I managed to cross and then climb the east rio verde river to find a nice resting spot on control road. The red rusted dirt made me feel as though I was on mars
I made camp and awoke the next morning. My bear bag made it another night.
I saw a dead bear last night so bear bags were now being used. It was pretty sad to see the bear it had to be only 80 lb s .
The climb on the next day after leaving Payson continued with a ten mile climb my first thing in the morning. I climbed thourh pine which is a bustling town.
Laundry food library
Then to strawberry still cilmbing. Finally resting I climed the rim. I manage to go another 20 miles to Clint Wells. Where I got my gallon of water. Co 3 to Flagstaff. Yeah I was so excitited to get off 87 two lanes climbing the whole way. I was amazed at all the truck traffic. They did have pull outs to rest but no cars ever needed that to pass me. Of course some squeezed me. Which caused more lane taking when cars were oncoming. So they stopped doing that. It was a wide 12 foot lane however the side of the road had a s foot cliff. Up
Upon reaching clint wells I had transisitioned from climb up to go down now to rolling hills. What a difference. It was a pretty tough starting out with my 10 mile climb. In the end as I opened the gate to my next camp spot I felt proud. Knowing what I had just done.
On this day I climbed to 7500 feet. See I was not joking. I had been climbing a lot and it felt great to get that behind me.
Now into the rolling hills where I could pick up some speed to make it little farther up that hill. All of these MT and huge hills were waking me up! I traveled the sixth day to Morman Lake about 20 mi from flagstaff.
The storm started to roll in on wedensday. If the pines hadn't blocked the wind I would have scrapped that day. I now was going from hill to valley rather that MT. To valley . I crossed over the transition zone into the Colorado Pleatu.
When in the valleys I had to crab. For the wind. I reached Morman lake with stiff cross wind I had the lake to my left I was taking a lane with a shoulder I imagine the gust were 40 knots. There was rain falling to my left and straight ahead. I was crabing so bad into the wind. People that were oncoming were slowing down. ,
Not to many times you see a cyclist at 30 degrees. Including myself. It was a hard day but I knew something was comming. Finding the next rest stop was easy I had some sleet pounding me now and my shorts had long since froze.
Only long enough to burry my electronic gear did the sleet last. . I found a camp site and buckled in. It started snowing around 8 am on thursday this would be my day of rest.
The wind continues to blow. And it snows off and on throught Thursday into the morning where I go to see three inches of wet snow! I went from 90 and sunny to 20s and snow. Good thing I brought winter gloves and a hat. Around 1pm I went for a quick bike ride to get some water. Only 4 mi but after pulling all that weight. My empty bike seemed to float. It was quick and dirty. No helmet or safety shirt since I had to wear a sweater over the top. I brought my collapsible water jug in a small backpack. I made it to Dairy Springs C.C. Got my water and cycled back. It felt like I was riding in winter all over again. Really not much done that day some reading and of course writting. I was hoping the two days of howling wind would get rid of the system. I was wrong in the early morning it snowed a couple more inches. Then throughout the day continued to snow. The sun did break at 1 pm. Which warmed me up in my tent. Yep more sleeping writting such. Much colder to day as the system I hope past by. I am running out of food on saturday. I am only 7 mi from though so I just add the hunger pains to my cold feet. Is this frikin May? I am about to go chow down. The last three days have consisted of bagels yummy harvest, beef jerkey, cereal bars, and mix fruit. The closer I am to the food store the better I eat. My portions die off so I have enough to last. I normally eat like a hog due to all the energy I expend on cycling.
I am looking foward to flagstaff. If anything it will only be 20 mi.
Little
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