I rode from Heber-Overgaard, AZ to Springerville, AZ today –
a ride of dramatic contrasts from start to end... The ride was 84 miles, the first half on AZ
Hwy 260 and the second on US Hwy 60. The
ride was pretty much up/down the entire way between 6,000 and 7,500 ft in
elevation – 4,173 ft of vertical climbing.
The weather was cold in the morning starting in the high 30’s, climbing
to about 60 and around 50 as I passed over a mountain range at 7,500 ft. There was a light 5-10 mph wind for much of
the day out of the West (tail and cross winds), with strong tail and cross
winds (30-40 mph) as I rode down from 7,500 ft into Springerville.
For cyclists: Hwy 260 was awesome – wide riding lane and
very smooth. Hwy 60 was ok but at the
Hwy 61 split off you lose the riding shoulder and the Hwy was quite rough – not
so good! Traffic was light for most of
the day so created lots of opportunities for scanning the countryside during
the ride. Cool.
Unlike last year where I rode to Louisiana before getting
rained on, I had it happen in AZ this year – today… During the afternoon there were numerous small
thunder cells in the area; I missed most of them but with about 20 miles left
in the ride I was nailed with the high 30-40 mph winds, rain and eventually it
turned to a bit of sleet and hail. Quite
the experience – cold!!!
Overall though, this was 80% an excellent ride through some
really unique AZ countryside.
On to the pictures:
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