El Tour de Zona: To Bisbee

March 25, 2023

Top tier support on a long day

We're meeting up with Catherine Sheets and Bob Beaury from Las Cruces for Day 2 of El Tour de Zona. Former St. Louisans, they took us on a grand circle ride around their town back in January on our last stop before Tucson.

Sandy Nydahl is here too, another friend from the Lou who now lives in Fort Collins. Sandy has been busy helping to take care of her new grandchild and has ridden "only" 300 miles this year, so she's a little concerned about our 60+ mile loop to Bisbee and back. Considering she's been riding through the winter in Fort Collins, I think 300 miles is highly respectable. I too have a bit of trepidation about today's plan since its been a couple weeks since our last long road ride.

Sandy and her Casita - a new retiree, new Grandma, and new RV-er, here to ride some new territory

It's still in the 40s when we roll out at 8:30 and I've braced for it with all the cold weather gear I didn't use in Tucson - long underwear, tights, three layers on top, two pairs of gloves, toe covers, beanie, buff. It's overkill, of course. When we stop by a stone wall ten miles in for a nature break, I want to peel the underwear out from under the tights, but it's not a very discreet spot with other folks cycling in and out. A few miles further we pull in at the first official rest stop where there's a nice clean port-o-let big enough to correct my wardrobe issues.

Bob has the amazing skill of riding with no hands, holding up the camera for a group selfie.

Barry, Sandy and Catherine. Bob's somewhere behind the wall.

Turning east through Miracle Valley we have a seven-mile descent to the San Pedro River, which is awesome except for the bumpy shoulder. We ride in the traffic lane when it's clear, crossing back over the rumble strip when the cars chase us away.

At 18 miles an hour the rhythmic bump-bump-bump gets old.

From the other side of the river we start a 19 mile climb up to Bisbee and Mule Pass. Last year Barry and I rode on our own from Sonoita to Bisbee. We got to Bisbee from the other direction, riding south from Tombstone up to Mule Pass, continuing through Bisbee and then west through Hereford to Sierra Vista. I like today's route going north through Bisbee and then Mule Pass better. The grade up to the pass is not quite as steep going north, and we'll get a break for lunch in Old Bisbee before the steepest part of the climb.

In Lowell just south of Bisbee as I enter a roundabout, a SAG vehicle driver for the tour pulls in behind me and escorts me into town with his flashers on. We ride into the old town and check in at a bike corral set up for today next to the Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum. El Tour de Zona staff are here to watch over our bikes while we walk around town and have lunch. They have issued us matching coded tags for our wrists and bikes to make sure everyone leaves on the mount they rode in on.

The hills turn copper colored as we get closer to Old Town Bisbee and lunch

South of Old Bisbee, the Lavender Pit is an open pit copper mine that produced 600,000 tons of copper in the 50s and 60s, plus valuable byproducts like gold, silver and turquoise. Quite a sight.

On our visit here last year we spent some time at the museum. It's worth a stop to see the gorgeous gem specimens - malachite, azurite, turquoise, and more that we hadn't seen before. We enjoyed learning the town's story too. In the early 1900s when Arizona was generally thought of as a lawless and uninhabitable desert, Bisbee emerged as the most productive copper mining region in the country. The mineral resources here played a major role in Arizona's path to becoming a state in 1912. It was all about money. Now an artists colony, Bisbee is full of high-end galleries, fun bohemian shops and art around every corner.

Some of the beautiful mineral specimens we saw on our last trip here

Powerful sculpture near the Mining Museum - muscle, copper and prickly pear

Fortified with lunch at Bisbee's Table, we grind up the last three miles to Mule Pass, taking the switchbacks on Old Divide Road. The car traffic is elsewhere, going through the tunnel on AZ-80, so we have a quiet, beautiful ride, with more tour staff cheering us on up the hill. I definitely prefer riding up to the pass from this direction. The switchbacks are more scenic than the monotonous straight line coming up the hill the other way from Tombstone.

Looking back at the road up to Mule Pass

From Mule Pass we have a glorious 14 mile cruise downhill to the last rest stop where AZ 90 crosses the San Pedro River. Traffic is light and the Cochise County Sheriff vehicles are out in force to hold back the cars where we turn left off AZ 80 to AZ 90. While we generally prefer going on our own, we're enjoying the solid support from the tour folks on this long ride.

Cottonwoods over the San Pedro Riparian Reserve at the AZ-90 crossing

We have just eight miles left to Sierra Vista and I'm looking forward to a beer and a shower. Alas, the fun part of the ride is over. Between the steady uphill grade and a stiff headwind, that last eight miles is no bueno, an endless slog that takes me an hour to finish. It serves as a good lesson that we need to keep up these long rides between now and our Northwest tour in June.

Tonight's band is better than last night and there's one more pleasant surprise - they're stopping an hour earlier, at 8:00. Maybe the organizers noticed the lack of spectators in front of the band shell, or got some rider feedback, or just figured everyone was exhausted from the day. Whatever led to this decision, we're happy.

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Today's ride: 64 miles (103 km)
Total: 927 miles (1,492 km)

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