Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Southeastern Arizona

We are four days into our ride with Bicycle Adventure Club. This is the first time we have been on a supported tour, and we are having a blast!

We left Palmdale on Friday afternoon and drove to Chandler for the night.After a short ride (22 miles) along one of the canals we packed up the bike and headed south to Tucson on Saturday afternoon where we met up with our fellow cyclists. The cocktail hour/ride meeting happens every day at 5:00 to discuss that day's ride and go over the cue sheets for the next day. Most days we have the option of riding two different routes, with the hilly, longer route being the more scenic of the two.

Our first group ride was on Sunday morning. Most of the group rode a flat Tucson city tour, while about eight of us headed up Gates Pass (2,044 feet of climbing) and down the other side of the mountain into Saguaro National Park. The desert landscape has been amazingly beautiful, with lots of wildflowers, blooming cacti, and ocotillo. We lunched at Coyote Pause for lunch and headed back to the hotel for happy hour.

Day two took us on another 2,000+ climb day from Tucson to Tubac, a small golf and artist community. It was a hot, long day, with over 55 miles on the bike. We arrived at the picturesque Tubac Golf Resort just after 4:00 p.m. Along the way we stopped at the only Titan Missile silo, a museum with tours taking you down inside the silo. Unfortunately we arrived too late for a tour and couldn't take the time to wait for the next one. We read through the exhibits and learned a little about the missile system and it's capabilities before getting back on the road.

We spent two nights in Tubac, so a bit of a rest day. We rode a few miles down the road to tour the Tumacacori National Historic Park and mission, then spent the rest of the day having lunch and exploring a few of the shops. It's easy to just look and not buy when you are on a bicycle. Even with the van support, there is no room for any extra purchases along the way. We rode around some of the back roads of Tubac and finally got to see the Santa Cruz River, with water running. An odd site in such an arid place.

Today's ride was a short 35 mile ride to the small town of Patagonia. It was rolling hills through ranch land, along the dry river bed. Toward the end of the ride we rode several miles through a narrow canyon with sharp rock outcroppings and lots of trees.

Patagonia is a one-street town with a few art galleries, an organic health food store, and a hummingbird reserve. Many of the world's hummingbird species winter here and we saw many different kinds - although we don't really know what kinds we saw.

We're off to the daily ride meeting, and then a catered dinner at The Velvet Elvis. Should be interesting!

Happy Birthday Rob!