Day 47...Apache Country

Jim helping me before take-off
Day 47, Arizona

The morning was a brisk 35 degrees but sunny and temperatures were expected to climb to about 60 degrees, which was 10 degrees warmer than the previous two days. We deserved at least a small break from the brutal cold.

Start of our ascent into The Black Hills
Day 47, Arizona

Last night I felt pretty beat up from being so cold –  shivering takes a lot out of you. I know this from working in Alaska (on the Iditarod). Add thousands of feet of climbing and 75+ miles/day in the saddle and its easy to understand how sapped of energy I was. But I woke up this morning feeling better and ready for a few miles of descent I knew would start our day.

Prior to taking off Kevin received a text from Jeff’s wife (and Kevin’s cousin), Koral. She wrote: “After finishing an hour spin class I’ve reached the conclusion when you get to San Diego that you and Emi should skip the spa, massages, etc and head strait for the mental health clinic! Better take Jeff and Jim with you.” Ha! Isn’t that the truth! Well put Koral!

Through the pass, descending towards Safford, AZ

We sailed down the road for the first 8 miles, averaging 24 mph. That’s when we hit our first and biggest climb of the day.  We rode 3 miles almost strait uphill then 6 miles through to the pass of the Black Hills.  I was saturated with sweat at the top and knew the descent would be another cold one. It was. For the rest of the day I went from being cold to hot to cold. That’s the trouble with climbing mountains on cold days I suppose. ;-)

Arizona

Our day was originally meant to end around 75 miles but the day was young by the time we reached Jeff and so we decided to carry on. We stopped just shy of Peridot, AZ and have entered the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation. We finished up the day with 93 miles in the bank leaving us just over 500 miles to San Diego. Looks like we are ahead of schedule by a few days! Woo hoo!

San Carlos Apache Reservation