:: shift7 ::

:: north/south adventure ::

arizona: day 19, tue 16 sep
grand canyon (south rim) - ash fork

stats:
70.2 @ 16.0 = 4:22:01, max 37.2, trip total: 1,460

eats:
cinnamon bun, 2 toaster waffles, oreos, double chocolate harvest powerbar, chicken strips, fries, apple pie, ice cream, [dinner]

sleep:
KOA campground, $5

thoughts:
sunny and 69. it's a beautiful day! downhill in front of us to start out. how could it get any better? well, when you ask a question like that, you leave the door open- for anything. the wind, it blew! and it kept blowing all day, as it is now (last photo), at rates of about 20mph with gusts in the 30's for sure. it's relentless and nasty. it's the invisible enemy, the one that took out a couple riders today.

it started out fine, a little downhill, but the wind was too quick. it got us before we warmed up. so drafting was key. tim and i alternated behind each other to shield the wind from the other. this way the person in front does most of the work and when they tire out they switch. my concern with tims weight was that he was too damn skinny (or i was too big), because that wind whipped around him like a wind tunnel. man, it sucked. but we "pulled" each other all day and it surely would have been a much longer day have we been single riders.
drafting clip

we saw dust storms kick up and blow across the landscape - it's hard to see in the photos but the haze is actually dirt blowing around. sound fun yet? you bet! the wind can almost stop you at times - and most of the day we were going about 12mph, although there were sections that it slowed to about 7mph. and the day was relatively flat or downhill with some minor ups. thomas rode about the same distance yesterday and today and averaged the exact same... yesterday had a ton of climbing so that's a pretty good indicator of how brutal it got. it was one of those days that when you stop you don't want to get back on the bike and start up again. you just look at it and feel the wind on your back as you turn your body for a break- it's too much to look into the eyes of the devil. so you finally muster the mental energy and then after about 0.7 miles you look at how far you've gone. shit! i got to go at least 10 miles before i can stop again, otherwise i will never finish.

the roadside treasure today was a new sign. it may seem odd but it was a little ray of light in the middle of a windy day. one more to add to the collection.

it seemed like we were never going to make it to lunch - a town called williams. but we did. it was marked by the first sign i've seen for los angeles. california? yep. highway 40, and it seems there's nothing between here and there worth mentioning, so you either go to los angeles (west) or flagstaff (east). of course LA is about four hundred and some miles away. it wasn't too reassuring that that was all they wanted to point out. we're going to be riding through western arizona for the next few days.

after lunch it was down to tim and i. the wind was even worse and we were getting on highway 40 for about 20 miles. that doesn't sound so bad until you think that it could possibly take 2 - 2.5 hours. it's not the quietest part of the ride but it finished the day and then it was time to rest. let's go. "that's the longest exit ramp i've ever been on," says tim. it took forever just to reach the road.
highway 40 clip

and that wasn't the end of the fun. we got two flats- one each. sound familiar? it should. it happened to us a couple days ago. again. right at the same time. how funky is that. hopefully he'll take that luck back to dc with him and not leave it here. but just as we got that fixed we started into road construction area- again. yeah, we've had a lot of that. but this was the highway, one lane, with trucks passing by and the wind. it was hairy.

the sign for ash fork was very welcoming- it was our sign to get off the highway. the end of the day. the town looked like nowheresville but at the same time it looked great. it's still windy. i really hope this isn't the trend for the next few days.

it was tims last day. he'll be leaving from flagstaff tomorrow, so we'll have a few rum and cokes to celebrate. (he brought the rum- the good stuff)