After a full week away from civilization (sorry Blythe), it felt good to have a lot more to look at besides cacti, doves, and motor vehicles. After being spoiled by Mike and Kathy in Wickenburg we were ready and fresh for the 70ish miles into the Phoenix metro area. A tail wind coupled with about 1200 feet in elevation drop made for a very pleasant 30 mile decent into the big city.  |
| Damn good dry rub wings |
We hooked up with the Arizona Canal Path and followed it leisurely for another 30 miles or so. On the way wee stopped at a "bike friendly" restaurant, the Spoke & Wheel. We had some great tacos, wings, and churros and lined up our next adventure.
Both Sarah and I are big fans of plants and learning so the next adventure was the Desert Botanical Gardens! In addition to their normal exhibits there was a special feature for visitors that stayed past sunset. A British artist set up a number of art installations right amongst the plantings. They all involved light, some had sound and they were all cool to experience! The coolest installation was a series of fiber optics "spiders" that covered a section of the gardens as well as acres of the surrounding more primitive park. I'll let a couple pictures explain more....
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| Thousands and thousands of shifting lights covered the desert |
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| Arrays of plastic bottles filled with water and fiber optic cables with choral droning to boot |
We biked the last few miles into Tempe to our pre-arranged warm shower host's place. We were in for such a treat! Ryan and Jenn were super nice, had a great crash pad, and were super knowledgable about cycling in Arizona! They were both into Bromptons in a big way (to say the least). We had a shower, a few pastys, and a great night's sleep!
The next day we decided to take a complete rest day and stay with Ryan and Jen another night. Not wanting trick our bodies into thinking we were done with strenuous activity, we decided to climb Camelback Mountain right in metro Phoenix. A 1700 ft climb gave us 360 views of the area.
What a rest day! We brought our bikes to a local bike co-op and had a great time working on our bikes and learning from bike gurus who were standing by to help! We stopped by a great bike shop in Tempe and addressed some of the issues that we had discovered and learned about at the bike co-op. That meant a new helmet and tire for me, a new front light for Sarah, some tubes, and some fantastic chap-stick. We had a nice dinner to recover from the hike (and previous 8 days of riding), and to get ready for the ride to Tucson!! More soon....
-WJT
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| 1700 feet in about a mile meant steep trails! |
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| Worth it |
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