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, day 20 on the route, it took 10:38h (08:34h moving time), between 06:05 and 16:43, to cover 109 km (68 miles), including 1354 m (4442 ft) elevation gain, with an average speed of 13 km/h (8 mph), while reaching a maximum speed of 46 km/h (29 mph). During this ride the average temperature was 20 °C (68 °F) with a minimum of 12 °C (54 °F) and a maximum of 29 °C (84 °F).

Totals: So far, it took 3 days, 22 hours, 11 minutes, and 0 seconds of cycling time to cover 1286 km (799 miles), including 16237 m (53274 ft) elevation gain, with an average speed of 14.1 km/h (8.8 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.

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