The mountains may kill me

TToday we rode the 46 miles from Cottonwood, to Flagstaff Az. Since today’s ride was only 46 miles it was supposed to be the shortest ride we’ve had since our first few days on our bikes. I say it was supposed to be a short ride though, because we took a few different detours today that managed to make it a fairly long day where most people didn’t make it in to the host site before 5:00pm. It turns out Sedona sits right between Cottonwood and Flagstaff and Sedona is a fairly good place to take a couple of extra detours on a short day.
Our first detour of the day was to Bell rock. It was just 6 miles outside of Sedona, so it wasn’t really hard to get to once we made it all of the 17 miles this morning to actually get into Sedona. Bell rock was amaizing. It is just a large red rock formation that they let people climb. It isn’t too tall, less than 600 feet or so, but it seems huge when you see it and the views from it are amaizing. It took us about 40 minutes to climb all the way up to the top, but then we took our time up there and back on out way down so it ended up being about an hour and a half detour. Oneof my favorite thing about it was at the very top there was an army amo can filled with letters people wrote to others who reached the top, most were very cheerful and congratulatory, and made me feel close to a bunch of people who I didn’t really know at all except for this one thing we all had in common.
Our second detour was actually our lunch stop. We stopped for lunch at slide rock state park. It is a crazy place set in some canyon where the water has really smoothed out he rocks such that they act as a natural waterslide. The water apprentally comes from the snowmelt, so it was super cold, but it was alot of fun. I was suprized by how much you were actualy pused through the slide by the force of the water. Also at Slide Rock were a few cliffs that you could jump off of into pools below. I tried jumping off of the tall cliff which was somewhere between 30 and 40 feet tall. A number of our other rider all jumped off, so I figured I could do it. It turns out that I couldn’t though. I did manade to get off of the cliff into the water but I didn’t jump so much as fall. I just kind of leaned over the cliff and let gravity do its job. I don’t think I could physically will my legs to make them jump, so I just get gravity take over and do it’s thing.
Slide rock was really our last detour of the day. We didn’t leave there until after 2pm so we didn’t really have any time after that to ay around. It turns out his was for the best because after lunch we really had some fairly serious riding to do. At one point we had to climb some 3000 feet in 2 or 3 miles. This involved some crazy narro switchback streets up a mountain which were less than enjoyable but we all eventually made it, which shows just how fat we have all come since the start of the trip.
Eventually we did make it to Flagstaff, however it was really kind of late already so i didn’t have any time to explore before dinner which was a shame because Flagstaff seems lime a really cool place.
Tomorrow we get to he Grand Canyon which everyone is really excited about. I would love to b able to climb all the way down tomorrow when we get there, but that is looking less and less likely, so i may just have to settle for a day hike on our day off. We shall see.

Today was our 7rh straight day of riding, and thankfully it was our our last for this series, because tomorrow is a build day and a much needed break from cycling.
Today’s ride was another beautifully senic ride through the mountains of Arizona. It started off with a full 25 miles of climbing. We climbed something like 2500 feet before lunch. But the climbing really wasn’t bad today. The roads here are more gradual than the one we rode on back east, and after almost two months of daily riding we are a bit better prepared for a morning of climbing.
After lunch we really had some fun. We managed to descend almost 4000 feet after lunch. So we gave back every foot we climbed this morning and then some. Our first decent after lunch was a beautiful 9 miles with a 6 percent grade down through the mountains. As you can probably expect we all really enjoyed this. The only reason to pedal for the first 15 minutes after lunch was to see how quick you could get going down the hill. One of our leaders was able to reach a personal best of hitting over 50 mph on that hill. I didn’t go quite that fast, but I certainly did enjoy the ride.
I managed to get in to the host site fairly early today because it wasn’t a bad ride, and there weren’t alot of places to stop along the way. When I got in i met Karen, who is the director of the local Habitat affilate we will be building with tomorrow, and she gave me some great news. She had managed to get all of us in our group, day passes to Cottonwoods new recreation center. So I went and spent a few hours this afternoon relaxing, splitting my time between the indoor pool, the giant hot tub, and napping in a chair nextto the pool. I really can’t think of a better way to spend the afternoon. The jets of the hot tub were like tiny little midget hands massaging away all the miles we climbed this morning. It was glorious.
So now I’m sitting here waiting to get picked up from the rec center so I can get back for dinner which is being provided by the church we are staying at. Later this evening we are going to have a “star party” with Karen and her husband. Apprentally they are Into astronomy, because they are bringing out some of their telescopes and they are going to be shwing us all what we can see in the night sky out here in Az. Should be a good evning, and like I said tomorrow is a build day and a much deserved day off the bike.

Today’s ride turned out to be a great ride, though it certainly didn’t start out that way, not for me at least. I had a very rough start to my day this morning. It turns out that i throughly enjoyed prom last night. I may infact have enjoyed it a bit too much. As such even after almost 7 hours of sleep I was not feeling very motivated for today’s ride. However the unfortunateness that was my morning was not just field by my exuberance last night. It was also another cold overcast Arizona morning where I was expecting it to rain on me all morning. Oh yeah and seriously the first 20 miles this morning were all uphill. Despite all of hese forces working against me, I managed to grind through the first 20 miles of this morning and as a reward was granted beautiful views and riding for the rest of the day. Seriously after that first 20 miles the clouds started to part, the temperature started to rise to a managable level, and the road dropped over 2000 feet in elevation in rhe first six miles, and seemed to just keep dropping further after that.
So dspite a rough start, the day turned out beautifully. I managed to get into Payson early enough that I had time to go to DQ for a predinner snack before getting to our host site.
Besides that it wasn’t a very interesting evening. We are staying at a local Methodist church. Dinner was provided for us by the local Habitat affiliate who apprentally thought we were going to be a large motorcycle group until they showed up and saw bicycles lining the hall. Once we got that all straightened out they really seemed glad to hear about all the work we are doing, and I think they hope to get a group back here next year to actually do some work with them.
Tomorrow we head 70ish miles i think to Cottonwood Az. I don’t know anything about Cottonwood except that we are going to be building there which is really exciting because it means we are finally going to be done with our 7 day of cycling in a row and our butts will finally get just a little bit of much needed break. Woo

Arizona is a strange place, and nothing like I expected. All spring while I was training I was preparing myself for miserably hot flat barren desert. So far however I haven’t gotten any of that in Arizona.
Today it rained. I got rained on before lunch, and I got rained on after lunch. It was a cold rain as well. While riding today I read a sign on a bank saying it was 56 degrees, and that was in the later afternoon. I was seriously worried about frostbite. Which sounds rediculous considering I am riding through Arizona during the hottest part of the year.
Because of the weather today’s ride was a long one. We got on the road about 7:30, and I didn’t get into our site until after 5pm. I wasn’t riding that entire time though. I stopped to help fix two flats, one of which was less than 2 miles from the host site at the end of the day. I stopped for awhile in the morning to climb a rocky hill for awhile. I also stopped at least three times because of the rain. The longest stop was for the better part of an hour at Carl’s Livery. I had stopped at a church just a couple of miles up the road to try and let the rain pass, but as soon as I got on the road again the rain picked back up so I ducked into Carl’s. There weren’t all that many places to stop so I think I was eventually joined by 8 or 9 of the other riders all trying to get out of the rain.
The best suprize of the day came when I finally made it to the host site. We were staying at the local highschool but the locker rooms were under construction so we were actually not expecting showers for the first time on the trip. Our cue sheet this morning actually said we would be having hose showers at the school if anything. After freezing all day in the rain hosing myself down when I finally got to the school sounded like the worst idea ever. However when I finally got to the highschool I learned that they had actually found an rv park for us to get hot showers at. It seriously made my day, just to be able to warm myself back up to human temperature after spending the last few hours of the ride just miserably cold.
Also after dinner we had our bike prom inthe highschool’s gym. I was decked out in a tux that I picked up at a goodwill in Roswell. Most of the girls went for puffy 80′s prom dresses, though there was at least one figure skating looking unitard mixed in as well. It was a lot of fun, and I really think everyone got into it and had a good time even though we wrapped it all up by 11:00pm so we could get some sleep before having to ride our bikes again the next morning.
I’m sorry to say I don’t have any pictures of us in our prom attire. I didn’t think to have my phone on me at the time. You will just have to settle for a picture I took from the top of the hill I climbed before lunch. Enjoy.

We made it to Arizona today, so we only have two states left between us and calfornia.
Today started great. We didn’t have to get up until 7am this morning, which is actually a couple of hours after wenormally get up this means I actually got 8 hours of sleep for the first time in weeks. After we finally got up and had breakfast at the pie town community center, most of us went back to rhe daily pie cafe that was already closed when we got in the day before. I got a slice of the lemon icebox pie as a post breakfast snack. It was a fantastic way to start the day however it ment that I didn’t actually get around to riding my bike until after 10am this morning.
Once we did get around to riding it turned out to be a great morning ride because pie town is just over the continental divide it meant that we started the morning at top of a vary large hill. I think the first 20 miles may have been downhill. After those first 20 miles the weather took a bit of a downturn. I spent the better part of the afternoon trying not to get rained on. For the most part I was able to succeed in this goal. I had to ride through a little light rain for a few minutes until I was able to duck under a reststop shelter to let let the rain pass. All in all it wasn’t too bad considering how much rain there seemd to be in the sky around me all day.
Tonight we are staying in the 8th largest geodesic dome I. The united states. It is the stadium of the local highschool. It I’d bigger then the gym where I went to college. We are actually sharing the dome with some 200 highschool band kids so it’s a bit different the. Where we were staying last night where the town didn’t even have 200 residents.
Tomorrow is another 80 mile day of mountains in Az. Should be fun.