Today we rode from a dispersed campsite north of Flagstaff to another dispersed campsite just outside Grand Canyon National Park. Today we mainly had overcast, it started an ended with additional sunshine between the clouds. There was also an very strong wind, with powerful gusts, all day long. The roads were not easy today. Some difficult trails with rocks, dried clay, gravel, and single-track.
Riding statistics: on Monday May 20, 2024, the 12th day on the Western Wildlands Route route, it took 10:38h (08:34h moving time), between 07:05 and 17:43, to cover 109 km (68 miles), including 1354 m (4442 ft) elevation gain, with an average speed of 13 km/h (8 mph). During today's ride the average temperature was 20 °C (70 °F) with a minimum of 12 °C (54 °F) and a maximum of 29 °C (88 °F).
Totals: So far, it took 3 days, 18 hours, 28 minutes and 10 seconds of cycling time to cover 1205 km (748 miles), including 16109 m (52854 ft) elevation gain, with an average speed of 13.6 km/h (8.4 mph).
We left our dispersed campsite around 5:50 this morning. There was some sunshine but also clouds. Some of the clouds even a bit darker. Would we get some bad weather? During the night, the already strong wind got stronger, and the gusts were unbelievable strong. During the morning we had to fight the wind more than once. We regularly had a headwind, and otherwise a strong side wind that pushed as from the trail. Especially when we had some more difficult sections where you have to plot a path to get through the though sections. Anlarge part of the morning we continued circuling around the snow topped mountains.
Later in the morning we rode away from those mountains and we got to follow single-track, as part of the Arizona Trail. It lasted for many kilometers and we both enjoyed it a lot. In the afternoon we got to ride a very rough section of 20+km with very sharp rocks all over the path. That does worry a bit on the tires part. Fortunately, we made it without issues.
The last part of today’s ride we had to ride gravel and dried clay roads. Not much climbing involved. Within one mile of the Grand Canyon National Park entrance (a small off-road entrance in the south), we selected a dispersed campsite for the night. There were some more campers in the area.
It was a hard day because of the wind. It was most of the day against us instead of being in our favor. Nevertheless we had some great trails and views.
Gallery
Eef,
Heb jij (weer) zelfdichtende banden op de fiets?
Dat begin van dat enkelsporig traject kun je bijna geen weg meer noemen.
Maar volgens mij staat er toch een stopbord.
Ja, wederom tubeless met sealant erin. Is tegenwoordig toch standaard op de MTB. En over stopborden, die staan soms op de meest gekke plaatsen.