Superior, AZ to Globe, AZ
Date: 01/12/2013
Distance traveled: 25.68 miles (588.9 miles total)
GPS tracks: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/261340351
One of the more interesting things about bike touring is how different folks perceptions influence the advice that they give. I suppose that could be said for most things in life. In the case of bike touring, I’ve figured out a pretty simple formula for how to interpret advice based on who is giving it.
Note that this mostly applies to advice with respect to how easy the route is, if the hills are hard or easy, if there is a moderate incline or decline, if there is a ‘good shoulder’, or if the route is generally dangerous. Most folks give advice as if they’re driving in a car. In a car that slight incline for 10 miles doesn’t slowly zap your energy. In a car you don’t notice the slight raised cracks every 5 feet on the shoulder that are hell on your behind. In a car you don’t notice the scree on the shoulder. Even seasoned cyclists who know these things give bad advice for routes that they’ve only driven, or biked on their carbon road bike. When you get down to it, the only advice you can trust is that of other bike touring folks… and even that needs to be tempered with your own experience. (Not to say that I have a lot of experience… I don’t… I’m just now learning how my own body performs on an overloaded bicycle. J)
A good example of this is the advice I received this morning from Charles and Mari about today’s route. I’ll start by saying that it was very good advice with respect to the danger of the route. I was sufficiently warned. They know the road I was on forward and backward – they drive it several times a week. They are both cyclists. Charles had done the route in question on a bike. Mari refuses to do it, and I understand why. It is dangerous. I understand why they offer rides to cyclists past this 24 mile part of the route. I understand and appreciate the advice to do it on a weekend with lower traffic, and in later in the day so that the sun isn’t in the motorist’s eyes. I think had I not been doing this section on a Saturday afternoon it would have been much more dangerous and I would have been less comfortable with that.
The Tunnel!!!11!!one1!!!
I greatly appreciated their concern – it was genuine, it was sweet, and I think it was warranted. However I don’t think it was as hard or as dangerous as I was previously warned. The first four miles were very sketchy, but not the worse I’ve seen. The shoulder disappears quickly out of Superior. You’re going very slow uphill. There is a tunnel I was warned about repeatedly, by Charles and Mari as well as at least 2-3 other folks. I had heard it called “the most dangerous part of the southern tier between California and Florida”, but the tunnel wasn’t the most dangerous part. It was the blind corners and the zero shoulder on the bridge that had me racing across between flights of traffic.
That bridge in the distance was the dangerous part.
The tunnel has no shoulder. Heck, large chunks of the road had no shoulder. Normally that’s pretty dangerous, but the eastbound route has either two full lanes or a single lane with a pretty normal-width shoulder. There are very few sections where it’s one lane eastbound with zero shoulder. That makes it much safer than I had been lead to believe. I will say that traffic was light enough that both lanes were almost never filled with traffic… had that not been the case, I think it would have scared the crap out of me.
The big thing is to use your mirrors, watch the traffic behind you to make sure they’re giving you room, and ride defensively if they are not. For example, I swing out and take the inner lane as I go around blind turns to give cars behind me plenty of time to see me… and then I move over to give them more room as they approach. It helps to put more space between me and the car. Of course, this only works well if you have a good rearview bike mirror to work with. Other things I do – I wear the brightest orange jacket I could find, and I use my rear lights when it’s dark (like in a tunnel) and when I’m in shadows. There’s no 100% safe on the road but I think these things work to make doing this kind of riding acceptably safe.
Looking back through Devil’s Canyon.
After the bridge and the tunnel it was actually a pretty great ride. Yah, there was a lot of up. But it was no worse than what I did on Day 2 coming out of San Diego. In fact, it was easier because there was some wicked awesome downhill, too. At the peak of the ride there is a town called “Top Of The World”. Awesome.
Altogether, today was a pretty damn fun ride despite it being so cold. I was really happy that I spent the morning hanging out with Charles and Mari, eating a great second breakfast of grits, eggs, and bacon while we swapped stories until noon. I didn’t take off until around 1pm and I was only on the bike for 3 hours today. However, it was the coldest day I’ve had on the bike yet. Colder than the Chilly Hilly last year! I ended it as the thermometer dropped below 33° F! I was quite happy to get to the Days Inn in Globe, take a shower, hit the hot tub, shower again, and then put back an entire medium supreme pizza from Pizza Hut.
Alright… so obviously it’s a little dangerous. These are both for the same person killed in 2005. Mari said there were 5 crosses made out of bike handlebars along this stretch of road. I only saw these two.
The view from on top.
