Our goal was to climb the Divide and travel 50 miles up and over to land in Douglas AZ. The weather forecast was for a SW wind of 20-30 mph with gusts up to 50! It started with a 25 mile climb with 4000 feet of climbing - ending at elevation of 6000 feet.
Of course we had our challenges. First the wind, instead of a tailwind ended up being a headwind. Second, instead of the temp going up as was forecast - it dropped to 32 degrees with a wind chill of 27 degrees.
We even had snow to deal with?
Never rode while it was snowing. Quite the experience. Reached the Divide and took a shot of my bike hanging off the Divide marker.
Of course what goes up - goes down and we had a narrow, winding road to travel down. Usually this is a treat but my hands were cold and it was hard braking. Luckily about 4 miles down the Divide there is a little funking town called Bixbee.
Lots of cool shops and one very special brothel...
Guy that runs it is a retired bike pro race official. Over his career he collected all kinds of bikes - which are now all vintage. Lots of bike history in the shop. He doesn't sell any bikes - just T-shirts and hats. So I bought one of the shirts.
This shop was at the 25 mile mark and the snow turned into rain. It was all downhill to Douglas and the wind finally got behind us and pushed us down the road. I was constantly hitting 24-30 miles per hour. Thank god there was not much traffic as I had to ride in the travel lane - the shoulder was in really bad shape.
Arrived in Douglas early so took advantage of the time and cleaned my bike. Some of us are staying in a Best Western while the majority of the crew is in a historical hotel in the center of Douglas.
We have dinner over there and will take some pictures and will share tomorrow.
Hoping that the weather turns soon. Not sure my hands can take much more of the cold.
No comments:
Post a Comment