Day 88 – Arizona, the last stage

Distance: 51.15mi | Time: 5:14 | 1481kcal | 2614 vertical feet

131114-hoover-damAfter a few days of rest & relaxation and also a bicycle repair, we started today for our last stage from Las Vegas to Phoenix. Since we are running a little out of time, we decided to take the direct way down and therefore we have only around 300miles left. From Vegas we took the Freeway route to Boulder City and to the Hoover Dam, a huge dam which creates the Mead Lake with the water from the Colorado River. The landscape is still a desert and currently we are sitting in front of our campfire in between bushes and cacti. It easy to find firewood which is as dry as it can get here, so everything burns really good. A great contrast to the Northern States where we earlier on the trip rode through. The best part of the desert are the incredible sunsets:131114-sunset-desert-after-las-vegas

Day 89 – The End!

bicycle-path-on-highway-93-in-arizona-jokecactus-thorns-in-bicycle-tire-horrorfour-flat-tires-on-bicycles-caused-through-cactusAfter riding for another few miles the Highway did a major change, not really bad for cars but killing for bicycle tourists: The paved shoulder was gone and a soft shoulder started. With two lanes going in each direction and a very busy road between Las Vegas and Phoenix, we were forced to ride the bicycles on this soft shoulder. This would have been still ok, but what really terminated our tour were all the cactus thorns buried in the soil of this soft shoulder. We had the first flat tire after about 2 miles, fixed this one and then kept riding for about 3 more miles in this gravel and stopped for the second flat. Well second flat is not absolutely right: Once we stopped on the side, we realized there were hundreds of thorns stuck in our bicycle tires where many made their way through to the tube. Later we would realize that one tire had an incredible amount of 15 holes in it. This was it, with no bicycle store between Las Vegas and Phoenix we were forced again to go back to Las Vegas. So we stopped a truck and took the ride back into town. Talking to the truck driver in the truck, who told the road does not improve and stays like this, we did the very hard decision to rent a car for the very last 300miles of our trip. On this day we finally reached our place in Phoenix at the house of our friend Eric from Portland and his girlfriend Caroline.

With a few Cocktails and some beer we celebrated our arrival there. For the next few days we will do short trips up to the Grand Canyon, the Antelope Canyon and then also some camping in the Sedona State Park and in some cactus fields around Phoenix. welcome-sign-in-phoenixbicycle-tires-ready-for-backcountry