Day 05
Gorgeous Day!

Today was a day of contrasts.  The first part of the day is one of the most beautiful rides anywhere...the narrow Oak Creek Canyon and the red rocks of Sedona.  In the middle, we closed in on the beautiful mountain that frames Flagstaff.  From there, we started down the interstate and the scenery became vast open spaces of desert.  The only life out there were desert critters and cattle which are spread out over thousands of acres.  I wonder how many acres it takes to sustain 1 cow for a year?  You sure don't see big herds out here...I'm not sure any of them realize there are other cows in the field.  It's a day's hike to the next cow.

The route started out similar to yesterday...a gentle climb for about 18 miles after leaving the motel on Highway 89A (upper left).  Out here the ground just rises and as you are nearing the mountains, it appears to be very gentle and you can't believe how much your legs are objecting to the pedaling motion.  Then you look back and you see why...where you were is waaaaaaay down there behind you.  The good news is that a couple years ago they finished a new four lane road to Sedona...sweet!  We had a clean, new shoulder all the way into town. 

Sedona is a gorgeous area with lots of beautiful red rock formations and is quite a touristy trap town.  Luckily, it wasn't open for business when we went through so Barbara didn't have time to shop...my credit cards were safe another day.  As far as the scenery was concerned, every time you think you've seen the most beautiful red rock formation, you turn around and see one even better.  It's hard to ride through there and not be amazed at the beauty of the area, but as cyclists we are concerned that the motorists are not gawking at the scenery as they drive past us.  That aside, we stopped at an Episcopal church for a rest stop as we entered town.  The priest for that congregation is my son-in-law's mother and her congregation supplied goodies to nourish us along the way.

We didn't spend much time in Sedona because we knew the climb out of town was pretty big...and then some more to Flagstaff which is around 7000 feet.  It starts out rather unassuming as the terrain rises gradually but later the  switchbacks start...then you go up pretty fast.  It is an interesting climb as you cross the same face of the mountain 4 times (right).  I always have a great time climbing up Oak Creek Canyon, but today I let Jim, our mechanic, ride the canyon.  I was in the van until lunch where I rode the interstate to Winslow.  Oh well, someone had to do it.  Anyway, back to the climb...I told the riders the switchbacks are so tight that if they fell from the top road, they would bounce on the road at four different levels.  It takes about 3 miles of climbing to go straight up about 200 yards.  As we got to the top, tourists who had passed us on the way up were very curious as to what we were doing.  We got the same reaction from them as we do usually when people find out we are riding across country..."You're riding to WHERE?"  "WHY?"