Day 5: Sonoita to Tombstone

March 31, 2016

34F overnight. 4885 feet elevation during a cold snap. On the road at 9:10. It would be miserable with a headwind but fortunately I have a tailwind. Today had a high of only 56F (13C). Coldest day of the tour. I stayed bundled up all day. Even wore gloves for the first time.

It was mostly sunny early in the morning but overcast by 10:30. Gloomiest day of the tour.

A final look back at the Santa Rita mountains when leaving Sonoita.

The mountain scenery is still excellent. Highway 82 is very scenic. The gloomy sky gave the mountains a completely different mood compared to yesterday.

From Sonoita was a long gradual descent to the San Pedro river. The biggest river in southeast Arizona, a critically important riparian corridor for wildlife.

The green cottonwoods near the river really stand out when the mesquite trees are still budding.

I crossed the San Pedro river on a tall bridge. I guess it gets a huge flood once every few years. It does have a large watershed, starting high in the mountains in Mexico and flowing north towards Tucson.

Old railroad grade east of the San Pedro river.

Just east of the San Pedro river is an old railroad grade and the Fairbank ghost town. It's a BLM historic site with several buildings, a museum, and a picnic area. The town was once a railroad stop but I don't think it ever had enough water for a big town or much agriculture.

The visitor center was closed. Very nice shady picnic area next to the museum.

After Fairbank is a long gentle climb to Tombstone. The sky kept getting darker and darker and I could see rain in the mountains all around.

At a T intersection 3 miles before Tombstone I turned right onto highway 80. Traffic was much heavier then. Light rain started just before I entered town. It lasted for maybe 20 minutes. The only rain of the tour.

I'm now entering the main tourist zone of Southeast Arizona.

The only billboard I remember seeing during the tour.

Tombstone is a historic mining town. Nearly everything in town was built in the 1880's. The old main street is a block away from highway 80. The old main street has many silly tourist businesses, but the historic buildings are well preserved and well displayed.

Tombstone's historic main street is closed to motor vehicles.

I got a room at the Adobe Lodge, one of the downstairs adobe rooms built in 1886. Oldest lodging of the tour. It was fine. Everything worked. A block away from the historic strip. $60 cash.

Nobody was at the motel when I arrived, so I called the manager. He had to go to Tucson but he left a room unlocked with the key inside. He was still gone the next morning so I left the money in a drawer as instructed. Self-serve motel.

Tombstone has a big RV park immediately north of the O.K. Corral. Surprisingly few motels. Apparently most tourists stay in Bisbee.

Tombstone has many trinket shops and one store that sells exquisite Indian and Mexican art. I bought a small Mata Ortiz vase that resembles an owl. The shop double-boxed it for me to mail tomorrow morning.

The elevation is 4541 feet but it's arid high desert, not close to big mountains. Hot during summer but today it's unusually cold. I turned on the heat in my motel room for the first and only time of the tour.

I like Tombstone. Kitschy yet genuinely historic. A real town, not just a tourist attraction. The boom years were 1877-1890 when it was the largest silver producing district in the Arizona territory. The population peaked at 14,000. Now the population is 1320. Still economically struggling-not a trendy hideout for multimillionaires. During the day it's a family friendly tourist attraction. At night it's a place for traveling motorcyclists to drink all night in the old bars.

Distance: 41.8 mi. (67 km)
Climbing: 1224 ft. (371 m)
Average Speed: 11.2 mph
Hiking: 1 mi. (1.6 km)

Today's ride: 42 miles (68 km)
Total: 187 miles (301 km)

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