Biking Bis - Bicycle Touring and More

Bike Tour 1984: Postscript -- the tour comes full circle

Gene Bisbee — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 09:15:00 -0700

I can't close off this cross-country bicycle trip without a postscript, because the tour really didn't end for me when we arrived in Oceanside. Still suffering from wanderlust, the trip ended for me up the Pacific coast with a chance meeting with another cyclist who had ridden ahead of us on our bike tour.

It made me realize that while we cross-country bicycle tourists are pedaling throughout the world, we're also cycling in our own world...

1984 Bike Tour: Day 68 - End of the road

Gene Bisbee — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 06:48:00 -0700

OCEANSIDE, CALIFORNIA -- Bruce and I achieved the goal -- to ride from coast to coast -- that we'd made up our minds to accomplish two years ago. It seems like the end arrived too soon.

Fittingly, this was one of the easiest days of the trip. From 2,727 feet, we were coasting down to sea level. Soon after leaving our pace quickened and we had to slow for switchbacks and suddenly we began passing orange groves. It was all so California. We passed a mission, but we didn't stop to investigate. As Lazy Louie would say, all the hills went down and we had the wind to our backs.

Traffic increased as we hit residential areas, and James nearly had a head-on as he sped around us in the van. We were all riding together, and each tried to be the first to spot the ocean. ...

1984 Bike Tour: Day 67 - Final toasts in the glow of a Coleman lantern

Gene Bisbee — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 10:14:00 -0700

The last full day on the road ended in warm camaraderie making toasts around a picnic table. But it began much chillier than that for me.

I was slow waking up as I felt totally exhausted from the day before. I was finally breaking camp when I heard the crunch of tires on the road leading to the campsite. It was James in the blue van. Everyone was worried about me. They got an early start and would be passing by soon. He offered to carry my gear. No, I brought it this far, I'll take it the rest of the way.

I did take him up on the offer of water, though. A sign posted at the campsite spigot said the water wasn't potable.

He left, and by the time I got to the main road I assume they'd already passed. I was a little upset that my pride hadn't let me give my stuff to James. This extra gear was heavy ...

1984 Bike Tour: Day 66 - Strange lights in the desert

Gene Bisbee — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 07:21:00 -0700

ANZA-BORREGO STATE PARK, CALIFORNIA -- Too much heat? Not enough water? Too much pedaling through the desert? Too close to the end of the trip? I can't explain it, but I isolated myself from the group today and rode up to a solitary campground in the desert.
Expecting another hot day, we set the alarm for 4:30 but didn't really get going for hours. We all stopped for pictures at the Arizona-California border then cycled on Interstate 8 near the Mexican border through an area aptly named the Imperial Sand Dunes.

Turning onto State Route 98, we left the sandbox and found ourselves in a lush farmland. Instead of sand blowing in our faces, we were pelted by thousands of small white butterflies flitting back and forth across the road between crops. ...

1984 Bicycle Tour: Day 65 - We find an oasis in the desert

Gene Bisbee — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 07:16:00 -0700

YUMA, ARIZONA -- There are days on this cross-country trip that I anticipated from the first time I spread out the maps on the table in my apartment in Annapolis.

One was the climb up to the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia; another was going up and over Monarch Pass in Colorado. Today was another -- 80 miles across the desert of southwestern Arizona where nothing marked on the map except a thin line for Hwy. 95.

We were up before dawn today, filling our water bottles and two 2-quart blue plastic water bladders that we'd brought along for this occasion. We'd been planning on this stretch for months, and we had vowed we wouldn't depend on the van for support.

So the four of us slipped out of Quartzsite into the cool, dry desert morning air at 5:30. We rode by the light of the blazing red sky... dawn was still an hour away. ...

1984 Bike Tour: Day 64 - I can feel the heat on my eyelids

Gene Bisbee — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 08:05:00 -0700

Looks like most of the residents of Hope, Arizona,
have given up all hope...

I awoke about sunup this morning and ... no Bruce.

It had been so hot and dry, we didn't see the need to pitch the tent last night. We threw the tarp down and just slept on that, until, at some point in the night, I realized all kinds of insects were walking around on me. I took my mat and put it on a picnic table and went back to sleep. Jim had already booked the other table.

Bruce woke up later, about 2 a.m., for the same reason I had, discovered the picnic tables already taken, and took off for a ride. He ended up at an all-night cafe where a group of 20 Native American runners showed up. They're members of the Sioux and are running from the Dakotas to LA to protest the Olympic Committee not allowing them to participate in the Summer Games in LA as their own nation. ...

1984 Bike Tour: Day 63 - The toad in the desert puddle in Aguila

Gene Bisbee — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 17:48:00 -0700

AGUILA, ARIZONA -- We're camping at the City Park here tonight. We've left all the cool, shady mountains behind us, and we're out where it's dry, sunny and hot. The park doesn't have much; just a picnic shelter and a small building for restrooms.
At the back of his building is a water spigot that drips. In the puddle underneath there sits a toad. I noticed him ...

1984 Bike Tour: Day 62 - Ghostly visions pedaling uphill

Gene Bisbee — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 07:28:00 -0700

PRESCOTT, ARIZONA -- We spent much of today in the small gears, the stump-pullers, the grannies.
We started our climb almost immediately after leaving Dead Horse campground. Jim had already left -- we told him we always got a late start -- and we gingerly picked our way across that slippery low-water bridge.
The old ghost town of Jerome was ...

Bike Tour 1984: Day 61 - We find a leech after crossing Verde River

Gene Bisbee — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 04:23:00 -0700

Cottonwood, Ariz. -- We've liked everyone who has crossed our path as we cycle cross-country. Today is the exception. The scenery here has been beautiful, though, and the terrain has been in our favor.

We faced a major chore breaking camp at the Motel 6 -- our laundering and bike cleaning resulted in our crap strewn from one of the room to the other.

It was sprinkling when we left (isn't this Arizona, why so wet?) and we headed south on Route 89A. We passed through a quiet Ponderosa forest and reached Oak Creek Canyon, which marks a 1,600-foot descent over the Mogollon Rim. The rim sits at the southern edge of the Colorado Plateau, which encompasses the Four Corners region. We've been pedaling across the plateau since leaving Albuquerque...

1984 Bike Tour: Day 60 -- Marking time in Flagstaff

Gene Bisbee — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 07:34:00 -0700

FLAGSTAFF -- We stayed here in Flagstaff another day to parcel out our time. We want to meet up with our friends from the UK in a couple of days further down the road.

It's hard to do nothing. We cleaned our bikes, did laundry, sat out by the pool, drank a couple of beers and it started raining. Back inside, the housekeeper slipped us a key to operate the TV -- this was a Motel 6 and we hadn't paid the extra few bucks for the feature. ...