:: shift7 ::

:: north/south adventure ::

arizona: day 18, mon 15 sep
cameron - grand canyon (south rim)

stats:
49.7 @ 14.2 = 3:29:24, max 34.3, trip total: 1,389
[designated driver = 8 + road construction = 5]

eats:
bacon, pancakes, pretzels, oreo cookies, gold fish, cheese sticks, pepperoni and tomato pizza, 3 fat tires, m&m mcflurry

sleep:
Holiday Inn Express, $28

thoughts:
amazing wonders. one sweet world. the grand canyon truly is grand- but not so much as represented by my photos. yeah, yeah, you've heard this i know- the quality and the scale, blah, blah. you can't even get far back enough to get a quarter of the view within the viewfinder. it's why they made national geographic back in the day.
grand canyon clip

today was planned as a short day - about 60 miles- to recoop from the long haul around the canyon through the previous days that had nothing. actually the entire route was planned with alternating short and long days so it would be easier for the body to withstand the full trip. and that includes everybody on the trip. my body has definitely felt the benefits from the shorter days - my ankle has made it this far and seems only to be getting better- although slowly (probably because of the longer days). everyone seems to be doing generally well. thomas has this cough he's grappling with- that may have started from the fires in montana. my dad is doing great, sore like the rest of us. tim has no worries, he asked me if my muscles felt sore today- i kinda laughed at the idea. i almost said, 'no, not at all. i feel totally refreshed every morning. especially after stretching out in a sleeping bag!' but i told him the truth- it only hurts in the morning before i'm warmed up and in the afternoon when i'm done and cooling off. i could see it made him feel better.

so for a short day, we got on the road a bit later- like 9am. it was another day of up. basically we started at the elevation of the little colorado river and had to climb around to the south rim - which is about 3500 feet above. it was steady all morning long. 4-6%. the deal was that i would drive half the day- after the first 30. so i rode out with thomas and my dad. it was quiet and the road was less traveled than what we've been on for the past few days. it was nice. it wasn't hot but it was certainly warm right from the get go. at 2.3 miles i felt sweat run down my face and on my glasses. at 8.1 i was all out wet and ready for a cold beer. sure it was before 10am but it was only another 22 miles for my day. isn't that a switch in perspective! a 30mile day versus the day before - it felt like a one pit stop day. i was cranking up 6% hills at 13 mph. i know this stuff might get a bit techy but it's how i'm living it- it's the best way to explain it. anyway, the shorthand is i was cranking.

we stopped at an overlook that positioned you right over another canyon with the little colorado. seeing these canyons one right after another for days makes you feel like that's all arizona is- a bunch of holes in the ground. amazing holes, but you see my point.

so i'm heading up one of the longer inclines and find that my gear shifter won't shift. the front gears. odd. it was like trying to push a brick through sand and a grinding sound made it all that much more interesting. not having the range in gears meant the equivalent of using either 4th and 5th in a standard car or 1st, 2nd and 3rd. so in town it would be best to use the lower 3 and highway driving would be better with the top two. it really comes done to the hills (they call them mountains out here). you prefer the low gears for the hills. so when i caught up with the van, tim and i took a look at it. note to self: do not try this again. we determined that it was in the shifter (on the handle bar) and not the deraileur or the cable, etc. so it was in the one piece of equipment that i didn't have a spare for. then again, i never had to fix a shifter. then again, that's why that's the part i need. as we carefully took it apart on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, the springs and washers sprung out at a high velocity. this immediately made me think of a couple things: 1. don't loose the parts, 2. they were tension set inside this mechanism- which will be close to impossible to put back together, 3. what order where they in?- which adds to the complexity of putting it back together.

an hour later it was all back in one piece- with no tension, a few choice words swung around between friends, and a half baked shifter. it worked kinda. back to the analogy of a car- it had no clutch now but you had the gears. we did joke about it, i could always reach down and change the gears manually. or better yet, get off the bike each time i wanted to shift gears. it was so funny. so funny because i once broke a shifting cable and had to only use X amount of gears on a previous trip. i went three days looking for a cable and almost bought a $99 bike at wal-mart just for the cable. much wiser now, i brought extra cable. you can see the humor in it can't you? i have spokes, gears, tubes, tires, pedals, computers, wires, cables, clips, chains, mouth pieces and bladders for the camel back, pumps, extra odometer, tape, shoes, bearings, on and on... but no extra shifter. it was funny, trust me.

i used the high gears for most of the ride and shifted once to the low gears before getting to the van where i was going to take over driving.

the day flew by. when you have the time you use it up- talking at the rest stops and taking more photos. it was after 3pm before we knew it. we also ran into road construction (again) and had to ferry the bikes across a certain section. not only was the road gravel and full of holes (an arizona thing), it was also very dusty so breathing it in was not the best riding condition. and by the time we were done with that i got to ride again, my dad took over the last little bit of driving.

the last section for the day was quick. it was rolling along the rim. and the day was at its best. we got to town and met up with my mom (mercedes) who will be driving for the remainder of the trip.

we made it another day. another day closer. everything is in sync now. tourists are even taking pictures of us now. i swear there was this couple that stopped their car and took photos of us as we passed them on the other side of the road. the background was nice too- i wish i could get a copy!