  While passing by in this one little bit of nowhere Chris shouted out “Another beautiful day in down town Arizona”. 

There were several historic markers along the route just before and in Wickenburg.  The first was for the site of a massacre that occurred on the morning of November 18, 1871, where a stagecoach carrying seven men was attacked by a party of thirteen Yavapai tribe Indians from the Date Creek Reservation.   The stagecoach was heading West and most of the passengers had plans to ride to Los Angels.

The second historic maker of note was for the Jail Tree, in use from 1860 to 1890.  Prisoners would be shackled to the tree and there where no know escapes.  It is told that folks in the town where to busy mining for gold to take the time to build a real jail building.

Wickenburg, with a population of 7115, is the largest city on our tour so far.  It is the oldest town north of Tucson, and the 5th oldest in the state (established in 1863). In its heyday, Wickenburg was the third largest town in Arizona. In 1866 it missed becoming the territorial capital by 2 votes.

The KOA campground we are staying at, located just beyond the city, is very nice.  It has a nice grassy area for us to set up tents, a recreation room next to the tent area, and an office that sells cold water for a reasonable price.

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2017 09-17 Quartzsite to Salome

There was such a rush to introduce Paul yesterday that an important fact was omitted, we left sunny California in the morning, crossing over the Colorado River and entered Arizona.  One state down and only six more to go.  

Another interesting fact, the Yacht Club Motel is a real Yacht club, even though it is near no water, and has the largest membership of any yacht club in the world.  The club charges a really small yearly few to be a member and as a member you have  access into any other yacht club in the world, no matter how fancy or expensive. This is a brilliant move by the owner, making membership money and having to provide hardly any services.

The trip from Quartzsite to Salome was typical of the last few days of riding, where a long section of the route was on the interstate.  The shoulders are wide so are relatively safe, but the sound of the high speed traffic wising by is very fatiguing.  And then there are the mine fields we have to contend with.  No, it is not a war zone, except maybe for us bikers.  Trucks traveling down the interstates at high rates of speed in really hot weather will shed the thread layers from their tires.  These various size pieces of rubber are loaded with long thin inflexible wires.  If you happen to ride over them you will get a flat.  Tom has had five flats in five days, some earlier flats from thorns, but the last two from these wires.  We look like drunken sailors swerving to and fro to avoid all the pieces of debris we possibly can.

There were two 1000 foot climbs today but neither were very steep, just long gradual climbs.  We all arrived in Salome relatively early and some of the earliest had to wait a few hours before being able to check into their rooms.  Salome is a small, no, very small town, one of the many victims of the high speed interstate.  The Sheffler’s Motel, probably very nice at one time, has seen better days.  It is an OK place for a biker to stay, but as some have said, “not a place I’d bring my wife.”   

The cooks tonight will have to be very creative to feed us with the very limited shopping available here.  Scratch that, we  are eating at the only bar which is right across the street - ques there were no food choices to feed a group of 13 hungry bikers.

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Map of total trip to date

2017 09-16 Palo Verde to Quartzsite

The sunrise bathed the sky and silhouetted the mountains with gorgeous shades of reds and yellows. Relaxing the soul is important on these long hot days and this was a very nice way to start today’s otherwise uneventful ride. 

Arriving into Quartzsite before noon allowed ample time to relax.  Another day where the locals told us how lucky we are that we did not come a week earlier when it was 15 degrees warmer.  The temperature today was in the upper 90s, I am very happy to have missed the 115 degree days. 

A few of us took advantage of the extra time and went to the Readers Oasis Books store.  Not to buy books but to see first hand the world famous owner, Paul Winer who is a talented musician composing all the songs he plays.  But perhaps more than his musical talents, people come to see his work attire.  This 74 year old man wears a cowboy hat, sandals and one sock to work.   His clothing cost is one of the lowest of anybody I know.  You have to see for yourself – check out my pictures.

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2017 09-15 Brawley to Palo Verde

It will be difficult leaving the air-conditioned comfort of the Gateway Church’s fellowship hall today.  But we will leave and ride 72 miles to Palo Verde.  Glamis, 30 miles into the ride is the last place where a biker can buy water.  From Glamis to Palo Verde there is nothing but dessert.  Today I’ll let the pictures do most of the narrative on the ride but would like to make one observation.  The dessert has an interesting beauty to it that may be missed if passed at the speed of an automobile.  The bike traveler gets to stop anywhere along the rode and sense all the dessert landscape has to offer.   One more note on today’s ride.  It was 95 degrees and we were told we are lucky because last week it was 12 degrees hotter.

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2017 09-12, 13 and 14 San Diego to Brawley

2017 09-14 Boulevard to Brawley

Breakfast was at 6 this morning so we could all get an early start as today’s ride will be 64 miles long.  One could only describe today as a real experience.  To start the ride we had a little climbing, nothing to sever and not that long.  Tom and Joe stopped at a point close to the Mexican border to take pictures of the fence separating Mexico and the USA, when up walks a local man on his morning walk.  A very pleasant and friendly man named Leberto, who has been living the US since the 60s.  He asked many questions about our journey and wished us well as he shook our hand and continued his morning walk.  You meet the nicest people while on bike trips.

Then we entered the interstate, I8, for what should have been a fantastic, several mile downhill.  One could easily have achieved speeds in excess of 40 MPH, but for one thing, which was marked by the sign at the top of the downhill, “Winds next 12 miles”. The cross winds where so strong that it actually made cycling down this section scary and dangerous.  The gusting winds would throw your bike first one way then the other.  At times you could barley control the steering of your bike.

After this white knuckle section, we had a slight down hill for several miles but with a tremendous tail wind.  It was easy to achieve speeds of 20 to 30 MPH without any effort.  It was enjoyable even though the road is in terrible shape.

After turning north for the final 12 miles to Brawley we were greeted by head winds that slowed our speed to less than 10 MPH.  Today was a day of extremes, but all contained the power of wind.

For a change, tonight we will be camping indoors in the fellowship hall of the Gateway Church.  It is now a sea of sleeping pads, sleeping bags, and bikes.  A modern facility with a pool, recreation room (we will all pass on this amenity), and a washer and dryer which are free to use.  They even supply detergent!  Our cooks have the use of a modern kitchen.  The showers where clean and refreshing!

Here are some interesting facts about some of the riders on this trip. Rich from Seattle, WA rode 4000 miles to get to the start of our 3200 mile trip.  Terry from Utah competed as a biathlon in the 1972 Olympics.  Eileen is a member of the support team for one of the riders in the RAM, which is a bike race across America taking about 7 to 9 days.

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2017 09-13 Alpine to Boulevard

As people road out of camp today, they looked especially hard so as to avoid runing over the little goat head thorn plants.  Most of the flats yesterday occurred in the last mile into  camp and no one wanted anther flat today.  These little plants seem to be adept at growing in the cracks in the road.

Toady was another day of climbing, but unlike yesterday, there was a few good down hill sections.  Today’s temperature was also a little cooler, only around 90 to 95.  They camp ground was interesting to say the least.  It was adequate to sleep but not much else.

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2017 09-12 San Diego to Alpine

We left San Diego behind today and headed for Alpine, CA.  The ride was only 44 miles but was not at all an easy one.  The ride out of San Diego was loaded with turns.  At times it was not easy to follow the bike route provided by Adventure Cycling.  Traveling with a GPS though should make this easy. The old saying goes, “Live by the sword, die by the sword”.  Let me rephrase that:  “Live by technology, die by technology.”  After the GPS failed four times, helping me to get lost as many times, it finally started acting “normal” when I reached the country roads with no turns.

The flat exit from San Diego turned into a never ending climb, right to our camp ground.  The temperature exceeded 100 degrees and the heat quickly drained ones energy.    It was a long, slow ride into camp.

Goat head thorns are prevalent in this part of the country.  Low growing plants with pea size seed pods, each pod loaded with little thorns.  They stick to anything, but seem to be especially fond of bike tires.  Four people had to fix flats tonight, which is never a fun experience.

We all slept well tonight.

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2017 09-11 San Diego – Cabrillo National Monument shake down ride

Our day started at 7 with a traditional Adventure Cycling breakfast consisting of cereal, fruit, yogurt and oatmeal.  The table also contained the fixings for making a lunch to eat during our shakedown ride.  The actual shakedown ride was not scheduled to start until 9, which made some of the rabbit riders who like to get out of “camp” early a little edgy.  

Today we rode as a group, which is not typical.  The first stop in the route was at the Ocean Beach Dog Beach, where we did the tradition wheel dip.  The tradition is to dip your rear wheel in the ocean at the start of your trip and the front wheel in the ocean at the end of your trip.  We have now achieved half the tradition.  The other half will occur in November when we have ridden our 3200 miles.

Our second stop was at the Cabrillo National Monument.  On September 28, 1542, Juan Rodriquez Cabrillo and his crew sailed into the harbor, now occupied by the USA Navy, and became the first Europeans to set foot on what would later become the west coast of the Untied States.  The views from the monument where spectacular and made up for the effort we had in climbing from the Beach to the monument.

The rest of the day was spent – resting.  Although some of the younger members of the group went down to bogie board in the ocean. 

Tomorrow we will leave San Diego, marking the real beginning of our journey.

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2017 09-10 San Diego

This morning I said good bye to Leandro, a very special person who I met here at the San Diego Point Loma Hostel.  Leandro is from Brazil and is traveling around the USA.  I will miss my conversations with him and thank him for making the start of my journey a pleasant and enlightening one.  Good luck Leandron on the rest of your travels.

Tonight will be the first official meeting of the Adventure Cycling Southern Tier bike ride.  Not wanting to waste the day, Tom, Chris, Patrick and Joe decided to take a short ride to the beaches of San Diego.   Our short ride was almost 30 miles long and what a great ride it turned out to be.  The clear blue skies and pleasant ocean breeze made taking in the marvelous views of the ocean especially pleasant.  We stopped and had lunch at The Board and Brew sandwich shop and enjoyed a great sandwich.  The place was popular and the food good.  After lunch, we continued north along the Ocean for several more miles before turning around to return to the hostel, enjoying the ocean views from a new perspective.

At seven this evening the 13 people who will become family for the next 65 days meet for the usual Adventuring Cycling orientation meeting, where the leader, Ken Exum discussed all the rules and requirements, and talked about what we could expect along our journey. 

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