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Arizona Scapbook Page 6
January 2nd. 12:30pm. Lunch at a little city park around the corner from the OK Corral gunfight site in Tombstone. What a name for a town. It still has nooses set up for cyclists caught breaking the
law! Not much that appeals here; the whole town is a tourist trap with revamped western fronts on all the buildings, each of which is trying to sell something. Glad to have found this little park.
Had a cold headwind all the way here. I had planned to camp at San Pedro River,
tonight's digs, with the steel horse tied up outside
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4:45pm. Benson Motel. Decided to play it safe and spend the night indoors. I have a much better room here than last time, and it cost me $5 less - go figure. Phones still not working though. Mileage today: 79 km.
Cool tree near Colossal Caves.
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January 3rd. Noonish. I decided to take the Vail/Colossal Caves exit off the interstate. So much quieter along here. I'm currently sitting in the sunshine a little ways down a gated dirt road that's probably a powerline service road. The sunshine is wonderful. it's quite cool today; I've been riding in my fleece pants and jacket most of this morning.
8:45pm. Colossal Cave Mountain Park. Really glad I came this way. I'm camped here for $1 - that's almost as good as stealth camping, but with better amenities. I really like it here. I went for a long walk this afternoon after setting up camp and another shorter one this evening after dinner. Now I have a nice fire going and am happily reading a book - well, I was reading a book before I decided to start writing down what I was up to. Today's mileage: 55 km.
January 4th. 10:30am. I went for another long walk this morning before breakfast and now I'm slowly getting ready to move on. Lovely unhurried morning - ahhhh! Plan to stop at Rincon Mountain National Park, then on to Tucson.
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10:00pm. Road Runner Hostel, Tucson. Great riding day today, except for the last bit in the near dark on a busy shoulderless city street. Yikes! Today's mileage: 61 km.
January 5th. 10:30am. Having a quiet morning.
4:30pm. Road Runner Hostel. Back at the hostel after 6 hours of walking around Tucson - mostly in circles. Good hostel, okay city.
January 6th. 6:30pm. Catalina State Park. Left the hostel just after 9 this morning, but returned after about 1.5km to get my book which I forgot. Easy short ride here. Set up camp, had lunch, and headed up the Romero Trail. Just got back before total dark.
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It was very hot going up the trail this afternoon, but it's sure cooled down now. Good hike; trail was sandy at the bottom, but then started really climbing along a rocky path into the Catalina mountains. I had planned to make a full day of hiking up there tomorrow, but since I got here so early today I figured what the hell, might as well go today. Here's some pics to give you an idea of it:
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I plan to hike a bit more in the morning then continue on. Today's mileage: 35 km.
January 7th. 9:00pm. Grand Vista Motel, Coolidge. Arrived just before dark. Only two motels in this town and the cheaper one was full. Lucky I got a room at all; not much oportunity for stealth camping this close to Phoenix.
I left Catalina S.P. around 10:30am. First part of the ride along Tangerine Road was a little nerve-wracking - no shoulder for most of it and a lot of transport trucks (who use it as a cutoff over to the interstate). After getting to the interstate I followed a frontage road. Quiet traffic-wise, but very noisy from the highway. I was glad to get away from the interstate at Picacho and head north along Hwy 87 - which had a wide shoulder most of the way, although the pavement was kind of rough.
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Picacho Peak
Casa Grande near Coolidge.
Coolidge is kind of a dead town. The only place that was still open once I got here that I could get some kind of food at was MacDonald's. Now that is sad! Today's mileage: 103 km.
January 8th. 8:30pm. Metcalfe Hostel, Phoenix. Long ride through too much spred out urbanis. Tomorrow, I pack up the bike and ship it home. Then off to hike for a week in the Grand Canyon. Today's mileage: 95 km.
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