Today we rode from the Sunrise Resort RV Park close to Happy Jack to a dispersed campsite at the top of Sedona’s Schnebly Hill. We started with blue skies, had some clouds during the morning, and ended the day again with a clear sky. The road surfaces today were either paved or very rough off-road.
Riding statistics: on Saturday May 18, 2024, the 10th day on the Western Wildlands Route route, it took 11:43h (07:37h moving time), between 07:30 and 19:13, to cover 104 km (64 miles), including 1280 m (4200 ft) elevation gain, with an average speed of 14 km/h (8 mph). During today's ride the average temperature was 28 °C (86 °F) with a minimum of 5 °C (40 °F) and a maximum of 47 °C (124 °F).
Totals: So far, it took 3 days, 2 hours, 52 minutes and 37 seconds of cycling time to cover 1005 km (625 miles), including 13479 m (44225 ft) elevation gain, with an average speed of 13.7 km/h (8.5 mph).
Yesterday evening we went to bed a little later then usual because of the nice gathering at the RV park. So this morning I got up around 5.30. It had been a cold night at 2500m elevation. But my sleep kit is good and I only had a bit of cold feet in the morning. Fons had no interest in sleeping in his tent. Het got his matrass and sleeping bag and slept inside the shower / laundry building, which was used by us o ly anyway. Around 6.30 we left the RV park.
Several days ago there has been a wildfire at the opposite site of the road. Some areas were still smoking. We also saw that already yesterday when we stopped at the gas station just before the RV park. This morning we cycled about 10km next to the area that has been burning. A large area. About 16km into our ride we left pavement and hit double-track. It did not take long before the track got bad, sometimes really bad. I think we cycled about 2 hours when we hit pavement again. In the mean time we also had a bit better gravel road. Along that one quite some people enjoyed the outdoors in their RV.
On the pavement we had a long downhill of many kilometers and eventually we turned into a back road. It was still partially paved from a very long past. Eventually it turned into a double-track with some nasty rocks. One of the rocks punctured Fons’s rear tire. We had to plug it twice so we could make it to Oak Creek, just before Sedona. In Oak Creek er had the rear tire replaced, ate lunch, and got groceries for the remainder of the day and tomorrow morning.
Around 3pm we decided to leave Oak Creek and go for the first public land after Sedona.
First. We road the Bell Rock pathway between Oak Creek and Sedona. That was awesome. Sometimes a bit of hard working with all the bags, but definitely a great hike/MTB trail between Sedona’s Red Rock mountains. After completing the Bell Rock pathway, we got back on the road to Sedona. We had to take a right to Sedona’s Schnebly Hill. We had to climb that though one before dark. It is a famous hill for 4×4 drivers. Quite a challenge with a fully loaded bike. It was tiring, but the views were amazing. During the ride quite a number of 4×4 passed us. About half way 2 Jeep Rubicons. A while later we passed them again while they were enjoying a viewpoint. Just at the top they passed us again and the second stopped. The driver said: “You two are f*cking heroes. Would you like a Beer?”. There could be only one answer. He opened his cooler on the back seat and got us two ice cold beers. Thank you trail angel!! Not much further we found a place to camp. We quickly setup tents, boiled water for noodles, and made preparations for the next day. During sunset we still heard many ATVs coming up the hill.
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