Cycling and other musings
59.4 miles, 3234 feet climbed
Today we were looking at the possibility of rain but it didn’t materialize. We skipped a side loop into the western portion of Suguaro National Park because its roads were likely affected by recent rains. Our lunch stop was moved to the hotel to reduce our exposure to potential rains. Some rooms were ready when we arrived, others were not.
Continue reading “Day 8: Tucson to Benson, Arizona”Today is for laundry, chain lube, and a massage. And updating these pages. As you’ve seen, I’m not taking many photos this time. I’ll be stealing some from the postings of other riders on our WhatsApp group. We’ll see how it goes but I’ll probably be posting in bursts as I can put together blocks of time.
Continue reading “Day 7: Resting in Tucson, Arizona”75.5 miles, 1894 feet climbed
I use the Epic Ride Weather app preview the conditions each day. With the exception of a light tailwind on the first part of Day 1, it has shown us facing a combination of headwinds and crosswinds. Headwinds were predicted for the entire route today, increasing to 8 mph getting into Tucson. I’m not a big fan of riding in groups/pacelines but tagging along at the end of the faster group helped knock down those headwinds. And they seem to stop every 6 miles or so for a roadside break.
Continue reading “Day 6: Casa Grande to Tucson, Arizona”72.4 miles, 1636 feet climbed
First rain of the trip towards the end. The spray kicked up by passing trucks was at least as strong as the rain itself. With overcast skies and rain threatening, just a couple of photos.
Continue reading “Day 5: Gila Bend to Casa Grande, Arizona”88 miles, 1509 feet climbed
18 or so of our miles were again on I-8, still well-paved and remarkably free of exploded tire tread debris. My “recovery” shake today came mid-ride, at Dateland, a date shake, of course. They have other flavors and I think they said their ice cream is made on site. Worth a stop, feed your monster.
Continue reading “Day 4: Welton to Gila Bend, Arizonia”97.2 miles, 2177 feet climbed
Another hot day at the finish. More time on I-8. Another recovery milkshake. Settling into a pattern, I guess.
Continue reading “Day 3: El Centro, California to Welton, Arizona”93.3 miles, 4831 feet climbed
Plenty of climbing today beginning right out of the Casino Resort to hop on I-8 for about 3 miles. Then we exited on to Old Hwy 80 for about 40 miles, going through Guatay and Pine Valley then over to the south side of I-8. When the time was right we turned north on some pretty broken pavement to get to El Centro. While our tour leader, Dennis, worked out a room snafu, some of us consumed recovery milkshakes from In and Out.
Continue reading “Day 2 – Alpine to El Centro, California”Day 0, San Diego: 8.6 Miles, 306 feet gained
Day 1: 40.7 miles, 3510 feet gained
Day 0’s ride consisted of my returning to the Ocean Beach Hotel after returning the rental car I drove from home near Sacramento to San Diego. Doing so saved me the trouble of disassembling my bike for a flight and reassembling it after getting to the hotel. We had our orientation and a very nice dinner at Tom Ham’s Lighthouse on the tip of Harbor Island.
Day 1 was relatively short so we didn’t leave very early, first stopping to take a group photo on the beach:
Continue reading “Days 0 and 1, San Diego to Alpine, CA”I let this site go cold toward the end of 2023’s West Coast Ride. Sorry about that. While I didn’t finish the uploads for the last few days of that ride, when I came back to wake it up just now, it appears that the days after day 8 that I’m pretty sure I posted have disappeared. I may try to put together some of the photos from those days in a single wrap-up post; stay tuned.
Continue reading “Fall 2025 Update”