June 23 A 104 Mile 2-Day Ride

Yesterday was a 38 mile ride from Indio to the Chiriaco Summit. the first 19 miles was accomplished in 2 hours but the last 19 were all uphill and took another 4:30 hours. Inside the Box Canyon there were chances to find shade but the last 9 miles were on open Sonoran Desert. 

Evening amongst the tanks and rattle snakes of Chiriaco Summit FREE campsite

 There are two places to eat at the summit one a sit down restaurant the other a Fosters Freeze and I managed to eat at both besides getting drinks at the gas station convenient store. 

I thought that today’s ride was going to be a downhill jaunt of 66 miles. And the first 18 to Desert Center were just that and I covered that ground in an hour. The next 42 miles were generally downhill but only 400 feet over 40 miles. There was a lot of hard pedaling, and for the last 15 miles I was stopping at every emergency call box, spaced a mile apart, resting and drinking. But I made it to Mesa Verde, just a truck stop, 59 miles in 6 hours total from Chiriaco Summit. I spent an hour in the air condition convenient store drinking 3 pints of fruit juice. 

A perfect site for an hour nap

I still had over 6 to go and headed out in the very hot plain. and then something that I had not seen in quite awhile appeared. A grassy tree shaded area on the side of the road. I couldn’t pass it up and slept there for an hour.

I’m taking tomorrow off.