Day 3 (Tues, 18 Mar)

We rode from Brawley, CA to Ehrenberg, AZ today.  Today was THE day for monster winds.  The ride was basically all on Hwy 78 with about 2,000 ft of climbing.  The ride was 92 miles and about 70 of those were very tough due to strong head and cross winds.  Throughout the ride we faced pretty consistent 20 mph winds and we estimate that in many cases there were 30 mph and likely higher in the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Sand_Dunes ).  The wind and sand blew hard enough that there were sand drifts on the road and plenty of sand blowing hard into our face for a few miles.  Sand blasting fun! 

Luckily the winds died down at about 5p for the last 20 miles and we were able to get to the hotel by sundown at 7p, but overall we were riding for 9 hrs (longest ride (from a time perspective) either of us have ever done) and 11 hrs on the road.  Epic struggle type of day!

We were both excited to see AZ and start to see some of the sharp mountain features that AZ is so well known for.

On to the pictures!

Sunrise in the farm fields east of Brawley.

Humongous (I believe is the appropriate term) cow farm east of Brawley - we estimated there are upwards of 50,000 cows in an area about 1 mi x 1/2 mi.

Fair enough; we didn't go that way...

Entering the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area.  Beautiful, before the winds kicked in.

We were riding along with another long haul cyclist, Kurt (traveling from San Francisco to Tucson), who was nice enough to take this picture for us.

This was before the winds became strong...

I believe I'm leaning into the wind here.  Really distinctive landscape - largest sand dunes in the US open to off-road vehicles.

This trail crosses over the path we took along Hwy 78.

Still in CA, but the mountains are starting to look like classic AZ landscape.  Taking a break from the challenging ride...

Lot's of big rolling hills crossing over a low mountain pass about 1/2 way into the ride.

Let's take the fast lane on I-10 to get to AZ before the sun falls completely!

I took this picture while riding over the Colorado River (a bit blurry at sunset) as we were passing into AZ.

AZ - we made it just at sunset!!!!