Today we rode from a dispersed campsite at the top of Schnelby Hill north of Sedona to another dispersed campsite north of Flagstaff. We had blue skies all day, however, because of the elevation and wind it was never too warm. We had some rough roads today, combined with nice gravel roads and a little pavement.
Riding statistics: on Sunday May 19, 2024, the 11th day on the Western Wildlands Route route, it took 10:58h (07:01h moving time), between 06:52 and 17:51, to cover 90 km (56 miles), including 1276 m (4187 ft) elevation gain, with an average speed of 13 km/h (8 mph). During today's ride the average temperature was 22 °C (74 °F) with a minimum of 5 °C (40 °F) and a maximum of 34 °C (98 °F).
Totals: So far, it took 3 days, 9 hours, 53 minutes and 57 seconds of cycling time to cover 1095 km (680 miles), including 14755 m (48411 ft) elevation gain, with an average speed of 13.7 km/h (8.5 mph).
This morning we got up around 5, made everything ready and left by 5.45. We had to continue the climb of Schnelby Hill, but it was never as difficult as the previous afternoon. The road a double-track, sometimes in good condition, sometimes in a (very) bad condition.
After a while we got a better gravel road. It was a nice ride. At a certain moment we saw a lot of smoke. I told Fons that I was hoping that it was at someone’s campsite. When nearing the area, we did see people, but it were firemen, several dozen, so called Hot Shots. It seems that they were combining training with burning the rests from logging activities. Probably to keep the area clean from wildfire fuel. We saw that it was done on many places during our next 20km.
After riding those remaining 20km on that gravel road, we hit pavement for 2km, and back on a gravel road towards Flagstaff. At that moment we saw two mountains with still white tops from the snow. It looked amazing.
When riding into Flagstaff we passed a huge 4×4 events. Many people were camping with this 4×4 setups, cats were shown, and people were riding on a 4×4 track. Very popular when looking at the number of visitors. We continued our ride into Flagstaff on a wonderful non-paved hike/bike path. The route passed a supermarket and we got lunch and groceries from there, and bear spray from an outdoor shop across the street.
In the afternoon we left Flagstaff so we could make some more kilometers, and camp on public land. Just out of town we had to climb Schultz pass. Fortunately not too steep because we carried a days extra water and food.
30 kilometer after Flagstaff we found a good spot to camp. A little out of the wind because it was blowing full force. We setup camp, fixed an issue with Fons’s rear rack, ate, and went to sleep.
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