November 3
40mi/64km
+1800ft/550m
Today was crazy, especially this morning. The ground was still saturated and in many places, water still flowing on the road. Some of these roads look like they were in rough shape even before all this flooding. We had to push the bikes for the first 2mi/3km, and from there it was on again, off again.
We did have a few nice stretches of undamaged road. We met some cyclists heading in the opposite direction, and as we got close to Sedona, people out hiking on the road, which was closed off to vehicles due to the flood damage.
We arrived in town about 1pm, a little hungry and tired. We had to take a side trip to get some groceries, but fortunately we also got some burritos at a nearby restaurant and were feeling better.
We left town on some very cool mountain bike trails, with tons of people out hiking. A lot of people asked us about our trip, and it’s always nice to get encouragement from the people we meet along the way. Eventually we joined Highway 179 for about 10mi/16km, about the only easy riding of the entire day. In the evening we got back on a closed dirt road. Tomorrow might be another slow day in these conditions.
Despite the slower pace, today was pretty fun. The scenery was beautiful, and the weather was perfect.
