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A bicycle ride across the Americas

from Deadhorse (SCC) to Ushuaia (USH)

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Home→Tags desert

Tag Archives: desert

Salome

A bicycle ride across the Americas Posted on 2016-10-15 by mev2016-10-16

Today a ride through the desert west of Wickenburg.
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All day was on US-60 with reasonable shoulder and a lot less traffic than yesterday. I guess more of the traffic continued on US-93 rather than west on US-60 where the interstate (I-10) otherwise provides a reasonable alternative.

First three miles were in Wickenburg city and then wide open desert. First 12 miles were a gentle climb. Still saguaro cacti here, though fewer than I had coming into Phoenix.
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Just on edge of town was a monument to the Wickenburg Massacre.
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Text of the plaque for closer reading.

After it was cycling through wide open country. I stopped briefly in Aguila at 26 miles.
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More places here to practice Spanish.
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Picture above gives reasonable view of desert landscape. Still an occasional saguaro but otherwise sparse plants, often with an area around them of bare soil. I assume the roots spread out to take in moisture from a wide area around each plant. A few spots had a low bush or two and I even came past an irrigated field, but most of the terrain looked more like above.
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Wenden was 49 mile mark and while the bar above was closed.
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Supermarket did have a few things for lunch. Wenden bills itself as “Gateway to Lake Alamo”. Looking at the map, this lake is ~25 miles north.
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After lunch cycled the last few miles to Salome. A light breeze had picked up, but fortunately most of the ride without much difficulty from wind or heat. Above is a picture of their 9/11 monument.

Posted in Arizona, USA | Tagged desert, massacre

Wickenburg

A bicycle ride across the Americas Posted on 2016-10-14 by mev2016-10-14

Easy ride today as I left the Phoenix metro area and started back across desert areas. Three weeks ago, I had temperatures below freezing as I crossed Colorado mountains, now definitely at other end of the temperature scale. Overnight is at least 15C (59F) and often a bit warmer. Day time gets to 30C (86F) and sometimes slightly warmer.
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All day today was riding along US 60, with the first 9 miles still going past suburban sprawl in towns of Surprise and West Sun City.
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There was reasonable shoulder expect for short section of construction. Even the signs warning of the construction seemed to block parts of the shoulder.
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However, after 9 miles, it looked a lot more like this. Here was a crossing of the Central Arizona Project Canal. As I understand things the canal is part of the largest and most expensive aqueduct system in the US. It carries water from Lake Havasu to southern Arizona. For all that expense, I was surprised the actual canal wasn’t particularly big.
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I saw my first sign for Los Angeles and also one for Las Vegas.
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While the route didn’t have much in way of stores, there were occasional businesses like this one near Morristown. As I got close to Wickenburg, went into a bit more of a valley.
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Unfortunately, also a ghost bike here. Ghost bikes mark spots of bicycle fatalities and this one was on a wide open road. Link to more background information.
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Not much after that, found myself in downtown Wickenburg. Still early in the day, but will not be much after this for a while.

Posted in Arizona, USA | Tagged aqueduct, desert, ghost bike
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