Day ride from Pearce

November 3, 2016

Chiricahua National Monument

The day began with a terrific breakfast at Dreamcatcher, but we'll have more to say about this place tomorrow when we check out. For today, it's all about the ride - an out-and-back To Chiricahua National Monument, a place I'd never heard of before I began planning this tour.

We begin with a straight shot north and then northeast on Highway 181 for about 10 miles, until we reach the junction with Highway 186. We'll be riding this stretch three times in all - twice today, and then again tomorrow on our ride to Willcox - which is fine with us because it's a beautiful road. For most of the way it passes through flaxen grasslands, with the Chiricahua range paralleling us on the right and the distant Dragoons on the left, far away across the Soda Springs Basin. Always ahead of us on the horizon is the Dos Cabesas Range, which I spend two days confused about - last night I thought it was Chiricahua, and this morning I think it's Mount Graham.

It is very quiet - perhaps only four or five cars pass us. We're pushing slightly uphill, into a slight headwind. That's fine with us too, as long as it stays consistent throughout the day and pushes us home later.

The Chiricahua Mountains, from Highway 181

Dos Cabezas is straight ahead, but this is as close as we come today. This is the turnoff to the monument. Tomorrow we'll bike here again, but keep going straight.

At the junction, we turn east and drop toward he entrance. The weather looks dicey, about the same as we experienced last night. It could go either way, and neither would surprise me much.. After a few miles we pass by the unattended admission gate, and a mile later we pull in at the visitors center to collect a map and information. We learn what we already knew - we should go to the top of the road to Massai point if we're lucky with weather, but the waather could go either way. There is a fair chance that a thunder storm could break out at any moment.

It's about 6 miles and a 1500' climb to Massai Point, the end of the paved road. We start biking, keeping an open mind and an eye out for possible shelter stops.

Biking east toward the monument. Our weather is starting to look a bit questionable.

Rising into Rhyolite Canyon, near the entrance to the monument.

The park entrance is at the mouth of Rhyolite Canyon, which the road initially follows.Almost immediately, we come to the organ pipe formation, one of the more spectacular points of the park. The road is lined by tall cliffs fractured and eroded into vertical columns. This is the ancestral homeland of the Chiricahua Apaches, who called this place the land of standing up rocks. The formation is a bed of volcanic tuff, deposited from a cataclysmic volcanic eruption estimated to have occurred about 27 million years ago, with a blast a thousand times greater than the 1980 eruption of Mount Saint Helens.

This is arresting enough that we would have felt it worthwhile to bike here just for this - and for awhile we suspect this may be all we get to see here. It becomes gloomier as we ride, and neither of us quite expects to make it to the top.

Organ pipe formation, Chiricahua National Monument

One of the few sunny patches on our climb to Massai Point. We were lucky to make it to the top dry.

We do make it though. We hear a few distant rumbles of thunder and it remains dark all the way o the summit, but we stay dry. It's quite chilly though, and when we reach the 6800' summit we're pleased to find an enclosed, windowed shelter. It makes an excellent haven for us to break ou our sack lunches prepared for us by John and Julia, wam up a bit, and watch out the windows to see how the weather evolves.

Surprisingly, over the next half hour conditions steadily improve. The sun stats breaking through here and there, and views become clearer. Looking to the west we can look over the nearby columnar formations down to the basin and then beyond to the Mule and Dragoon mountains. The threat of rain recedes, for the moment at least.

The observatory at Massai Point. It is quite cold and windy outside, and we were grateful to have a sheltered spot to enjoy the great sack lunches John had prepared for us: tuna sandwiches, fresh-picked Fuji apples, and cookies.

The view west toward Soda Spring Basin, from Massai Point

After gazing to our satisfaction we started downhill again. We had thought we might take a hike at the top, but it's just too cold. As we descend though it gets steadily sunnier and warmer. By the time we reach the turn-off to the Natural Bridge Trail conditions have improved enough that a short hike is back in the cards. We look around for a good spot to lock up our bikes, discover that neither one of us remembered to pack the lock, and decide to trust to luck and just hide them out of plain sight. The park is nearly empty today anyway.

We never do find the natural bridge but we enjoy a fine four mile hike anyway. It feels good to stretch our legs, the views are good, the sun is warm, the views are fine.

A Yarrow's spiny lizard (thanks for the identification, William!). I was lucky with this guy - he stayed put a long time for me, on the opposite side of a boulder. I'm sure he thought he was hidden.

By the time we return to our thankfully un purloined bikes, the sky is darkening once more. Hopefully we'll get back to our room dry - it's fifteen miles, but generally downhill and downwind. It should be a fast ride.

When we pass the visitor center, it's getting quite dark and feels like it could rain any second. Rachael wants to stop, but I'm afraid it could last quite a while and I think we might outrace the rain. We continue riding, and within a half mile the rains commence. We know there's a shelter another half mile ahead and down hill, so we step on the gas and race for it, arriving reasonably dry. We stand under the eave of shelter, and almost immediately the rain stops again.

We ride on. All of the way home we're menaced by the weather and often are racing ahead of a tailwind through a light mist. From time to time the sun breaks through and illuminates the land, and it's beautiful. I have to stop for a picture, but Rachael races on. A bit later I have to stop again to take in a pair of red tailed hawks hopscotching along the utility poles just ahead of me. It is actually a thoroughly exhilarating ride, racing the weather, soaking up the wind, the land, the oneness of the overall experience.

I eventually lose sight of Rachael, who gets about a half mile ahead of me. Neither of us is worried though. We both know what we're doing and where we're going and know we'll meet up at the lodge. Which we do, not long before the roof crashes in. Totally awesome; best day of the tour.

A red tailed hawk (of course), on our way back toward the motel. This is one of a pair that flew along with me for a ways, getting ahead of me and then waiting by a utility pole until i neared them again.

About a mile from our B&B. For most of the last 15 miles we've been racing the weather, with storm clouds developing on all sides. This is one of the few moments when the sun broke through.

Today's ride: 43 miles (69 km)
Total: 332 miles (534 km)

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