I rode from Payson, AZ to Heber-Overgaard, AZ today – a majestic ride through the central Arizona mountains. The ride was 52 miles, all of which was on AZ
Hwy 260. The ride has 2 meaningful,
multi-mile climbs and plenty of other rolling hills to climb/descend – 3,671 ft
of vertical climbing – another strong day of climbing in the mountains at
elevations of 5,000 to 7,500 ft. The
weather was again very nice; a bit cooler given the higher elevation I’m now
riding at – in the 60s when I left the hotel, up to 70 mid-day and then cooling
back into the 50s in the afternoon as I rode at about 7500 ft elevation. There was a light 5-10 mph wind for much of
the day out of the East (head and cross winds) but that wasn’t a major factor.
For cyclists: The highway was smooth for the entire ride,
very safe and enjoyable. The First 30
miles are 4-lane divided highway and the last 26 miles are only 2-lane and in
some places not much shoulder but the traffic was light for most of the day at
this time of year (I’m assuming this area gets quite busy in the summer with
folks coming up to escape the heat of Phoenix).
Great day in the mountains, some amount of work on my legs
but I tried to keep this as a lower stress day on them, getting ready for a longer
ride tomorrow.
I added up the amount of climbing thus far in the trip –
about 25,000 ft – nice!
On to the pictures!
Leaving Payson
Rim Canyon views
Lot's of signs warning motorists of elk; I looked but didn't see any today.
Near the top of the last climb
Getting near the top of the final large climb of the day!
Beautiful views looking south
"Insert Elk here" and it would be a perfect picture!
Highest elevation to-date: 7,700 ft.
Just a bit of snow on a north facing slope at about 7,500 ft elevation.
Made it to town!
No comments:
Post a Comment