Epilogue

Final Stats

Miles: 782.32

Riding Time: 51:21:11

Avg. Speed: 15.2

Elevation Gain: 36,782

Well, we finally made it home. It took only one day to drive the same distance it took us 9 days to ride on a bicycle! Now that the ride is over here are a few thoughts I had along the way.

- Set goals. Setting goals is a great way to keep yourself motivated. It doesn't have to be anything fancy, earth changing or physically demanding. Just think about the future and where you want to be. Then set into motion a plan of action on how you are going to get there. Remember to enjoy the journey on the way to your destination.

- Pave wide shoulders. Traveling by car and bicycle would be much safer and more enjoyable if all shoulder were wide and paved.

- Don't litter. There is so much litter along the roads. Take the time to throw your trash away responsibly.

- Give cyclists some space. A car or truck whizzing by a bicycle at 60+ mph is very dangerous. Take ten seconds to ease off the gas, slow down and move over to allow for more safe passing. Bicyclists have as much right to enjoy our roads safely as do drivers of cars and trucks.

I hope you enjoyed reading about this bike ride. I learned a lot about myself and what I am willing to put myself through to achieve a goal. I also learned how to blog! See, you can teach an old dog new tricks! Anyone want to buy a well used bike?

Prescott, AZ to Phoenix, AZ

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Today's Stats
Miles: 107.73
Riding Time: 6:31:56
Avg. Speed: 16.4
Max Speed: 40.3
Elevation Gain: 2579

Another century today. That makes three for the trip. Very cool temperatures in Prescott when we left at 5:00 am. Arm warmers and jackets for the first hour. If we could only bottle that coolness up and use it later in the day...

The ride started with a 6 mile climb out of Prescott followed by about 15 miles of rollers. A short decent into a nice broad valley followed by another climb into Yarnell. From Yarnell it was a screaming decent where we lost most of our elevation.

Fairly flat, breezy and hot was the description of the rest of the ride. We stopped every 12 to 15 miles to get cold drinks and dunk out jerseys and headbands in ice cold water. The wet clothes were dry within two miles but it felt good while it lasted.

The temperature got noticeably hotter when we entered the Phoenix metropolitan area. The concrete and asphalt just soaks up the sun. Finally, we reached our destination and are ready to head home tomorrow.

I'm sure the long drive back to Denver will be filled with the retelling of different parts of the ride. Check back in a few days to read our final thoughts after we let them all soak in.

Saturday Photos

Keith's parents welcome us in Phoenix

A victory salute when we finish the ride!


Totally spent!

Friday Photos

A good breakfast gives us fuel for the day.

Some of the red rocks near Sedona.

Can you find the "J" above Jerome?

Look in the distance to see how we have climbed so far. We are about half way up.

We enjoyed a concert in the park in Presscott

Flagstaff, AZ to Prescott, AZ

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TODAY's Stats

Miles: 90.61
Riding time: 6:20:09
Avg. speed: 14.2
Max speed: 40.2
Elevation gain: 5591

Kevin, Keith and Ken have made it to Prescott. Sounds like a long day. No computer access, laptop not working, so Kevin may post more details tomorrow.
(phone report via Bekkey)
Cliff notes: beautiful downhill ride from Flagstaff to Sedona, beautiful flat ride to Cottonwood, Cottonwood through Jerome over the pass was 12 miles and 3600 ft of elev gain--quite the slog, downhill to Prescott valley, then a strong headwind to bring them home into Prescott.

Tuba City, AZ to Flagstaff, AZ

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Today's Stats
Miles: 80.04
Riding Time: 5:23:00
Avg. Speed: 14.8
Max Speed: 41.9
Elevation Gain: 3975

What a difference a day makes!! We left at around 7:00 am but gained an hour when leaving the Navajo Nation and entered the rest of the state of Arizona. Arizona does not go on Daylight Saving Time. Today we had a gentle north breeze to push us along the flats for the first 40 miles. Met Rob who was riding from the Golden Gate Bridge to Jacksonville, FL. He was carrying all of his gear which weighed 70 pounds. Check out his photo below.

Road on some nice shoulders and through a few sand drifts left over from yesterday's wind storm. We could also see and smell the smoke from the forest fire burning northwest of Flagstaff.

Had one flat today. For those of you keeping score, that's one flat each for Keith and Kevin.

A nice gentle climb from about 4000 ft. to 6000 ft. on the approach to Flagstaff. The last 1200 ft. was a little steeper but brought us to tall and aromatic pine trees just north of Flagstaff.

Tonight we get a nice dinner and then watch the Lakers, hopefully, beat the Celtics in the NBA finals.

Looking forward to tomorrow's ride through Sedona to Prescott. It should be a very picturesque ride. Speaking of pictures I was able to upload photos from Tuesday, Wednesday and today. Scroll down to check them out.

Thursday Photos

This is the shoulder we rode on today.


Rob is more hard core than we are.

A typical rest stop

Fixing a flat

San Francisco Peaks north of Flagstaff

Tuesday Photos

Hole in the Rock

Looking at the view during a morning stretch

The end of a long downhill

The flat desert

The Desert Rose Inn. Bluff, UT

Wednesday photos

Can you see the Mexican Hat?

The beginning of Monument Valley

Ken would like to ride too!

We finally made it to Arizona

Navajo burger at the Amigo Cafe

Blowing sand and high winds prevented us from riding the last 80 miles of our 140 mile day.

Bluff, UT to Tuba City, AZ

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Today's Stats
Miles: 60.12
Riding Time: 4:31:05
Avg. Speed: 13.3
Max Speed: 41.1
Elevation Gain: 4210

We made it safely to Tuba City!! That's my story and I'm sticking to it! OK, what follows is the real deal.

We left Bluff, UT at 6:00 am knowing we had a long day ahead of us. Climbed out of the San Juan River gorge and through beautiful canyon and butte landscapes with far off views of Monument Valley. After some mega climbs and some screaming downhills we arrived in Mexican Hat ahead of our support vehicle. Ken got caught up in some slow traffic. Anyway, we rode on ahead and eventually Ken caught up to us.

Our next planned stop was near Monument Valley. Think old western movies and the place where Forrest Gump stopped his running; "I'm a little tired. I think I'll go home now." Long ups and downs brought us up to the final climb before the Arizona state line. At the top of that climb we had covered 40 miles and climbed about 4000ft.

We turned the corner around the huge butte that shadowed us for the climb and were met with a wicked south wind. The wind was blowing so hard that we had to peddle for all we were worth to go 10 mph downhill!

We carried on with this nonsense for 20 more miles in two hours. A quick mathematical calculation revealed that at this pace we would be riding for 7 more hours plus rest stops. UGH!! We tried riding a little further only to be sandblasted by the wind-whipped sand. We also experienced some gusts that blew us sideways by three feet. Ken had turned around and drove back to us to let us know that the wind was no better up ahead so with little convincing we loaded the bikes into the van and called it a day. A good decision as we encountered lots of blowing dust on the road to Tuba City and really cruel conditions for riding a bike.

So there you have it. The story of our day. Hope for better riding conditions tomorrow on the climb to Flagstaff.

Once again, no pictures. Will try plan B, or is it C or D to try to get pictures tomorrow.

Moab, UT to Bluff, UT

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Today's Stats
Miles: 100.59
Riding Time: 6:57:35
Avg. Speed: 14.4
Max Speed: 40.1
Elevation Gain: 5680

Today was a day of ups and downs. The toughest day of riding so far. We started with a 12 mile uphill slog out of Moab with the last mile pitching up steeply. After a short downhill we climbed up again. This up and a little bit down pattern continued for 65 miles. At that point we had reached an elevation of over 7000 ft. and had climbed over 5200 ft. in a little over 5 hours. Did I mention the headwind? We were two very demoralized, middle-aged, in over our heads, this bucket list thing is overrated guys.

The last 35 miles was much more to our liking! Only 480 ft. of climbing which meant a lot of downhill. Still in headwind but at that point it was like a horse to the barn; nothing was slowing us down!

Now for a great steak dinner at the Cottonwood Steak House and off to bed. The over 140 mile ride tomorrow in increasing southerly winds will require a lot of rest tonight. Wish us luck!

Sorry, no pictures today. Having computer problems, again. We will try to upload some tomorrow.

Monday Pictures

The only tree for miles. At the Utah line the road turned to gravel

The old Dewey Bridge. Hard boiled eggs make a good morning snack

We spent a lot of time looking at the Colorado River and Navajo Sandstone cliffs.

Of course this is the right road. It's the only road!

Fruita, CO to Moab, UT

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Today's Stats
Miles: 92.77
Riding Time: 5:53:34
Avg. Speed: 15.7
Max Speed: 31.3
Elevation Gain: 2395 ft.

Today we said several goodbyes. We said goodbye to Bekkey. Someone has to go back to work, right? We said goodbye to Colorado. We also said goodbye to Interstate 70 and are now riding south. My guess is that we said goodbye to cool temperatures!!!

The ride out of Fruita to Loma and Mack was through farming country. Cattle and alfalfa mostly. When we entered Utah U.S. Highway 6 turned into gravel. Can you believe that? After a few miles of that nonsense the road was again paved and led us to Interstate 70. Just a quick 15 miles on Interstate 70 and then we turned south to reach Moab.

Utah State Road 128 led us across a barren landscape. The joke at that point was that we could ride with our heads down for 10 miles and not miss a change in scenery! A half hour later we joined the Colorado river again and had a spectacular ride along the river to Moab.

We probably could have ridden faster but we found ourselves gawking at the bank-full river, the massive Navajo Sandstone buttes and monoliths and the rafters on the river.

Some pictures!!

Finally managed to upload some pictures:

Saturday

Two shots on Vail pass.....

Here we are at the top of Glenwood Canyon, repacking the car for 4 bikes, 3 people and a lot of luggage

Sunday

Today all smiles for the better weather

Glenwood Springs, CO to Fruita, CO

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Today's Stats
Miles: 100.26
Riding Time: 5:20:01
Avg. Speed: 18.7
Max Speed: 32.5
Elevation Gain: 1460 ft.

Today was our first century!! No, I did not ride around the parking lot of the motel to reach 100 miles! It was a true 100. Today was our first flat tire, as well. Luckily, it was within a few hundred yards of our first stop.

The original plan was to ride frontage roads and Highway 6 most of the way and only ride on Interstate 70 when necessary. After riding on Interstate 70 out of Glenwood Springs we found the experience to be quite safe as the shoulder is huge and fairly free of debris. So we decided to stay on Interstate 70 all the way to Grand Junction, about 90 of our 100 miles.

The weather was very nice in spite of the rain, snow and hail that most of Colorado is experiencing. Except for the hour of rain yesterday we have been very fortunate with weather conditions.

Today's route followed the Colorado River. It is running very high. As high as I have seen it. Since we were following the river, most of ride was a gentle downward slope which was countered by a brisk headwind for the last 50 miles.

You might be wondering how we could have 1460 feet of elevation gain when most of the ride was downhill and our ending elevation is lower then our beginning elevation. Cyclists, at least this one, measure the workrate of a ride by the mileage and the amount of climbing. So any hills that are climbed are added together to come up with the elevation gain. My bike computer calculates this automatically.

Ken, Kevin's father-in-law has now joined as our support vehicle driver for the rest of the ride. Bekkey will be heading home tomorrow. She did a great job! Ken has a challenge to do as good a job as his daughter!

Rib City was our restaurant of choice tonight. If you recall from the preview, this is where all this madness began.

Keystone, CO to Glenwood Springs, CO

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Today's Stats

Miles:82.45

Riding Time: 4:43:28

Avg. Speed: 17.4

Max Speed: 43.6

Elevation Gain: 3120

Today was our drama day!

Morning temperature was 30 degrees. Cold, but no complaining as the heat will come soon enough! The rain chased us most of the day. When we stopped for a break the rain would soon find us and we then had to ride on to get away from it; at least in the morning.

At Copper Mountain we encountered about 300 runners using the trail for an organized 10K and half marathon. Five minutes faster and we would have passed them at the starting line.

The descent off of Vail Pass was fast and required sharp bike handling skills because there was a trail clean up crew picking up trash and many of them insisted on standing on the trail or crossing the trail without looking for any bikers. In their defense, who would be nuts enough to ride Vail Pass on a cold wet morning like we had today!

After Vail we had sunny and windy weather for about 40 miles. We stripped off the cold weather clothing and enjoyed the downhill in a hurricane. Well maybe not a hurricane, but a strong tailwind nonetheless.

With storm clouds rolling in we decided to stop by the Eagle airport and have lunch hoping the appproaching rain would blow over. Two hours later it was still raining so we put the cold weather clothing back on and got back on the bikes. After an hour riding in the rain and this time headwind, we got to Glenwood Canyon and discovered that the bike trail through the canyon was closed due to high water on the Colorado River. Riding on the interstate through the narrow canyon is against the law and very dangerous so we packed all the bikes in/on the car (all four of them as Bekkey brought two bikes and she is not even going to Phoenix!) and drove the the last 16 miles to Glenwood Springs. We wrung out our clothes and turned on the heater. For the rest of the trip we will long for a cold day, I'm sure.

Sorry, no pictures today. We are experiencing difficutly uploading images. Hope it is the network at the hotel and not something wrong with the computer.

Lakewood, CO to Keystone, CO

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Today's Stats

Miles:67.75

Riding Time:5:40:23

Avg. Speed:11.9 mph

Max Speed:48 mph (Bekkey hates this stat)

Elevation Gain:7772 ft.

Today was our

shortest day for mileage, the highest elevation of the ride (Loveland Pass 11,990 ft) and the hardest day of climbing. Cool weather for the climbing, which was really nice considering the hot weather we've been having recently. The only

complaint regarding the weather was a 15 minute rain shower

near Bakerville.

We met up with a group of riders from New Jersey. They flew out to ride the Triple By-Pass route. Flat landers putting us to shame! Oh, well!

The rivers and creeks are running high and fast. The recent hot weather is melting the snow at a rapid rate. No flooded roads or bike paths, yet.

Bekkey did a great job driving the support vehicle, meeting us every 20 miles or so. She even got a chance to do her own riding. She especially liked riding Loveland Pass from each direction!