(Mon, 3/3/25; 31 miles, 2800 feet of climb)
Today was a day of FIVE (5) disappointments, but a thrilling finish. I love happy endings!
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DISAPPOINTMENT #1:
I have to postpone my rest day. I was really looking forward to taking a day off in Globe. Last year on GUMBIRD I took a rest day every ten days; this time I planned one every seven days. But it has now been TEN days since I’ve had a break (my sick days in Yuma).
But I just can’t take off tomorrow. Before I even left this morning, I was doing a little research. I’ll be heading mostly southeast for the next five days. Tomorrow, the wind will be from the northwest. Tailwind! But the following day, it will be from the southeast — a direct headwind.
The next leg of the trip, from Globe to Bylas, will be relatively difficult. Not as much climb as today, but 48 miles with 2000 feet of climb is still a big day with the weight I’m hauling. I don’t think I could live with myself if I’m sitting around a hotel room on the day of the tailwind, and then setting off the day of the headwind.
The day AFTER that, from Bylas to Safford, is only 33 miles and 500 feet of climb. So I will tackle the headwind that day. My rest day off will have to wait until I get to a town with hotels, which is probably Lordsburg, NM.
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DISAPPOINTMENT #2:
It was COLD today! I debated wearing leg warmers and raincoat, because I’m so used to warming up quickly. But today I put them on and never took them off. The HIGH for the day was 51°F! I think this was the coldest day of the trip so far, or at least the lowest high temp.
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DISAPPOINTMENT #3:
It was WINDY today! Most of the day was 18 mph winds, with gusts up to 28. Brutal. Fortunately, it was usually more of a crosswind than a headwind, but when the road is weaving around hills, you get subjected to it head-on every once in a while.
Way too windy to fly the drone today. 🙁
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DISAPPOINTMENT #4:
Man, those HILLS! Unlike the previous two disappointments, this one was expected. But it still was a shock to the system to go up so relentlessly— the worst hills in two weeks (since east of San Diego).
I was in granny gear for the first monster hill, but even with less than a 1:1 ratio, I still found my heart rate pushing 165 beats a minute. That’s not sustainable long for me, so I had to take a lot of breaks.
When the gradient got above 7% for long, I also did some walking segments. It wasn’t a bad rhythm — ride, rest, walk — but progress was very slow. I remember checking at Mile 6, and at that point the total elapsed time (including breaks) was THREE HOURS. I thought, at this rate, I can finish those 26 miles in only 13 hours! Of course it did get much better after that first huge hill.
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DISAPPOINTMENT #5:
I did not get to see an old friend today as I had expected. Bryan Bargain is the manager who hired me for my first job at Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlour in Har Mar Mall in Roseville, Minnesota, in June, 1976. He had a big impact on me.
I have not seen him since probably 1981, but he and his wife are camping nearby and we planned to have dinner tonight. I was so excited! Alas, the cold and wind drove them to pack up and move further south this morning. Missed it by ONE DAY! 🙁
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DISAPPOINTMENT #6:
The hotels were all full! When I finally made it to the Globe area, I stopped at a Subway. It was my first sit-down break since leaving five hours earlier, and much-needed. I was trying to find a hotel, and the only two available on Priceline were a Holiday Inn at $440 for one night, and a Best Western for a much more reasonable rate.
I had been watching that BW for a couple of days on Priceline, and was waiting for the price to come down, a game I have played often. Well, sitting at that Subway five mlles away, I finally decided to click to confirm…and then the app suddenly said it was sold out! Missed it by MINUTES.
I wasn’t too worried, since I figured it would be common for a hotel not to give all their rooms to Priceline. Also, someone recently said that hotels ALWAYS have an extra room or two. The only question in my mind was whether they could match Priceline’s price. So on the way there, I stopped to buy some heavy stuff (apple, banana, pistachios) since it was so close. When I got to Best Western, guess what: They really were totally sold out! The clerk said that the local copper mine was shut down for maintenance, so all the employees were all having a night on the town. I never thought I’d have trouble finding a room on a Monday night in early March!
There were a few local motels from the 1950s, but they were sold out, too. So I realized that now, even though I was exhausted, I’d have to ride another 8 miles and 200 feet of climb to go to a casino hotel. It was a 3.5-star hotel, but even cheaper than the BW. I saw it on Priceline earlier, but I didn’t want to have a fancy hotel with no free breakfast buffet, and I definitely was not interested in biking more today. But now I had no choice.
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THE THRILLING FINISH!
One I secured the casino room, I took off again. The 200 feet of climb was all at the beginning, and it was even slower than the first monster climb this morning, because I was tired and now had extra weight.
But once I summited that hill, everything changed. The next six miles were pure glory! It was literally all downhill from there— only 1-2% grade, but now that I was on Highway 70 heading east, that 18 mph wind was now a DIRECT TAILWIND!
Unbelievably, I was racing along at 25-30 mph without even pedaling!! I think this was the most thrilling wind-surfing that I’ve done since biking across Wyoming with my brother Jim in 1982.
Getting to Apache Gold Casino and Resort was also a surprise — this place is REALLY NICE! Now I wish I was taking a day off here. This is the fanciest room I’ve stayed in for a long time. I took a walk to the restaurant, and they had fish & chips for $13! So of course I had to do that. (Fish is good for your blood pressure, you know.) And the menu shows some great breakfasts for good prices, too, including pancakes for carbo-loading, and they open at 7:00 am. So it might be even better than those hotel room waffle makers.
OTHER NOTES:
I finally met Curt! I had heard about him from Regan Freeman, the young biker I met yesterday. Curt lives in Utah and is doing the whole Southern Tier from San Diego to St. Augustine, but he has a secret weapon: His wife Marnie is driving an RV! So Curt gets to ride his super light carbon fiber bike without any panniers, and never has to worry about where to sleep or where to find food for breakfast is dinner.
Later in the day, Marnie pulled up to me in her RV and called me by name and asked me if I needed anything! Word travels fast on the bike trail.
Tomorrow I should be enjoying tailwinds, and I get to stay on the San Carlos Reservation with a Lutheran pastor and his wife!
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TRANSLATIONS/BACKGROUND: “CANTBIRD” = CA-AZ-NM-TX Bike Ride, my own nickname for the 1000 miles on the western half of the Southern Tier Bicycle Route, from San Diego to El Paso, using maps from ACA (Adventure Cycling Association). (I did the 1500-mile eastern half in March 2024, which I called GUMBIRD [Gulf of Mexico Bike Ride].)
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LINKS:
Old-fashioned BLOG if you have friends who don’t use Facebook:
“Old Scouter” Facebook page if you want to follow big adventures with more pictures and video clips (but not unrelated personal posts):
“Old Scouter” YouTube page (when I get time to edit after the trip):