July 5 After a very good sleep

Wow it is 1 AM and I just woke up. I slept for seven hours or more. Two nights ago I was working on my bicycle until midnight and didn’t get to sleep until 1AM then I was up at 4:30 and on the road by 5:00AM. Beating the heat is what this bike ride is all about now. But that ride from Camp Verde to Munds Park, I will never go there again, took me 9:30 hours. It was a grueling 3,900 foot climb to an elevation of 7,000 feet.  Before I had started out I had thought that since it was only 36 miles that I would have enough energy to push hard and do the last 20 miles to Flagstaff. But that was not to be. Along the way I needed to rest often, once I stretched out on a boulder and nearly fell off because I was falling asleep. Later I did take an hour nap in a meadow just off the highway. All that resting is part of the 9:30 hours. 

This is the Verde River from which Camp Verde and Fort Verde get their names and great people

Rock from the million years ago eruptions on top of the Colorado Plateau

Lava rock and cactus

Look closely to see the holes in the rock

By the time I got to Munds Park, I was hungry, really exhausted, and I had only a cup of water left of my one gallon supply. Along the ride I had called the only motel between Camp Verde and Flagstaff on I-17 to reserve a room. To my surprise they had raised their rates from the normal $51 per night to $150, “It’s the Fourth of July weekend,” said the manager. I declined. When I called Flagstaff yesterday morning I did not make that mistake twice and averaged the cost over three days. One ‘free night’ in hell -that would be Munds Park- and Saturday and Sunday in Flagstaff for $270. 

But back to hell. After riding I am not the quickest mind in the world and maybe others could have solved my issues easily, however I live with who I am. A local RV recreational park would not let me camp there nor could I fill my water bottles. They did sell me $8 of bottle water that I used to fill my traveling supply. By then it was close to 5PM and everyone I had spoken to suggested sleeping in the forest and thats where I was headed. Five PM is also monsoon time in Arizona. thunder, lightening, and as it turned out this night 6 hours of rain. Two doors down from the RV park I found an abandoned building with a covered carport next to a public storage facility. I thought I had secretly pulled in there and would be safe for the night. But two teenagers, in my mind bored to tears from the RV park, found me around 9PM and decided that it was tie to harass the “homeless tramp,” as they called me when they finally gave up their torment around 11PM. Mind you these two hours of hell were during an lightening storm and a downpour. I was a teenage boy and remember  doing really dumb stuff, but in my mind never this mean. When one jumped down off the carport roof just a few feet from my tent I had to climb out and stand guard until midnight to make sure they were not coming back. 

On the plateau there are lots of ranches cut out of the world's largest ponderosa forest

This is in Flagstaff a welcoming sign

More from along the bike path near the airport

I managed two or three hours of solid sleep, packed up my camping gear, and was back on the road before 6AM, out of hell -Munds Park. Three hours later I arrived at my motel in Flagstaff for the next two or maybe three nights. I am taking the AZ Shuttle to the Grand Canyon today and will post lots of pictures with me and my new, from an antique store, Stetson Roadrunner hat.