Days 7-8: Peach Springs to Ash Fork

Posted by: Arin

As a cyclist you don't find yourself sitting discouraged on the side of the road after a 5 mile descent, but that's exactly where we found ourselves at 5pm Monday evening. We had planned on getting to Williams by the end of the day, but howling crosswinds throughout the day found us 5 miles from Ash Fork and 23 from Williams. We had only ridden 50 miles in 7 hours, with a couple of very disappointing burritos in the middle. 

One high point of the day had been at an A&W in Seligman. We stopped to get a root beer float as a little pick me up, and happened to meet a rep from Fulcrum wheels on his way back to Florida from the Sea Otter Classic, who hooked us up with a tube and pair of socks each!

On the side of I-40 we realized we weren't going to make it to Williams, so we rode 6 more brutal miles to a Family Dollar in Ash Fork to get some food. Outside the store we met a lady who just started telling us some jokes, the most memorable being: "What do you call a bicycle that can't stand up?"

"Two tired." Just how we felt. 

We thought we were going to sleep behind some trees, and spirits were still pretty low, so we decided to get some beer and refill Brad's fuel for his stove at the local gas station. Spending a long time deciding on the beers, we finally bought a couple 24oz Sierra Nevadas. As we were leaving the store, we met a couple guys and started talking to them about what we were doing. One of them actually offered for us to sleep on his property, so we loaded up our bikes in the back of the truck and sat in the flatbed for a 6 mile ride that included some bumpy dirt roads. It was out of our way a little bit, but he told us he had a jacuzzi and a sketchy skate ramp, so of course we were in.

We got there and had a few beers with the saviors of our day before getting into the jacuzzi.

We set up our tent and went to bed buzzed and happy. There was a lunar eclipse later that night, but we were too tired to stay up and watch. What followed was a freezing night, one that my sleeping bag was just able to handle. I had left all my warm clothes in my panniers and there was no way I was getting out of my bag. We also neglected to put on the rain fly. Despite the cold, it was a good night of sleep.

In the morning we woke up and our hosts made us omelettes with eggs from the 5 chickens they own and home made bread. It was amazing.

We started doing some laundry and packing up our stuff, but when the idea to stay another day arose we had to take the opportunity. We had been riding for a week straight and this seemed like the best possible place to take the day off. What followed was a day of goofing around with the guy that let us stay here.

We did some easy off-roading in his truck, played horseshoes, hit some golf balls, skated the ramp, and just chilled out all day Northern Arizona style. After a delicious dinner, we hung out a little more and once again went to bed. We wore more clothes and put on the rain fly, so the night was nice and warm, despite colder temperatures.

This morning we woke up to more fresh eggs, this time in a burrito with bell peppers and onions. I really have to get some chickens at some point in my life. We're about to leave in a few minutes, and I really can't express enough how amazing this day and a half has been. Our hosts are the most generous and welcoming strangers I have ever met in my life.

Thank you so much for having us! I know we'll be back here again.

Day 6: Kingman to Peach Springs

Posted by: Arin

Another day, another ditch. The only difference is this one is underneath Route 66 on the Huatapai Indian Reservation in Peach Springs, AZ.

Today started out innocently enough. We made some breakfast and had a little skate sesh at the ditch that we slept in last night (see Instagram video). We left the ditch around 10:30 am to go fill up our water at a gas station and get on the road. Riding through town was mellow, and as soon as we got on Route 66 it seemed like smooth sailing; there was a tailwind and the road looked slightly downhill.

After a couple miles, however, I had a flat so we pulled over into a parking lot with some shade to fix it (and use my last tube). When I examined the tire, it had at least 20 thorns in it. Uh oh. Better check all of them now. I finished changing the tube and checked on my front wheel. Also flat, with tons of thorns in it. Luckily only one made it all the way through and I was able to patch it using the Mudfoot (Rema) patch kit I had gotten at the dirty hundo a couple weeks ago. Finally, we were ready to go. 

Psyche! Brad gave his front tire one last look through and he had a big thorn that was slowly leaking air, so we were back at it. We finally got moving again around 1:30. By this time the winds had changed and we had a brutal crosswind. About 10 miles in, I noticed a funny feeling. My rear tire was flat again! There was no shade is sight so we pulled over onto the side of the road to fix it. Now I had 2 patched tubes for the first time in years. We continued on, and the road curved to the right, giving us a killer tailwind that we rode all the way to a tourist stop another 10 miles away. After munching on some baby spinach and a couple of Cokes, it was time to go. But wait, I had another flat on my rear wheel. My fourth of the day and our fifth collectively. This was getting out of hand; and the puncture was less than 1cm from the last patch! After adding another patch we finally got going. Spoiler: this is the end of our flat tire woes for the day.

We had been riding for just a minute when I noticed something weird; Brad wasn't wearing his sunglasses for the first time on the whole trip, so I asked him about it. Turns out he had left them at the rest stop, so we rode straight back and luckily found them on the ground. The wind was so strong that it had blown them off of the table earlier. From there it was about 25 miles to Peach Springs, and we had a tailwind so we felt good... For about 10 minutes. The road took another turn and we were back in the crosswind. What followed was a tough couple of hours, eased only by the beautiful landscape.

We rolled into the only open building in Peach Springs, a hotel/visitor center, around 7 and asked where the nearest camping was. 12 more miles they told us, so we sat down to charge our phones and think. We decided to just ride in the dark, but as we were about to leave a woman approached us.

Here's the highlight of the day: she was so stoked on what we were doing that she offered to buy us dinner, and we couldn't refuse. A veggie burger and fries for me and a chile verde burrito for Brad later, we hit the road expecting to ride far in the dark and pay for camping. Fortunately we found this tunnel under the road pretty soon and set up camp for the night.

If it weren't for Denise, today would have been way tougher, but her kindness really helped us out, something for which I'll always be grateful. When you read this, thanks Denise!

Here's a view from the tent in the morning.

Also, I'm posting this on Monday and it's my mom's birthday! Happy birthday mom.

Day 5: Bullhead City to Kingman

Posted by: Arin 

The real riding began about 5-6 miles from camp. We didn't realize it at the time but we were in for 10 straight miles of climbing up to Union Pass. That was grueling to say the least; temperatures were at 90+ and empty water jugs littered the side of the road, relics of trucks broken down from too much strain. We had to stop part of the way up to refill our water bottles from the bags in our panniers, and when we finally made it to top, another break to eat and rest.

After a quick descent, we entered Golden Valley. A segment of ride that looked unassuming turned out to be anything but. We were battered by crosswinds and found ourselves using close to the same gear that we had on the climb. Lucky for us in the middle of the valley was a shady oasis: Sonic Burger. We sat in the shade there for over an hour and enjoyed a Polynesian punch slushie (the first thing I have ever consumed from Sonic). We couldn't stay forever though, so we continued into the wind and up another mountain, which lead to Coyote Pass. Here you can see the view from Coyote Pass back through Golden Valley and towards Union Pass.

From there it was a smooth few miles into Kingman, where we headed to Safeway to grab some food. Once we got there, however, we found out there was a skatepark a couple blocks away and decided to go there first and see if we could meet any people who could help us out in finding a place to sleep. A few hours at the park yielded us nothing but some info on a tunnel nearby. We went back to Safeway to get some ingredients to make sandwiches for dinner and headed to the tunnel to eat and sleep.

Day 4: Into Arizona

Posted by: Arin

Day 4 was our laziest day so far. We started off by eating the remainder of our food, then headed down the 17 miles to Needles. Right off the 40 was a KOA campground, so we decided to go in and steal some showers (and wash our clothes while we were at it). Brad went first, and finished with no issues. I got in next and while I was washing my clothes Brad comes in and tells me "some lady says we have to move along." I didn't take it too seriously, so I told him to tell her 5 minutes. About a minute later, a lady comes into the bathroom and says "you need to get out right now! I'm calling the police and you're trespassing." Once again, I'm gathering all my stuff in a hurry and run outside to where Brad is waiting. We strapped all of our wet clothes to our bikes and took off into Needles.

In town, we decided to splurge and got a huge veggie pizza, which we devoured. We chilled at the pizza place (River City Pizza Co) for a while while out clothes dried a little more and our phones charged.

After some time we headed to a park that some train workers at the pizza place told us about to digest and finish drying our clothes. Sitting and looking at the Colorado River was really nice (especially with a full stomach). 

Once we were ready we headed 20-something more miles to Bullhead City. It was getting later into the day so we were on constant lookout for a place to sleep. The majority of the highway was not what we wanted, with an almost nonexistent shoulder and stores and houses lining the sides. After a few miles into the city, we found our spot; a big sandy area with lots of trees, used mostly for off road recreation but with plenty of unused space. We set up camp there for the night and cooked up some beans that made delicious burritos (along with some pepper jack cheese, avocado, and tapatio that we picked up at Safeway earlier in the day).

Day 3: Amboy into the desert

Posted by: Arin

A sketchy night finds us hidden behind a small hill, about 17 miles northwest of Needles, AZ. Dusk was falling, so we decided to hide under a train bridge off the side of the road. We made some mac-n-cheese and lounged around, started to set up camp. As we finished our food, a truck rolled past us on a dirt road near the bridge, then circled around, stopping for a moment near the entrance. Brad and I crouched to try to hide and the guy circled around once more, stopping just out of view of the entrance. We sat still for a moment, hiding near the back of the bridge; was he calling the cops? What was going to happen? Meanwhile the driver of the truck was still periodically flashing his lights into our little tunnel. We decided to make a run for it, so we packed up our stuff as quickly as possible and lugged our bikes out the backside of the bridge. Slogging along through inches of sand with 90 pound bikes, we made our way down a dirt road as quickly as possible to where we are now.

Other than that, today mostly consisted of riding. We were running pretty low on water as we rolled into Essex on Route 66, but there was a guy there outside his auto shop who has a line to well water and let us stock all the way up (water we're still drinking now). He was outside building a small boat for fishing out on Lake Mohave. If you ever find yourself bike touring through Essex, get some water from this guy and ask him about a Swiss guy who almost rode his bike around the world.

Days 1-2: Riverside to Indian Cove and Indian Cove to Amboy

Posted by: Arin

Life on the road is now life for the next few months.

I'm laying on my sleeping bag on the ground of what used to be a motel room. Some of the windows are broken, but we have a roof over our heads. This is Amboy, a desolate town comprised of a small post office and a diner/gas station/rundown motel. One woman works at both the post office and the diner, and she is the person who let us sleep in the motel. She says it's only used for movie sets now, so they let cyclists sleep in the rooms if any come by. After two days of dragging ourselves through the desert, this is a godsend; but let me get back to day 1.

Our first day was brutal. It was 100 miles that included long uphills, near heat exhaustion, and slogging our way through sandy fire roads. It was all pretty straightforward until we got to Morongo Dr., which is apparently closed to through traffic. We had to backtrack and look for a road that would connect us to Cabazon. As we stood on the side of the road, a Scottish man pulled up and asked us if we were headed to Cabazon. "Follow me!" he told us. He said the reason he helped us was because "a Dutchman, an Englishman, and a French woman" had been trying to find their way through the same area for half a day before he steered them in the right direction. He pointed us down a dirt road and off we went.

A couple hours later we found ourselves at the base of the 62 towards 29 Palms.  We had a little over a bottle of water each and a daunting climb ahead of us with at least 20-30 miles of no water.  Luckily we passed a couple construction workers on the side of the road who were happy to fulfill our request for more water (note:Construction workers are your friend if you're bike touring.  They always have water).  After many more miles of riding through the desert, we finally got to Indian Cove (in the dark) where we made camp and slept.

Day two was hot! We did a lot of riding through empty desert roads. We came across a restaurant in the middle of nowhere, but it was closed. We stayed there for a little while to savor the shade, and a car rolled up to throw something away in the dumpster. We asked the driver if she knew where we could find any water.  Not for 40-50 miles she told us, but luckily she was an employee of the bar and sold us 10 cold water bottles for 5 bucks. After quenching our thirst and stocking up on water, we rode 40-50 hot and grueling more miles to Amboy, where we are now.

Two spots allowed us some shade; here they are.

Leaving Riverside... tomorrow morning

Posted by: Arin

Tomorrow is the big day, we're leaving.  Our plan is to ride from Riverside to the Indian Cove campground just outside of Joshua Tree to camp for the night.  Check back in later to see how we fare.  These months will be the longest either of us have ever been on the road.

Much love to everyone who has already supported us (spiritually and financially)!