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Day 29. Marble Canyon, AZ to Cameron, AZYesterday: Day 28. Marble Canyon, AZTomorrow: Day 30. Cameron, AZ to Grand Canyon National Park, AZ
7 September, 2003 -- Day 29.
Today's ride was perhaps the most uneventful of the trip so far. The 70-mile ride consisted of climbing out of the Colorado River Valley from around 3500 feet to a high point of around 6000 feet over the first 40 miles before gradually descending again the the Little Colorodo River Valley at around 4300 feet. One long up followed by one long down. Having gotten started at 6am, the ride was relatively cool and free from any weather issues until the final 10 miles (as usual...), when some rain moved-in and a forceful headwind was keeping me from being able to coast on home. I had started the day with the *thought* of trying to make up for yesterday's missed day and heading all the way up to the Grand Canyon Village, and even after 40 miles of today's ride, I was thinking that I would give it a shot... until the headwinds arrived and the threat of more thunderstorms... so I stopped in Cameron and will save the climb for tomorrow. One comment about today's route is that HW89 is probably the worst traffic day of the trip so far. For the majority of the ride, the shoulder was sufficiently wide for me to feel safe and out of the way of traffic, but occasionally the rumble strip would take it over, forcing me to ride on the white line on the right edge of the lane. Seeing how I am in vacation country and today is Sunday, the volume of traffic was large enough to rarely give me a break from passing cars. Oh yeah and I finally passed the 1,000 mile mark for the trip. Nice. Just over 1,000 to go. Nice. A big day of climbing as I head up to the South Rim entrance to the Grand Canyon National Park. I once again took a snapshot every 10 miles of the trip to illustrate the terrain along the way.
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