What goes up, must come down...
Day 6 - Sedona, AZ to Cameron, AZ (81 miles with 4,600 feet of climbing)
Another 4am start for Robin and me to beat the heat. We had a long climb that started 2.5 miles after we left the hotel and lasted for 25 miles. The grade was not steep, so we put it in easy gears and spun our way to the top, which peaked at 7000 feet. Along the way, we saw another cyclist descending the hill. About 30 minutes later, the same cyclist passed us going up the hill. He was doing “hill repeats” to train. Under her breath but certainly audible, I heard Robin say, “Christ, hill repeats” indicating she was in impressed by the effort.
The temperature was perfect, chilly but not cold. We rode through the center of Flagstaff, which looked like a place we would visit but we could not stay; we needed to meet Shannon to pass the baton. We even rode on the famous Route 66 for a few miles. The roadside attractions looked like they were past their sell by date, but we could imagine what it was like in the day. At the top of one hill when we were taking a break, I asked Robin how she was doing and she said, “Okay, I mean I have pain, but I’m okay”. She has fully embraced cycling’s famous rule number five. Now, Shannon will take it from here…
Maude and I met them at McDonalds to do the mostly downhill second half of the ride. We had one small climb and at just over 7000 feet I was feeling the altitude. But we made it through and the rest was downhill. We biked 46 miles in around 3 hours as we watched the landscape change from pine trees and greenery to plains to red rocks. We even crossed our first time zone! Just as it was getting almost too hot to continue Mom and Maude met us at a Burger King where we loaded up and drove to where we’re staying for the night.
As we rode we passed a lot of signs for the South Rim of the grand canyon. So once we showered and cooled down we loaded back into the car to go see the Grand Canyon. I’d never seen it before and it was grand. Much bigger than I expected. Unfortunately it was still over 90 degrees so we couldn’t stay for long, but I’m glad we got to see it. We’re all exhausted so I don’t think the time change will affect of 7 PM bed time.