Flagstaff, AZ to Phoenix, AZ in March 2000
Brian
arrived on Friday night, or should I say Saturday morning.... He called
from an airport somewhere and left a message that he would be arriving
at 12:30AM on Friday night. His first couple of days in Phoenix were
spent riding with a local club on their Annual Raid on Gila Bend.
It was good that we chose to do that because Brian hadn't spent any time
on his bike in ages. He underwent knee surgery in November and had
limited his bike activity to the stationary bike. The few days before
loading up the bike proved to be a worthwhile warm up. The photo includes
many of the riders with whom we rode during the weekend of March 11-12.
It was taken in a local park on one of the breakfast rides. I'm wearing
an orange helmet.
We
weren't quite sure where we were were going, or what we were doing.
The weather was horrible the week before. It had rained for several
days at the beginning of the week. We had the biggest snowstorm of
the year in the higher elevations, and I had been racking my brain for
good tour routes that would travel through the best scenery and not stress
Brian's knee. We had tentatively decided that we would head south
and see the area around Tucson, Sonoita, Patagonia, and on toward Nogales.
When the weather revealed a warmer side, a world of other options became
available. We considered heading north by car and were exploring
options for a pick up or drop off somewhere along route 66. We also
considered driving to Flagstaff and heading back. My car helped us
with our final decision. It decided that it wasn't going to go anywhere.
It (for all intents and purposes) blew up. That meant that we weren't
going to be able to use it to get to or from anywhere. We had to
rely on finding a ride to anywhere about 300 miles away. The decision
was finalized when Richard Moeur agreed to take us out in the woods and
leave us there. I'm sure he has wanted to do that to me at
other times, so it wasn't too hard to talk him into doing so under these
circumstances. That is Richard, in the back of his truck.
We
pulled into the parking lot of Mountain Sports sporting goods store in
Flagstaff around 9am on Wednesday morning. After fighting our way
toward a final bathroom break, past all the snowboarders and skiers waiting
in line for lift tickets, we went to check our load job on the bike.
With Richard's help, we completed a few pannier reflector modifications
and connected everything in a reasonably secure spot on the bike.
We did a pretty good job for our maiden voyage because we only had to stop
for one adjustment on our way out of town. There was a lot of snow
on the ground, but it wasn't uncomfortable. I had decided to bring
a fleece jacket. It was the perfect thing for the weather.
We
turned onto route 66 a few blocks from the parking lot and began to climb.
We had figured that there would be a fair amount of elevation gain at the
start of the ride. I had forgotten about the difference in elevation.
It took a while to get into the spin. We had driven from my home
in Phoenix which is at an elevation of less than 1000 ft to Flagstaff,
which is at 6900 feet. I was huffing and puffing, but couldn't figure
out why everything was so hard. In addition, it felt like we were
dragging. I kept whining (sorry Brian) and Brian responded that he
thought we were working so hard because of the headwind. I was stoking,
so I didn't feel it. I looked at plants along the side of the road
where grass and weeds were blowing in the wind and decided to accept his
explanation..... still, it felt like we were dragging something.....
Our
route followed the old route 66 alignment. In some places, it was
a two lane paved road north of I-40. In other places, the original
alignment was joined by the newer I-40 alignment. With every hill,
we thought that we had gained all the elevation we were going to gain before
starting what we hoped would be a memorable descent. Then, the road would
tilt upward again! We continued to huff and puff along. I hadn't
remembered that there is a significant elevation difference between Phoenix
and Flagstaff, and I still felt like SOMETHING was dragging! I whined
a little more, and Brian assured me that it was a combination of heavy
bike and headwind. I think he had forgotten the elevation difference
too.
This
is a photo of our first few feet on AZ interstate. In better weather,
the route would have been practically perfect. We had a whole lane
to ourselves, and the pavement and the grades were ideal. The issue
on this day was the wind. It was becoming stronger, and the open
highway provided less protection than the route through the trees had provided.
We were also riding through a lot of cinders that had been spread on the
highway to increase traction in the snow. The snow on the road had
disappeared, but the cinders were there as a reminder of the weather earlier
that week.
Aside
from the constant feeling that we were dragging something, and what seemed
like excessive huffing and puffing, we were doing okay. I had thought
that this segment of the tour would be easy because of the 2000 ft difference
in elevation between Flagstaff and Ash Fork. I was wrong. We
did a lot of stopping for Brian to stretch his knee during the first few
miles. All of the stops were beautiful. We had views of mountains
covered with snow off to the north, and snowdrifts that had not yet melted
on the side of the road. There was snow on the ground, but the weather
was beautiful. I was very comfortable in my lightweight tights and
a light fleece jacket. The jacket was a little bit warm, but I opted
to bring it instead of other riding jackets so that I wouldn't be cold
at night. On both sides of the highway were tall pine forests, with
occasional views into valleys. Traffic was far enough from us for
comfort, and aside from the cinders, there was very little debris along
the route.
Finally, we reached the top!!!!
We stopped to stretch and to commemorate our ride with
another photo. I took a lot of photos on our ride. I had just
purchased a digital camera in February and this was the first time I had
taken it on tour.
I
think I must have taken a photo to mark our progress at every road sign
that we passed along the route. That is one of the advantages of
riding on the back of a tandem. As long as I continued to exert the
same amount of force on the pedals, Brian didn't know whether I had taken
a photo or not. As long as I kept my pedal stroke smooth and consistent,
Brian would have to ask if I had the photo or if I wanted him to stop.
We kept joking that we wanted to get someone to take a photo of us riding
with him checking the bike brain up front while I typed onto a keypad on
the back..... It would have been nice to have the ride report complete
and ready to publish as soon as we finished the ride. I still felt like we were dragging, so we stopped again to stretch and catch our breath. This time we noticed that there was a problem and that something WAS dragging. The rear brake had come out of adjustment and was rubbing. We rode half of our ride with the brakes on!!!
We
passed an old gas station along the way. I wondered if it looked
the same when we passed as it did when route 66 was bringing a steady stream
of travelers to gas up at their pumps. There was a 76 station
sign and the pumps appeared to be of the same type that I had seen in small
midwestern towns that were said to have dated back to the 50s. I
had visions of shiny chevys with tailfins, huge convertibles with white
vinyl seats, and silver airstream campers with bumper stickers from all
the states between the gas station and Chicago...... There was a
kiosk with information alongside the building. We didn't stop.
It wasn't until after we passed the station that I realized that the kiosk
had route 66 information.
We
stopped at Garland Meadow overlook. I have heard that you can see
wagon ruts from pioneer days through the meadow. I couldn't see any.
I did find an antler. I think that finding that antler was the highlight
of the day for me. As you can see from the photo, it wasn't your
everyday, run of the mill, garden variety antler. It was
HUGE!!!
I wonder just how big the elk was. It was heavy
too. I can't even imagine how the elk could carry that thing around.
If I could have figured out a way to strap that puppy on the bike, it would
be sitting in my living room right now! I had to appease myself with
carrying it around for a while and taking a few photos. I finally
stashed it in the bushes. If anyone would find it, I wanted it to
be someone who wanders around and looks off the path. I figured that it
would be better for someone to stumble across it there than to leave it
in the parking lot for the kind of person who never leaves the car to find.
We caught a few more glimpses of Garland meadow and headed back out on
the road.
I
really liked this cabin on Rte 66 near something called Sherwood Forest
Road. It reminded me of cabins dating back to the mid 1800s that
had been made with a similar method in the midwest. It looks
like a cabin known as "Hardscrabble" that was built in 1854 by Ulysses
Grant. I remembered other cabins I had seen in central Illinois that
also had the same construction. I liked the trees surrounding the
place too. Everything else nearby had been cleared. I'm going
to have to go back and do some research on this one. My guess is
that it has been restored and has some significance in Arizona history.
I didn't see a kiosk, but I'd bet that if we had stopped, we would have
found a placard that would have provided more information. It might
have something to do with Bill Williams, but he was more of a wanderer
than the kind of guy who would build a cabin, so although the timing would
be right, I doubt that it was his cabin. Another possibility might
have been Lt. Beale, who brought camels to Arizona and used them as pack
animals on the Beal Wagon Road which ran in roughly the same part of AZ
as rte 66.
We
did stop at this placard. I was hoping to read some exciting information
about the location at which we had stopped. It was fairly worthless.
It had a small map with very few landmarks except for a little red car
and an arrow with the words
"YOU ARE HERE."
There was a gate and something about traveling to the
Grand Canyon through this area. They mentioned Beal and his camels
too. At one of the roadside
rest found a rest stops, we found a gatorade slot machine.
We put in a dollar for a gatorade that was supposed to be $1.50 and got
our drink and $.50 change. I out another $1 in and got 2 gatorades
and still got the change! We enjoyed our garotade glut well into
the next day.
Home,
Home On The Range...... Where the deer and the antelope play!!!!
This big eyed antelope proves that not all antelope roam. They weren't
playing either. They were begging, and they were serious about it.
They were the fattest deer I have ever seen, and it had to be from all
the coats and blue jeans they were nibbling on. I thought my dogs
were bad. I loved the sweet begging face on the antelope. Who
could resist that? These guys could ferret out a half ot a kernel
of corn from 50 paces away. They were hanging out at the Roehr Deer Farm.
They had a lot of different hand raised deer and a few antelope as well
as Elk and reindeer. We were treated very
well when we stopped there. They let us roll our bike right in to
the back room so that we could be free to have our fun roaming the property
with the deer.
Here
is another photo in the continuing series of Brian and AZ road signs....
In order to get into town, one must pull off on to the business loop.
There is a train that passes through the downtown area, so we found ourselves
climbing again, this time we had to get over the train tracks. The
loop through town is actually quite a few miles long. There were
several large motels from recognizable chains and a few major gas stations
before we even reached the populated part of town.
Williams
is a nice little town with cute little shops, lots of little tourist traps,
mom and pop style restaurants, and quite a few motels that had AAA signs
and other recognizable seals of approval out front. We looked around
for a place to get a snack. Neither of us were hungry enough for
a meal, but the prospect of stopping in a cute little coffeeshop and relaxing
for a bit sounded nice. We didn't see much of anything that really
suited our mood, and neither of us were hungry enough to feel like we had
to eat just then, so we looked in a few shops and rode on toward Ash Fork.
We should have stopped in Williams.
We
fought the headwinds for the rest of the route from Williams to Ash Fork.
It was AWFUL! We should have stayed in Williams and saved the downhill
for early in the morning before the wind came up. We worked harder
going down that hill than we did any other part of the day! We were
working to keep from getting blown right off the road! When we finally
got to Ash Fork, my quads ached, and butt hurt so badly that I was just
about in tears! I couldn't wait to find the hotel. It
was the sorriest looking town I have ever seen. The other hotels
looked so worn down and dirty that they might have been a few rungs below
camping on the comfort ladder. The hotel we had selected was the
nicest in town, which isn't saying much. It was clean and serviceable,
and very cheap. The TV was broken, and there were no conveniences
at all...not even a soda machine or telephones! There was no restaurant
in sight near the hotel that we had selected. We had to get back on the
bike and ride 3 miles to the other end of town to find food. We found
a great little cafe and ate good home cooking to ease our pain,
then went back to the hotel to sleep. It was a difficult, but
very fun day of riding. We were on that !#@% bike for almost 5 hours
and only traveled a little more than 50 miles!
