I arrived in Arizona with an undying desire to camp along the Colorado River, a desire that ended up clouding my judgement. I had found a prime spot, roughly 20 feet from the rivers edge, set up camp and called it a day. The shells and river muck that littered the shore and came within inches of my tent, should have been my first clue that maybe I should relocate. Needless to say, I slept in the spot and awoke in the middle of the night with the Colorado River lapping a foot from my tent. My panniers and guitar case got wet but I avoided any serious water damage and nothing got washed away. I sat in my tent for a couple hours and watched the water to make sure it was not coming any further. After scaring off some noisy river otters and watching the water recede a couple feet, I fell back asleep. My first night in Arizona was a memorable one and the next day I celebrated entering the second state of my journey with a laundromat, Mexican food and a good beer.
After a long day riding through the Phoenix area I managed to pull over, set up the tripod and shoot this quick photo, getting some decent evening light in the mix.
Camping in the tidal zone of the Colorado River. Lesson learned.
There is Hope in Arizona. Not pictured is the billboard a mile out of town that reads, “You are now beyond Hope.” Nice to see a small town with a big sense of humor.
Some of the spots I originally wanted to see in Arizona, like Sedona, Flagstaff, the Grand Canyon and Prescott were both far out of the way and covered with a couple inches of snow. So rather, I enjoyed some of the lesser known areas of Arizona meeting a lot of very kind-hearted people along the way. While doing my laundry in Parker one day I struck up a conversation with a retired Kellogg's Company employee from Michigan, whose name was Elmo Martin. Before him and his wife Shirley pulled away they slipped a twenty dollar bill into the book I was reading. The next day riding along highway 60 on my way to Wickenburg I was waved down my a car full of giddy Chinese tourists. The driver, Peter was all laughs and smiles, he wanted a photo with me and my bike. The car ended up pulling away, but not without gifting me a tall can of Keystone, some Chinese medicine, and an invitation to stay with him in Bejing, once I made it to China on the bike. A couple hours after meeting these wonderful foreigners I was riding through Aguila about 30 miles to the west of Wickenburg, when the wheel on my trailer blew up out of nowhere. Aguila, being as small as it was, only had a small conveinent store, and was 5 miles back so that was not a good option, I was stranded for the time being. I considered hitching a ride to Wickenburg but realized that could not be done on a transamerica bikeride, without backtracking to recover the driven miles, this was also not a good option. I spent a couple hours trying to patch the inch long gash in the tube, trying anything I could think of. My patch kit ended up being a dud, because I had accidently put an empty tube of vulcanizing rubber in it before I left Redding. In the end I resorted to duct taping the tire back together and filling it with thick wool socks, for a little cushion on the rim, and riding the 20 miles to Wickenburg where I hoped there would be a bikeshop still open to buy a new tire and tube. The ride to Wickenburg was slow and I imagine my wobbling trailer looked pretty funny to passing motorists. My circumstances led me to this little bikeshop in Wickenburg where I met the owners Tina and Mike. They owned their little bikeshop/sports store, and being the kind people they were, opened up their closed doors to help me. I picked up a new tire and some tubes for the trailer, fixed the trailer out front of their store and continued on down the road to a cyclist friendly RV park, encouraged by the enthusiasm of the couple.
Peter Xu being stoked! This guy and his friends were on a trip through the iconic areas of the west. They flagged me down on the road, to get some pictures and inquire about what I was doing on the bike. If I ever make it to Bejing or Shanghi, I will be looking these guys up.
This photo may be a bit of a dramatization, but I actually rode the 20 miles from Aguila to Wickenburg on this sock filled tire. It is good to know that a ridiculous idea like this works to some extent.
Cacti in Tonto National Forest.
The last 3 days in Arizona consisted of some pretty serious riding, by my standards. From Wickenburg I covered about 100 miles trying to get through the greater Phoenix area and arrived outside of a small town called Apache Junction as the sun was going down. I camped off the highway, as usual. The next couple days I rode Arizona’s scenic highway 60 through the Superstition Mountains to the historic mining town of Globe and then through the flat farmland of Eastern Arizona to Safford. Temperatures started to drop as I got further east towards New Mexico. I was lucky enough to meet my grandparents in Safford for a couple days, where they so generously treated me to a warm hotel room and some great meals. We enjoyed the time together and saw all there was to see in the farm town of Safford, which was not much. From Safford it was a quick and easy ride to the New Mexico border. My ride through the state ended up being short but sweet. I was blown away by the generosity of everyone I met and inspired by the many simple acts of kindness that fell upon me. I cracked open a fortune cookie the other day in Safford, and the fortune read, “A day passed without a smile is a day wasted.” This made me think, since I left Redding at the start of January, not a day has passed where I have not smiled, laughed to myself, or let out a joyous scream while riding a fun section of road. Thanks for reading. Cheers!
Lake Tempe and the University of Arizona campus. After riding through the never ending streets of Phoenix, battling traffic and vicious lap dogs. Arriving in the upscale Tempe area was a nice change of scenery. Theses clouds stuck around throughout the day, but no serious rain happened.
Climbing a hairy section of highway along the scenic 60. Although, apparently not hairy enough, since I pulled over to take this shot.
Picketpost Mountain, just outside of Superior, AZ.
This German couple had been on the road for two and a half years. They had started in Germany, rode through Europe, South Africa, South and Central America and were getting ready to wrap up their trip in the States. See you guys in New York!
Arriving in Superior along a picture-perfect ride through the Superstition mountains.
The trusty stead, after a tense ride through the Queen Creek tunnel along highway 60.
Starting the morning off with sub-freezing temps in Peridot, AZ. Loosing appendages to frostbite is not so bad when you have scenery like this to look at while it is happening.
Pulling over on Highway 70 to enjoy a brief period of blue sky. Most of the day was overcast, which made for a chilly ride.
Chasing a storm and pedaling towards Safford, Arizona.
A typical bluebird day in Arizona after a night of snow in the Pinaleno Mountains to the southwest of Safford.
Spending some downtime with the grandparents in Safford. Thanks guys for a great couple days.
The last stretch of highway before crossing the Arizona/New Mexico border. Got the recommendation from Jeff at Hot Wheels Bike Shop in Safford to take this alternate route to Silver City, NM via highway 70 and highway 90. Thanks Jeff, it was a great ride.
My route through Arizona.
Day 21: Parker to Bouse (30mi)
Day 22: Bouse to Wickenburg (80mi)
Day 23: Wickenburg to Apache Junction (100mi)
Day 24: Apache Junction to Peridot (65mi)
Day 25: Peridot to Safford (60mi)
Day 26: Safford to Lordsburg (60mi)
Arriving in New Mexico after a brief stay in Arizona. Time to slow things down a bit.
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