To Tucson: the Winkelman Vee

January 20, 2020

If we went with the German pronunciation today’s ride would be the Vinkelman Vee, which is much more euphonic.

Winkelman is a small mining town (every community around here is a mining town), about a third of the way down to Tucson. We’re planning to drive down there- even past that, to Dudleyville, park the Whale, and bike back north toward Globe, turning back somewhere on the slopes of Pinal Pass.

But first though, we’re planning on walking downstairs for coffee and company, and to see what Libby is cooking up this morning. It’s a busier table this morning, with Libby’s brother’s son and his Paraguayan wife joining us. They’re just in from New York, their home, with the son fresh from completing his first marathon - the New York Marathon, in the intimate company of 53,000 other runners.

So the coffee is good, the company is engaging, and the meal itself is memorable. Today the main event is Shakshouka, an Israeli street food consisting of poached eggs in a sauce of tomatoes, chili peppers and garlic. Terrific.

Like I said yesterday, if you come down this way you should stay at the Chrysocolla Inn.

A hearty start to the day. Libby oversees the event, while Rachael’s black arm reaches for the salt.

On the map, Route 77 looks like a good ride. If we’d been more ambitious and the weather were warmer I might have encouraged us to give Pinal Pass (aka El Capitan Pass, elev. 4,983) a shot; but we’re not and it isn’t. In fact, it’s a bit chillier today, overcast, and significantly windier. Instead, we’re thinking we’ll just start at Dudleyville, bike the 21 miles north to a spot low in the pass that will get Rachael up to her magic number, and turn back.

As we drive south on 77 though, two things concern me. One, the road surface looks fractured and crappy, reminding me of the painful ride across Sacramento Wash a few days back. Two, there’s a minimal shoulder, which eventually drops to zip. There’s not much traffic on the road, but enough that we wouldn’t care for the curves. I point this out to Rachael for her consideration, and we decide that unless things improve we’re going to need a new plan for the day.

Thing do improve, toward the base of the far side of the pass. Suddenly the road widens significantly and gains a good shoulder, and the road surface is much better. Looks like an excellent ride. If it holds, we’ll just drive 21 miles, park, and bike back north until the shoulder ends.

In Winkelman though, our plans change again. There’s still a shoulder south of Winkelman, but it doesn’t look like attractive riding at all. More built up, open, dusty. Instead, we hatch the winning idea for the day: a V-shaped ride, based in Winkelman. We’ll bike 10 miles up 77 to the base of El Capitan Pass, return to Winkelman, and then bike northwest up 177 to Kearny, the town we rode to from the opposite direction the day before yesterday. The Vinkelman Vee.

We park the car in a dusty county park, eye the imposing smokestack of the nearby Hayden Smelter, and bike northeast on the eastern wing of the flight.

Biking north on Route 77, with the smokestack of the Hayden Copper Smelter rising above. It’s 1,001 feet tall, making it the tallest free-standing structure in Arizona.

Northeast, up the Gila

This half of the ride is terrific. For most of the way we’re following the Gila River upstream through a narrow, steep-walled canyon. Dramatic scenery, modest traffic, a good shoulder. There’s a headwind pushing against us as we gently climb, but it’s not as bad as we’d feared here in this narrow twisting canyon, and we’ll get it back on the return.

As usual, Rachael leaves me behind at the first pretty vista - today, meaning more or less immediately - and I won’t see her again until the turn back point. After that we race downhill together back to Winkelman.

Video sound track: A Thousand Miles From Nowhere, by Dwight Yoakam

Awesome riding on Route 77, just outside of Winkelman.

We’re following the Gila River for most of the way. Route 77 breaks away from it to cross over Pinal Pass just at about the point where we’ll turn back.

The rockwork along Route 77 is impressive, and continues so all the way to the summit of the pass. If they ever add a shoulder through the pass it would make an awesome ride.

The Gila River, at the point that it bends east and away from the highway.

🎵She’ll be comin’ round the mountains when she comes. She’ll be ridin’ her blue Bike Friday when she comes.🎵 Yup, this must be Rocky.

An awesome ride back. Note the sky - the weather is changing on us.

We must be almost back to Winkelman. There’s the smokestack of the Hayden Smelter poking its nose above the ridge.

Before we start the back half of the ride, we pause to take in Winkelman’s impressive tourist attractions.

Northwest, down the Gila

I hadn’t really looked at the map with this route in mind, so I’m startled when I realize that we’re still following the Gila downriver. It executes a big V at Winkelman, and we’ll keep following it all the way to Kearny where it will bend west and away from the highway. How perfect is that?A ride we more or less stumbled into follows the Gila for the full distance that it follows the highway here.

This wing is very much different. We’re out of the mountains, the valley is broader, the river further away from the road. And, like we saw north of Kearny, the land has been permanently scarred by vast open pit copper mining activities. Different, but interesting. I especially like seeing the Copper Basin Railway trundle past while I’m stopping to take a photo of some parked rail cars. Later, when I read up on this line, I discover that Dwight Yoakam’s video of his song A Thousand Miles From Nowhere was shot right here, with him riding these rails. Rachael unfortunately didn’t catch the train in her video, but it’s still the obvious choice for today’s sound track.

We enjoy a breezy, easy ride to Kearny, where we pull off in a small park to break for lunch. Rachael enjoys a tasty-looking peanut butter sandwich on whole grain bread, but she hands me two wadded up slices of moldy bread for my lunch - sort of like getting coal in my stocking, it feels like. It’s a packing error, and my real sandwich is back in the belly of the Whale, waiting for me to return for it. In the meantime, I get by on a nice bag of trail mix.

It’s a breeze going back too, but of the adverse sort. Ten miles of headwinds later and we’re back at the car, heading south for Tucson.

Another look at the Hayden smokestack as we leave Winkelman for the second time.

Hayden has more to offer than than just the tallest free standing structure in Arizona. It also has (had) cheap gas and high speed internet. Let’s move here, Rocky!

Where there’s a copper smelter, there’s likely mining activity nearby. Another colorful Kennecott/ASARCO monstrosity scars the land for the next several miles.

The Copper Basin Railway, a short line built by ATCF in 1904 to service the local mining activities.

So who are we looking at here looking back at us? Any cattle experts out there?

In Kearny, taking in its modest collection of tourist attractions.

The many armed Durga, Hindu goddess of the desert.

In Tucson

So we arrive in Tucson, the base for the final phase of the tour. Our plan here is similar to what we’d planned in San Diego. We’ll be staying at an Airbnb for a week (more about this later), and then leave for a 12 night loop before returning to Tucson for a few nights and then flying home to Portland.

We’re going to keep the Whale with us for a few more days to make it out to a few rides further out of town, but then we’ll turn it in and get along on our own for the rest of the stay.

The loop we have planned isn’t quite a closed loop. We’re going to start by catching the Amtrak east to Benson and then work our way back to Tucson the slow, loopy way. Something like this:

Heart

Comment

Link

It’s just turning dark when we check in at our home for the next week. We don’t do much but change our clothes before driving out to the Athens Cafe where we enjoy a very agreeable Greek meal. I wouldn’t be surprised to see ourselves here again before flying home.

Returning to our casita, we’re puzzled and then alarmed when we can’t find the key to the house. We know we had it when we left, because we locked the door. We look everywhere - Rachael frisks me twice, we check the ground, the car, no luck. Not good. It doesn’t make for a good impression with your host if you lose the key to their house an hour after you check in.

We drive back to the restaurant, at least congratulating ourselves for our foresight in driving there instead of walking the half mile. We’d be walking it a second time now, in the dark, and have a lot more ground where we could conceivably have lost the keys.

They’re not at the restaurant. Hope starts to fade, but of course we retrace our steps exactly back to where we had parked the car earlier, flashlighting the sidewalk as we walk. Four blocks later, maybe thirty yards from the car, we find them in the middle of the sidewalk. They must have fallen out when I was fishing for the car keys.

Thank you, guardian angels! We’re luckier than we deserve.

Heart

Comment

Link

Ride stats today: 41 miles, 1,400’; for the tour: 1,149 miles, 61,100’

Today's ride: 41 miles (66 km)
Total: 1,149 miles (1,849 km)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	10
Comment on this entry	Comment	2

Jen RahnGreat to hear Dwight's voice with this beautiful and desolate landscape.

Which reminds me.. did you see the Ken Burns series on country music?
Reply to this comment
4 years ago

Scott AndersonTo Jen RahnThis was a stroke of luck. I don’t think I really knew who Dwight was before this, and just stumbled across him reading up on the train line. And no, we missed that one. I’d love to see it some day.
Reply to this comment
4 years ago