Coast 2 Coast - Day 7 - Gila Bend to Arizona City

A Ride with Two Winds

When we woke up in Gila Bend, the sky was overcast and there was a strong wind coming from the southwest. It was a day to take advantage of both the cooler temperatures and the promise of a tailwind.

Indeed, the temperature only got up into the 60's today, rather than up to 85 the day before, so that was pleasant. And the clouds kept the sun from baking us, as it had the previous 3 days.

But the wind had two sides to it.

Our day started with long 30 mile ride through the Sonora Desert National Monument that was in a generally easterly direction, so the prevailing wind boosted our speed nicely. There was a good period of time when we were regularly going at 20 mph.

The ride continued easterly beyond our first SAG stop, but then we made a right turn and headed south on a straight 13 mile track. Suddenly we now had a headwind, and our going speed dipped to around 10 miles.

Then we took a left turn and began to zoom again, but that was interrupted by a another right turn into a growing wind that was still angled toward us.

We went fast, and then slow, and repeated again and again.

The good news was that our general direction was to the east, so the wind helped us on what was to be our longest day so far on our trip - 88.3 miles.

With all that riding we didn't have much time for pictures, other than some pictures from the Sonora Desert, including the famous Saguaro cacti:

We also had a good view of the 'ridges and basins' that characterize southwestern Arizona:

For those keeping score, Anne had another flat tire. The score is now Anne - 4 and Hance - 2.

The day's ride was 88.3 miles, at an average speed of 13.8 mph, and a maximum speed of 25 mph. We had a total of 6.5 hours in the saddle.