Fun in the Sun in Phoenix

One of the side sightseeing trips we planned was to rent a car in Mesa and drive the Apache Trail. It was listed as an alternate route for our ride yesterday, that would avoid Devil’s Canyon and all the traffic. The Apache Trail is still extremely hilly as it winds through the Superstition Mountains and Tonto National Forest. First off, we stopped at an old mining town that was partly original and partly recreated, and totally touristy. We walked around for a few minutes and we were quickly on our way. It didn’t take long before we were stopping again. The scenery was breathtaking! We seemed to stop every mile or so to take pictures! The road leads to Roosevelt Dam, which supplies power to much of the area, so power lines run through many of the beautiful vistas, but we were soon ignoring them. Over and over we remarked that there is no way we’d do this ride on a bike, although we saw a group of local cyclists returning to Apache Junction on our way out. The road is steep, narrow and curvy, with many blind turns. We came to Canyon Lake, with it’s deep blue water providing a contrast to the copper colored cliffs all around. Mid morning we came to Tortilla Flats which, rather than describing the terrain of the area, like we thought, was actually another touristy area. We did stop for a snack, and tried the Prickly Pear ice cream. It was okay, but not our favorite. We continued on, and soon the paved road ended and we were on packed gravel. Now we really were glad we didn’t opt for this route. The road got steeper, curvier, and in many cases was only one lane. It took concentration to drive it in a car! Words and pictures can not do justice to the scenery we saw today. We continued stopping every little bit and just staring silently at the beauty around us. When the Trail ended, we could go back to Mesa directly, or go back to Globe and drive the road we cycled yesterday. We decided to do that so we could see the canyon without white knuckles. It was still scary and treacherous in a car! It required total concentration. This was our first day (and last) that we did not get on our bikes at all!!! The next day was also planned as an easy day. We were traveling only to Phoenix. We had hoped to stay with a Warmshowers host, but she didn’t respond until we had made other arrangements. We cycled out of Mesa, through Tempe and to Camelback Mountain. We decided to hike the Echo Canyon Trail. We envisioned a challenging hike up the mountain on a gravel path that would be steep, but walkable. When you are a bicycle nomad, you have all your belongings on your bike, so leaving your bike in public places poses some problems. While we don’t worry too much that someone will want our clothes and camping gear, we still have phones, a camera and wallets etc. to carry any time we leave our bikes. So we set off to climb this mountain with Kelley carrying all these things inside her helmet, wearing bicycle clip shoes, and Bruce carrying his belongings, including a full Yeti water bottle in his hands. The climb started out as expected, but soon it was just rock climbing. Enormous rock boulder gardens had to be scaled. It was a challenge to know what the best path was. Fortunately, there were so many people climbing that we could follow their lead, and many offered advice to this old couple carrying all this stuff! As we’d climb, we kept thinking we were close to the top- it’s only a mile and a quarter up. But when we’d reach what we thought was the summit, we would see the mountain continue on up, and bodies climbing up and down ahead of us. We often stopped and turned around to get different vistas of Phoenix and the surrounding mountains. Finally we reached the summit. It was worth the effort! While there, two different people made it to the top that we passed on the way up. It was definitely a major accomplishment for them both. The fella said he’d been trying for two years to make it to the top. Everyone was happy for him, and the smile on his face equaled anything we had seen all day. The trip down was almost harder....you had to watch every foot plant to make sure you didn’t slip and go careening down the cliff side; it was murder on old knees. Total cycling mileage: 0+27=27 Total mountain climbing mileage: 3+4=7