Legends of the Southwest Fall Semester Blog # 5
At the end of our final day on the Green River we met Tess and Rebecca in Moab, Utah and drove to Prescott, Arizona for the transition to our bike-packing leg. The layover was full of preparation for expedition and had time for some exploration of Prescott. We spent a morning touring Prescott College, and an afternoon with David Gilligan, who teaches Natural History of the Southwest at Prescott. He took us on our first excursion into the desert and we became acquainted with different ecologies and plants growing there. It was amazing to work with someone so knowledgeable and excited to share about the desert.
Learning about the ecology of Arizona and plants of the Arizona uplands with David Gilligan.
Halloween in Prescott, Arizona!
After a layover at White Spur Campground, the first day of our bike-pacing expedition was finally here! We left our beautiful layover camp, White Spur campground, right outside of Prescott, Arizona, and started driving about two hours north until we met the Arizona Trail at Mormon Lake. Or so we planned. After a short bit of driving, we hit snow, and oh boy, we hit snow hard!
As we entered Coconino National Forest and were headed to the trailhead our van and trailer got totally stuck in the snow. Luckily, a pickup truck was right there and graciously towed us further up the road. We decided it would be easier to just start biking there rather than drive three more miles and risk getting stuck again.
Out into the winter wonderland we went!
Everybody ready to go on the first day!
We found several tarantulas along our trip. Here’s Sarah holding one.
Layered up, we packed up our bikes, said goodbye to our lovely van, and started biking away in the snow. We biked only a few miles until we stopped to make camp for the night. We hunkered down and cuddled up close, shocked we were snow camping on our first day of bikepacking. The frigid morning came quickly and the glistening snow was gorgeous as the sun began to rise. Due to the unexpected snow, we decided to make some miles on the road before we got to the Arizona Trail (AZT). After lunch, we finally made it to the AZT! We were all terribly excited. Once on the trail, it was an absolute mud mess. The hot sun was melting all the snow so trail riding was slow, but before dark we made it to camp. When the sun had set, and the cold approached, we all piled into one tent and set up the wood stove, much like the night previous. It was then bedtime so we cuddled up closer once again and set off to sleep as we were.
We were so excited to get on the AZT! While we were eating lunch at the trailhead, we met some friendly thru-hikers and it was exciting to share the trail!
Cecily taking a trail-side break during our second day on trail.
We were awakened by the sound of Rebecca’s voice telling us to stay in our tents and sleep, as more snow was falling and we were going to layover. When we emerged from our tents a couple of hours later, everything had a layer of white on it. We spent this day bathing, journaling, collecting our re-supply and just hanging out with each other.
Our breakfast circle for our live-over at Bargaman Park Tank.
Hazel’s painting of Bargaman Park – a large grassy area ringed by Ponderosa Pine forest.
Hazel exploring the power lines on our live-over at Bargaman Park.
Food managers working hard to sort food for the next few days of the expedition.
Our next day came with many more challenges. The trail was even more of a mud mess than before. We started off by biking on forest roads instead of the Arizona Trail in hopes they would have less muddy conditions. We were not so lucky. Our bikes got completely gunked up with sticky mud and we all had to walk them. The mud ingrained in our bikes caused several mechanical issues: bike racks falling off, broken brakes, and worst of all Sol’s derailleur completely snapped off. Just as we thought we were at camp, we were told we had to go two more miles so that Dave could pick up Sol’s bike in the morning. Two more miles we went, now walking our bikes in the dark. Our sleeping bags felt so nice that night.
Sol carrying his bike after the derailleur snapped.
Savi, Oscar, Cedar, Kaia, and Sol stay warm during a lunch break.
Uli after de-mudding a bike.
The next day came and spirits were high. The sun was warm and drying out the mud, which meant we could do some riding. We spent this entire day fully on the AZT. Following the nature of this expedition, we did have to walk our bikes a decent bit due to unforeseen technical difficulties and muddy conditions but had an awesome snowball fight during one of our breaks. Once we got to camp we found some cow bones which soon became part of our everyday bike decorations. We set up camp and headed to sleep in the cold night air.
Since Sol’s bike was being repaired, Sol and Gabe switched between running and biking. Although we had one runner all day, we made a decent amount of miles and had an awesome day biking on some well-used forest roads. We camped just before the highway and were lulled to sleep by the sound of cars and coyotes. That night was arguably the coldest night of sleep even though we had escaped the snow.
Savi and Sol in the Ponderosa Pine forest.
Gabe and Sol switched off running throughout the day.
Another day, another food and water resupply. Uli, Gabe, and Gracie set off early to meet our resupply 6 miles down the road, with Gabe and Gracie running, and Uli biking. After camp was all taken down, the rest of our group headed off and zoomed down the winding forest roads just to find Gabe and Uli sitting at our resupply location without the resupply. A little while later we were pleased to see Dave, Tess, and River barreling down the road with everything, including Sol’s fixed bike, that we would need for the next few days of the expedition. We had a delicious Fancy Lunch of sardines, bread, dried fruit, cheese, and pumpkin pie and continued our way to Blue Ridge Campground. Still full from lunch and a lovely dinner, we slept cuddled up in our tents.
Each night we cozied up inside our wood-stove heated tent for journal writing, dinner, and evening meeting.
Our following day was a big push as we had a whole mile practically straight uphill. Valiantly, Savi took on Leader of the Day all by herself and led us to Rocky Crossing Campground for a half-layover. We spent the morning pushing uphill, and the afternoon relaxing in the sun. Another sunrise brought more biking, this time more than we had intended. We had a tough descent into a canyon which only a few brave souls dared to bike with many comical falls. After lunch we faced the other side of the valley, now pushing our bikes straight up. Once we were out onto the top we cruised down relatively flat forest roads. We moved so fast, that we cut down a whole day of travel and made it to the rim of the Colorado Plateau just in time to see the most gorgeous sunset on the Mazatzal Mountains. The next day was The Big Drop. Finally, we were getting off the Plateau and descending the Mogollon Rim.
Cecily at sunrise at Rock Crossing Campground.
Uli and Cedar celebrate making it to the Mogollon Rim.
Down we go! We dropped 2500 feet from the rim down to the town of Payson on a combination of singletrack, double track, and paved roads.
Nalia riding down from the rim.
Cedar riding down from the rim.
Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed we began our walk down the steep, rocky section of trail. We walked until we met some debatably rideable double track that paralleled the AZT, then faced a bunch of paved road biking until we once again met Dave, Tess, and River at the Houston Mesa Campground. Here, we spent a whole day rerouting our initial route due to an unrideable highway section. Due to this unforeseen complication, we had to load back into the van and drive south. We were all incredibly disappointed, but just a few days before, we established our group mission statement: to make it to Tucson as a group with the physical and mental well-being of everyone in mind. Though it felt like teleporting, we made it to the hot, prickly desert that we were all expecting. We unpacked all our stuff from the van once again and set off into the desert sun.
Our first day in the desert was short and hot. We started biking in the middle of the day and the heat definitely hit us hard. We got to our first desert camp and watched as the sun set on one side of us and the almost full moon rose on the other. Our first night in the desert and we couldn’t be happier to be sleeping without wearing every layer that we owned! The following day was our first full day riding in the desert. First sunrise in the desert, and first flat tire. Thanks to all of the spikey, thorny plants in the desert, our gear managers’ (Oscar and Cecily) biceps have never been bigger after pumping up so many flat tires. Our day of travel was full of twists and turns on many unlabeled side roads. We became pros at tossing our stuff over barbed wire fences and skillfully rolling under. That night, we had another water resupply, so a few brave souls biked to get it and were greeted with a full food resupply, too. Rebecca, Gabe, Uli, Oscar, and Cedar carried back 15 full 10-liter water dromedaries and an entire food resupply including a whole watermelon. In the dark. On their bikes. We were all terribly confused and so grateful for the strong five. We celebrated with a yummy dinner and called it a night.
Each person carried a 10L water dromedary on their bike. We hardly encountered water in the desert, and the water we carried would last us for about 2 days.
Oscar fixing a tube and checking a wheel for cactus spikes.
The next day’s navigation was even more confusing than the one before. The maps we had made absolutely no sense to where we were, and we spent hours stopping, scouting, turning around, and questioning any and all decisions. Finally, we found an ATV driver who helped us understand the maze of roads and trails that make up this recreational area of the desert. We realized with their help that we were not where we thought we were, but by nightfall, we were camped exactly where we wanted to be. Finally, we were in Box Canyon! Just before dinner, our arrival was greeted by a group of free-ranging long-horned cattle.
The next day of biking was definitely one for the books. The majority of our day was spent cruising through Box Canyon, which transported us back to the canyons of Utah. We biked all the way to our next resupply spot, which we arrived at incredibly early so got some time to relax. To our surprise, we were practically right next to the Gila river, so after finding our resupply we decided to camp right next to the river and shuttle our food and water to camp from where it had been stashed. At camp, we organized a tremendous amount of food and took a little swim to get off all of the dirt and grime. Refreshed and somewhat clean, we tucked into bed just to be rudely awakened by the alarm on the Gila River Diversion Dam, signaling the cleaning of debris from the entrance to the aqueduct.
The Gila River Diversion dam moves water from the river to nearby agricultural areas. The Gila River is one of Arizona’s major rivers; it combines with other rivers such as the Salt and Verde to supply approximately 21% of Arizona’s water (source – waterforarizona.org).
Cinder with a deer hoof. We found many bones along the trail, most seemed to be from cows.
Our next day was off to a slow start, with more route-finding challenges resulting in a detour through the town of Florence, Arizona. At our first connection to modern society, we ate lunch in the parking lot of a Dollar General, and our instructors surprised us with milkshakes! We kept on biking till camp and looked forward to our next couple of days of uphill.
Shade of any kind is helpful to relieve the intensity of the desert sun. Each day we stopped for a few hours during the hottest part of the day and had lunch under a variety of cacti and legume trees.
For the next two days, we had a constant, gradual uphill. We would stop in the middle of the day for “heat breaks”, and keep pushing in the evening.
Each night we found camp in a wash in an attempt to escape the many spines and prickles of the desert. We were finally coming into the last days of bikepacking. In preparation for our last three days on the trail, we had a live-over at a shady wash campsite. We had a class with Rebecca on desert ecology and one with Gracie about how land and people have interacted throughout history. During this day we were joined by a new friend, Little Lady, a random cattle dog that found a liking to us; she stayed with us all day and night.
Many nights we camped in washes, or places where water would be flowing in a wetter season. Here we are getting ready to ride in the morning after leaving camp just to the right of the photo.
This layover day was particularly important because we were preparing for our final independent group travel. Two nights and three days, self-sufficient as a group of 12 without our instructors. We also opted not to have hierarchical student leadership during this group travel, which made organized preparation more important. The next morning arrived and while we still had the addition of Little Lady, we were without our instructors.
Our last few days included a lot of beautiful downhill! This photo shows Mt. Lemmon towering over Tucson and our final destination – Catalina State Park.
Most of the public lands we traveled through were leased for cattle grazing. Here we are in front of Willow Springs Ranch, whose cattle grazed near the wash we slept in the previous night.
Our day went smoothly, arriving at camp early and getting to hang out and relax with one another. We had our evening meeting, and then to switch things up decided to have a talent show before falling asleep under the stars. The next day we decided as a group to sleep in, as we only had a few miles to go. It took us longer to pack our bikes than we spent riding. We got to camp at lunchtime and finished reading Solito by Javier Zamora, a memoir about a migrant traveling from El Salvador to the United States in the late 1990s. We decided to head to bed early, as we had a big day the following day. We woke up at 5 AM preparing to be exhausted by a long, uphill, and flat day riding on the highway into Catalina State Park. We had a time target of getting to Catalina between 3 and 5 PM, and no way were we going to be late. To our surprise, considering we were using a gazetteer for navigation, which does not have contour lines, our 16 miles were actually slightly downhill. We arrived at the State Park at 9:30 am, which gave us time to relax before arriving at our final destination. We finally made it!
Arriving at Catalina State Park!
Once at the campground, we shared stories with our instructors about the last few days. Lots of mixed emotions: sad that the expedition was over, but happy to be in Tucson together. Our evening meeting was filled with laughs, thinking, and reminiscing about our trip.
The next two days were spent cleaning up from our expedition and preparing to cross the border into Mexico! We were surprised with the news of going to Mexico just after pulling into Catalina State Park, and it made the end of the expedition that much more amazing! We are sad our time is coming to an end, but terribly excited for our border studies and more adventures to come.
Until the next,
Your scribe, Kaia
