June 18, 2011
Today we left Jacob Lake and headed down toward Fredonia. The first part of the ride was rolling, but after a few miles we were able to fly down the 6% grade decline. We stopped at a little scenic viewpoint and then continued on our way. After about 30 miles, we reached the town of Fredonia. We went to the public library for an hour or two to use the internet and kill some time. When it was noon, we headed to the only restaurant in town: Cowboy Butte Grill & Steakhouse. The menu was limited, but that made our choice easier. The food was good and they even had a veggie burger for Emily.
After lunch, we got back on our bikes and regretted eating so much! We continued west toward Pipe Spring National Monument. The wind had picked up at this point and we had to go a bit uphill. Luckily, we had just 15 more miles before we reached the campground. The campground just north of the monument was only $5 and had all the amenities (hot showers, toilets, water spouts/electricity at every site)! What a deal! We were even able to pick up a strong internet signal from the campground host.
We made a couple trips to the only store in town: a Chevron gas station. We were all able to get monster-sized cups of our favorite diet soda and lots of sugary snacks. We picked up some spaghetti, Prego sauce, and canned mushrooms to prepare for our dinner.
Life is good...although Michelle's blisters are still quite raw and there is an over-abundance of gnats buzzing around our site...
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June 17, 2011
From the title, you can guess that today was tough. Besides being hilly, we also had an unfavorable wind. It was too bad that Nico had to join us for a ride with such unpleasant conditions. We left Charles' house by 5:30 am, as planned. After 10 miles or so, Michelle was in tears; her blisters have not a chance to heal yet. She wanted to ride, but her heels need to heal (no pun intended). We immediately found her a ride with a wonderful family. They were headed to the North Rim of the Grand C...
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June 17, 2011
Today we got our earliest start so far. Knowing that it would reach at least 100 degrees, we woke up at 4:30 and got on the road within an hour. Our destination, Marble Canyon, was 75 miles and included a 3,000 ft climb in the middle. Even though we started early, it got hot quickly. We ran into some road construction, but were pleasantly surprised by how helpful the construction workers were. One of the ladies working led us through in her truck with flashing lights so we didn't have to batt...
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June 15, 2011
Today we left Grand Canyon National Park and headed east. The first 30 miles or so of our ride were actually within park boundaries. It was not overly hilly, but we were all suffering; Rebekah still has her road rash, Michelle has huge blisters on both of her heels from hiking, and Emily has achy muscles from her extra-long hike yesterday. With a few pit stops, we were able to push ourselves through. We stopped at the Desert View area and looked down into the canyon from the watchtower. We al...
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June 15, 2011
For our second full day off at the canyon, we all decided to go our separate ways. It's not that we are sick of each other, but we all had different intentions and varying states of health. We all planned to get up for sunrise, but only Michelle and Emily started heading over (our camp site was as far away from the shuttle bus stop as possible). Since it was still dark out, the girls got lost and only Michelle ended up making it to see the sunrise. Emily opted to get a couple more hours of re...
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June 12, 2011
We woke up early as planned and ate our usual oatmeal. We made some peanut butter and jelly bagels to take along with some other snacks. Yesterday, we thought about buying a cheap backpack since we don't have one along. We wanted something to carry our water, snacks, and other supplies. We discovered that the general store does gear rental, so for $6 we were able to get a North Face day-pack. We stuffed it full of food and water and headed on our way.
We had to take the shuttle bus to get to t...
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June 12, 2011
We left Flintstones Bedrock City and headed north on Hwy. 64. After about 21 miles, we arrived in the tiny town of Tusayan, which is just a few miles south of the Grand Canyon park entrance. We decided to go to the National Geographic Visitor Center to see the IMAX film about the canyon. We learned a lot from the 34-minute presentation, but were all left feeling a little dizzy from some of the precarious angle shots. Before heading into the park, we stopped at the general store in Tusayan, ho...
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June 11, 2011
After getting way too comfortable, we finally left Sara's house. We had to navigate through Northern Arizona University campus and downtown Flagstaff to get onto Hwy. 180. Once we were on it though, we only had to make one more turn the entire day.
The first 20 miles of our ride were uphill, but not too steep. We climbed up to about 8,100 ft and then started our descent down to 6,000 ft. It took us about 56 miles to reach our destination: Flintstones Bedrock City in Valle, AZ. This park was bu...
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June 10, 2011
Today was a day of running errands and enjoying our last day in Flagstaff. Rebekah picked up her bike from the shop, cleaned it, and re-installed her front rack and fender. Then we all went to a used bookstore to grab some "new" reading material. We also did some laundry, baked brownies, watched TV, and starting re-packing our panniers. Everyone is feeling much better physically, so we think we'll be ready for our 54-mile to Flintstones Bed Rock City tomorrow. We will be a bit sad to leave th...
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June 10, 2011
Today we were able to use Sara's car to explore the area around Flagstaff. We decided to check out the Sedona area, just south of Flagstaff. We spent most of the day at Red Rock State Park. We enjoyed dipping our feet in the creek and hiking up to Cathedral Rock. We packed ourselves a little picnic and ate right next to the creek. We ended the day by lounging on Sara's couch and watching a movie.
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