El Tour de Zona: To Tombstone

March 26, 2023

The town too tough to die

I'm delighted to see Traci Isom pulling up to ride with us today for the third and last day of the tour. She's from Belleville Illinois, on the other side of the Mississippi east of St. Louis. We met a few years ago in the St. Louis Triathlon Club and are both so over the swimming and running bit.

Traci with her buddy Frank, traveling in her converted van

We have a comparatively easy trip today - 18 miles out to Tombstone and 18 back, an awesome plan after yesterday's long ride. The sun warms us up from another cold start as we pedal northeast on Charleston Road with the Dragoon Mountains ahead.

At mile 5 there's a moment of confusion when we see a "Road Closed" sign ahead where our route is supposed to go. Then the light dawns. They’ve closed it for us! I’m guessing this is a lightly traveled route and there’s a narrow shoulder, so the Cochise County Sheriff has closed it all the way to Tombstone for the day. What sweet freedom it is to own the road as we cruise down to the San Pedro River.

Thanks to Dave Cook of the Volunteer Sheriff Assist Team for the picture

Sandy, Traci, Dave Cook, Catherine and Bob. Barry is miles down the road. Ride your ride.

Riders all over the road. It was open to local traffic only, which amounted to one car the rest of the way to Tombstone, and a ride support van.

Thanks Bob for capturing a rare sight, me on my wheelchair at the front of a group.

At 10:00 we get to the west edge of town to find Bob settled in at the Tombstone Brewing Company. Apparently it's beer o’clock. Eh, we have time to kill before lunch, why not? A good number of riders have the same idea so it's a great spot for ogling all the pretty bikes.

So fun to ride with the gals - Catherine, Traci, me and Sandy

Brunch time. The single-hopped IPA tastes like grapefruit juice.

Bike porn - a Lynskey titanium gravel bike with triangular tubes

Thirst quenched, we ride on into Tombstone, "the town too tough to die." According to the Tombstone Times, Ed Schieffelin, an army scout and prospector, was warned he would find only his tombstone while searching for treasure in this area. When he struck a vein of silver ore in 1877 he figured Tombstone was an appropriate name for the town. By 1881 it was the Cochise County seat.

Tombstone survived the failure of the silver mines around the turn of the century and the relocation of the county seat to Bisbee in 1929. About that time the townspeople came together to resuscitate the dying town, organizing events to relive the legendary 1881 gunfight at the OK Corral. Tourists came to walk the streets where Wyatt and Virgil Earp and Doc Holliday shot and killed the cattle-rustling outlaw cowboys Billy Canton, Tom McLaury and Frank McLaury.

Books and movies about the legend of Wyatt Earp followed, a highway was built from Benson to Tombstone and shops and services sprang up. Tourism is the big industry now. Mine tours, gunfights, stagecoach rides, ghost tours and performances evoke the Wild West.

Checking our bikes into the corral set up for riders on our tour today, we amble into the Longhorn Restaurant, the oldest continually operated restaurant in town. After lunch we take in the show outside on Allen Street.

Bike cleats make kind of a clip-clopping sound on the wooden boardwalks

The bike corral is emptying out by the time we retrieve our bikes. Winds are lighter than yesterday, the roadblock is still in place and its a fine afternoon for the cruise back to Sierra Vista.

Bob sails back down Charleston Road for Sierra Vista

Our three days in Cochise County on El Tour de Zona have been good fun with sunny weather, great riding companions, interesting routes and stellar tour support. Another benefit of a supported ride - Barry doesn't worry about sticking with me so he gets to ride as fast as he wants.

We're happy to put 126 more miles in the bank and very ready to move on with the journey home.

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Today's ride: 36 miles (58 km)
Total: 963 miles (1,550 km)

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Scott AndersonI really like Charleston Road, but then we’ve only ridden it downhill.
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