Super Update! #2 Days 14-17 w/ Extended Descriptions

Dec 6 - Day 14 - Bylas, AZ to Roosevelt, AZ

• The day started with a mother dog coming to our tent to greet us at 7:00 in the morning. We fed her bread and she wanted to stay with us. We sadly had to leave her and the roadside rest area around 8:00 heading for Globe, AZ. We passed right through Globe to get off the bad highway and onto the smooth 288 toward Roosevelt. That road brought about a 1000 ft climb as we entered the Tonto National Forest. We saw the traditional Arizona sunset with the mountains and a cactus backlit by orange and yellow skies. Upon descending into Roosevelt after dark on the seemingly calm road, Danny ran over what looked to be a prairie dog. There was very minimal damage to the bike because we were going so fast, but the animal probably died. We couldn’t find it… We found a great camping spot next to the marina on the lake and made our first fire of the trip. A few toasted bagels and noodles later, we fell asleep in the warm Halo Sleeping bags without the rain fly on the tent.

(A saguaro cactus at sunset. Theron at the Tonto National Forest.)


(Danny enjoying Milkyway Dark at the end of the day.)



Dec 7 - Day 15 - Roosevelt, AZ to Payson, AZ

• We woke up to our sleeping bags drenched from our breath’s condensation building up on the roof of the tent and dropping back on us. We brought the fire back to life and toasted a couple more bagels, then it was time to hit the road again. We headed out of the lake area moving toward Payson, which was 50 miles away roughly. Coming into Tonto Basin (a city on the lakefront) we got hungry and stopped for breakfast and supplies to lug up to Payson. We slapped our wheels back on the pavement and climbed up and up and up at least 3000 ft of climbing getting to Payson. When we got there, we were very hungry and it was already getting dark. The climbing took forever and our stop for breakfast was really long too. With no daylight left, we stopped at Chili’s and then went to camp for the night. DQ was on the same street, so stopping for a Reese’s Blizzard was inevitable. Keep in mind, we haven’t hit a single one of our planned camping spots, so to make tradition, we ninja camped just outside the entrance of a campground/state park. Woohoo for not paying for camping! We went to sleep with the sound of howling Coyotes all around us, but we did bring the Cheetos inside with us. ZZZZzzzz

(Theron chowing down on breakfast in Tonto Basin.)


Dec 8 - Day 16 - Payson, AZ to Clarkdale, AZ

• We found our sleeping bags more drenched than before this time with the rain fly added, except this time, the rain fly had a layer of condensation frozen to it. We took down the tent and shook it off. We looked at each other remembering the heated, but unmentioned discussion from the night before about how tough this day was going to be. We were to look forward to 73 miles with somewhere around 2000 feet of climbing to our knowledge. Our minds were ready, but we didn’t know if our bikes, or more importantly, our bodies were. Theron had a slight chain problem that he fixed over a cup of hot chocolate and a cheese sandwich across the street from our camping spot. After that, it was road time. We started with a seriously chilly descent of about 300 ft. Nothing big, just freaking cold! We were fighting hills and honking traffic with no shoulder for quite a while until we got about 15 miles outside of Payson. We went through Pine and Strawberry, two very small “cute” towns and eventually turned left on 260. It was on that road that the scenery kicked in. Tall pine trees mixed with miles of mountains in the distance meant we were nearing what people around here call “the rim.” After staying together through about 2000 feet of climbing, which never happens, we noticed the road kept going up. After 2500 feet, Danny’s altimeter topped out. We must have climbed another 1-2000 feet before reaching the top of the rim. Pardon the language, but we felt like $h!t at that point. We had done this kind of climbing climbing before, but not at this altitude, and not at this pace. We focused our minds on the descent and B-lined our bikes. We saw the sign reading “6% for 9 miles” and smiled like we had just opened the coolest Christmas gift of all time. We descended at about 35 MPH average and came into Camp Verde. We ate a small fast lunch and hopped back on heading toward Clarkdale. A little more climbing put us in the city limits where we charged the iPhone to find Danny’s aunt’s address. We headed toward their house delirious from the past 5 hours of riding and got turned around. The phone died and we just blindly found it on top of the hill. Finally after 5 or 6 days, we got to wash our clothes and take a shower along with eating some delicious steaks cooked by Mike using his personally installed outdoor cooking station. Amazing!

Dec 9 - Day 17 - Rest Day - Clarkdale/Sedona

• This day was packed to the brim. It was supposed to be a rest day but was hardly that. We got some essentials in the morning from the local Safeway with Mary and Mike (Danny’s aunt and uncle). Then we crawled in their Jeep for a tour of Sedona. Sedona was a blast with the “Jeep Tour” off-roading on a windy road up to the top of the red rock overlook. Every view there was spectacular. We were climbing up everything we could and got some seriously wild pictures. We went to eat Hispanic food at a restaurant called “Antigua,” which is the name of a highly cultural city in Guatemala. The food was excellent along with the owner who proceeded to help me with my Spanish and tell me where to go in Guatemala when I go there. We then headed home for another long night’s sleep. Maybe another shower too.

(At the Schnebly Hill Vista.)


(Ending the day with enchiladas isn't bad. A great little place in Camp Verde. Very very very authentic. Mmmmmmm!)