May 11, 2023
Day 6: Wickenburg to Prescott
After yesterdays longest ride, today featured the most climbing. Things got off to a great start though as I’d spotted that the shop next to our hotel served espresso and opened half an hour before our departure. I got through breakfast early, dropped my bags off and was their first customer of the day.
Feeling perky at the start I managed to warm up as we cycled out of town. Just out of town was on a busy road with construction. There was an incline, not too long or steep, and it felt good.
We turned off the main road towards the mountains, where my heart rate monitor started to die. I’d thought the battery had nearly had it and had packed a spare, which didn’t take long to install. Several riders passed me as I fixed it.
Off again across a plain to the hills. The first climb went up about 1800 feet over 7 miles, leaving the desert to a kind of sierra like southern Spain. I worked reasonably hard at and reached the first SAG just after the summit at 25 miles in a pretty little park tucked in behind some holiday cabins. I was about fourth on the road and still feeling the love so I pressed on.
There was a slight descent into a broad area of relatively flat land. The appearance up here was very different. The road through town had been huge but practically empty. Some of the fields were lush with grass and fancy horses and the ranches looked prosperous.
After a short while the road started to edge up into another false flat, which marked the beginning of the second (final) climb and went up in stages for about 20 miles. Broke the climb with an iced coffee and cheese crackers on the verandah of a store. The second (and major) part was different altogether with twists, dips and turns through pine trees. The summit soon turned into a swoopy descent into Prescott.
Prescott is a successful new destination and a growing town. The cabins dotted on the hillside grew closer together and were larger and increasingly fancy closer to town. There are even three bike shops. All the economic production is out of town, leaving the centre like a kind of theme park of cafes and bars in beautiful old buildings.
Pizza on my own tonight.
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Today's ride: 60 miles (97 km)
Total: 457 miles (735 km)
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11 months ago
11 months ago