RAAZ Day 3 - Pines Camping to Seligman

 64.1 miles, 3478’ climbing

66 Canyon Lodge Motel, “the Marilyn Room”

There was a chill in the air as the sky started getting light. We had already cleaned and lubed our drive trains the night before, so we sipped coffee as we packed up, then we hit the road.  We climbed a hill, then quickly descended out of the pines and into an area of dense juniper, then on to more open country. 

We turned up the Williamson Valley Road expecting climbs after our long descent. A rancher driving a tractor tipped his hat at us, and we waved. The road wasn’t too steep, though we each had moments of washboard envy ( that feeling as you bump over a washboard road and look over to see your cycling companion on smooth, firm dirt, but rocks, sand, or more rough road discourages you from simple crossing over to the smooth part). None of the washboard was too severe, but instinctively we choose the easiest lines. Doesn’t everybody?

We startled a trio of javelina, which ran off into the junipers. Soon afterwards, a SUV pulled up next to us. The window rolled down, and the occupants wished us a good ride. 

A woman in a large Cadillac SUV pulled up next to us and stopped. She warned us of fast oncoming traffic, told us we were hard to see, that we blended into the background, that it scared her every time she saw cyclists, that this was a terrible, TERRIBLE road to ride bikes on, she had moved here 56 years ago, and knew the place well. At that point we smiled and said we were really enjoying it. She rolled her eyes and asked if we had enough water. We did. We both felt that she was a bit of a cyclists’ frenemy, concerned about us but hating to see us on the road. Would she have  offered us water? What brought her to this remote place 56 years ago? Was the hat tipping rancher her husband, charming her with his courteous manners? We will never know. Besides being on the RAAZ route, these roads are part of the Camp Wood 40 gravel ride, so cyclists cannot be too surprising here.

The next 20+ miles into town were hard. We were tired, it was hot, and we had a light headwind. Because of the wind direction, we were covered in a lingering dust cloud every time a car passed. Finally we arrived in town, stopping for cold cokes at the travel center. We eventually booked the “Marilyn Room” at a cute hotel, bought lunch supplies for the next day, found a fuel canister at the general store, and had an excellent dinner at Lilo’s cafe with a breakfast burrito to-go for the morning. We cleaned our drive trains before dark and called it a night.

RAAZ Day 2 - Junipers Camping to Pines Camping

 Weds May 6, 2026

63.1 miles, 6486’ climbing

Merrit Spring Camping

In the morning we had a quick descent of 5-6 miles to the I93 freeway. The wide shoulder gave us plenty of space from the semis speeding past. After about a dozen rolling miles, we turned off onto a two lane highway. It had a wide shoulder for the first couple tenths of a mile as we pedaled up a hill steep enough to obscure any oncoming traffic. As we neared the top, a semi passed, and for some reason the driver headed over the blind hill across the double yellow line in the oncoming lane. Both our faces were probably contorted with confusion as we watched, wondering why any driver would choose such a dangerous maneuver. At the top of the hill, the driver pulled onto the left shoulder of the road, paused briefly, then took off into the correct lane. The shoulder disappeared, and we were left a little uncomfortable as we pedaled on to Bagdad, Arizona on a shoulderless road with lots of blind corners and hills. Thankfully the subsequent drivers seemed sane and courteous. After a turn and a few more miles, we pulled into Bagdad for lunch.

In Bagdad, we stopped for a great burger at the charming diner. Next door we resupplied at the Bashas grocery store, loading up to full capacity with water and putting some gatorades on our forks. 

Although we had passed through a lot of snakey looking country, we had only seen 2 deceased, run over, unidentifiable snakes. As we left Bagdad, we saw a long, slim, pinkish snake crossing the road. We hoped it would make a good choice before an oncoming truck came by. It seemed to sense the approach, and very rapidly it turned around and whipped off the road.

Soon we turned off on a long climb where we saw cattle, rocky cliffs, and blooming century plants. It was hot. Finally we turned a corner and found ourselves passing a ranch in the junipers. Around 10 large deer ran across the road. We saw another snake, only 12-14”, unidentified, lounging on the dirt road. 

The country was beautiful, and then we came around the corners and found ourselves in the pines near a beautiful ranch with a pond and longhorn cattle. We wound through pine trees and granite boulders for about a dozen miles. Ed surprised a turkey in the middle of the road at one point. Just short of our mileage goal, we saw a good camping spot, possibly Merritt Spring, at the road side. We were ready, and we made camp.

RAAZ Day 1 - Topock to Junipers Camping

Tuesday May 5, 2026

82 miles, 5547’ climbing

At 6am we rolled out of our hotel room, snapped a couple pictures, and started our ride. Our first 10ish miles were on the wide shoulder of I-40. We weren’t too close to the fast semis, and we were able to easily cross on and off ramps for the first two exits.  At the 3rd exit, around 10 miles in, there was a Pilot Travel Center where we planned to have breakfast. Lots of truck drivers seemed to have the same idea, and crossing the on and off ramps might have been less than ideal. Trucks lined the shoulders of the ramps, too, but we were pleased to get hot coffee, good bananas, donuts, and wraps for lunch.

After a few more miles on the shoulder, we turned off onto dirt, a pleasant little section in the cool morning air. This was followed by a few miles on a paved frontage road with no traffic, then we turned off onto the maintained dirt roads that we followed the rest of the day. It got warm and breezy, and there were very few vehicles after we left the first dirt road. We pedaled towards some hills and came into an area with Joshua trees with their beautiful forms.

Around mile 54 we hunted around for a stock tank, hoping to filter some water to top up our supplies. We spotted the windmill, but the only reachable water turned out to be a cow pond, something you’d only want in an emergency. Soon afterwards we were treated to a real forest of Joshua trees. Soon we were descending and it got hot. We saw saguaro cacti, so familiar to us but not yet blooming as they currently are in southern Arizona. We pedaled over rolling hills, many with deeper sand at the bottoms. We laughed as one or both of us would skid thru the sand.

Near the Big Sandy River a rancher named Mary had put out a pop up with some chairs, a table, very cold water, and some packets of nuts and cranberries. She’s a true trail angel, helping riders on a dry stretch. We didn’t meet Mary, but we sat in the shade and drank a full liter of water each. It was wonderful.

We had heard that the following hills were tough, so we tackled them before stopping. We pushed our bikes up a couple of steep spots, feeling our energy fading a bit. A couple miles over the top we camped among the junipers down a side road. It was a good start to the RAAZ.

Ride Across Arizona - Preride Logistics

 May 2-4, 2026

Getting to the start for the May 4, 2026 grand depart

Because the start and end of the ride are in remote locations, transportation can be complicated. We wanted to ride as a duo, but how would we get to the start and home from the finish? Thru a Facebook message on the RAAZ page, we connected with Shawn, another Tucsonan asking the same questions.

Shawn had already figured out that he could leave his car at the Outpost RV Park in Alpine, close to the end of the ride,  for a small fee, and he could rent a U-Haul to go to Topock, the start location, and drop it off. The only hotel in Topock was fully booked, so we booked camp site at the Pirate Cove Resort, 3.5 miles away on the California side of the Colorado River. We gave ourselves 2 days to make sure any hiccups could be worked out.

Everything went as planned.  Shawn drove his car and we caravanned to Pinetop. There he collected the U-Haul and Ed drove his wehicle. We all continued to the Outpost RV park in Alpine where the owner Kevin gave us parking spaces and we paid him a small fee. From there we loaded the U-Haul and drove to  the Pirates Cove Resort near Topock on the Colorado River. We arrived around 9pm, so it was a long day. We set up camp in the dark.

Sunday morning, Shawn dropped off the U-Haul and rode back on his bike. The rest of the day was dedicated to finding shelter from the wind (gusting up to 45 mph) and trying not to dehydrate (it reached 99F). It continued to be windy during the night, pretty rough.

We packed up in the dark and rode the 3.5 miles to the grand depart. It was not forecast to be as hot or as windy, but it was still pretty windy. We decided to delay our start for the day and stay in the hotel. We were able to get into the room around 10:30am. We had showers and napped, ate at the restaurant, and recovered from the weekend.

Hong Kong - Day 29

After a good night’s sleep, we got up to find breakfast and explore just before 8am. There were few people about, little traffic, and few open shops. Eventually we found a New York style deli nearby and had a bagel breakfast.

We walked to the funicular railway and took it up towards Victoria Peak. We have taken more escalators in the last 24 hours than in the last year! They are common and efficient here. At the top of the peak we took a circle trail (paved) and a side trail to a lookout. The forest was humid and cool in the shade. Intermittently we had views to the skyscrapers and coastal areas below us. There were lots of people on a similar itinerary, seemingly a mixture of tourists and locals.

After our walk, we took the funicular back down to town. We walked a long ways to find a popular dim sum restaurant which seemed to have closed. We found d another place and had a delicious lunch, then returned to our hotel to relax.

In late afternoon, we set off for Mong Kok in Kowloon by MTR. Once we arrived, we walked many blocks through the flower market, the ladies market, and the night market. We continued towards the shore for many blocks. It wasn’t quite dark, but the lights of Hong Kong across the water were beautiful. We found a restaurant in a mall that had stores for designers (Gucci, Versace, Alexander McQueen and many more), though the restaurant, located via Google Maps, turned out to be in an unglamorous and inexpensive food court. It was an odd combination in the building. After dinner we walked along the esplanade looking at lights along with crowds, then we hopped on a ferry back to our hotel area.

Hong Kong - Day 28

 Hotel: Motto by Hilton, Sheung Wan

Our flight from Kathmandu arrived in Hong Kong at 6am local time which was about 3:15am Kathmandu time. It was way too early to check into our hotel, and neither of us had much more than 1-2 hours of sleep. Solution: we checked our bags at the airport and went to see nearby sights. It was a morning of planes, trains, busses, and cable cars.

It took us a while to figure out the local transportation system, but we made it early to Ngong Ping 360, the cable car to the top of the peak on Lantau Island. The views of the forest, harbors, and coastal buildings were beautiful, and clouds swirled over the giant Tian Tan Buddha at the top of a hill. We were a little dismayed at how Disneyfied the area was, funneling visitors past many gift shops and restaurants. Though enormous it seemed like the Buddha and adjacent monastery were all a little plastic feeling and had been built for the purpose of bringing tourists to the shops, a contrast to all the ancient shrines and monasteries we visited in Nepal. Still it was a beautiful side trip as an intro to Hong Kong. 

We picked up our luggage at the airport and caught the AirPort Express train to Hong Kong with one train change to reach our hotel near Sheung Wan. It was warm and humid by the time we reached our hotel in a lively neighborhood. Our comfortable room on the 25th floor has a dizzying view of skyscrapers and the harbor. We had a welcome shower before heading out to explore.

We walked down to the harbor using side streets and a pedestrian walkway, exploring some shopping malls we bumped into and looking at passing ships and ferries. Everything is very clean and bustling with lots of shops that appear to be busy. This is a contrast to the tourist area of Kathmandu which has a multitude of shops, but it appeared that many didn’t make any sales. The city looks prosperous here and impoverished there. We like them both very much, but there’s quite a contrast.

After dinner we took an early night.

Nepal Day 27 - Kathmandu

 We are on our way to Hong Kong late tonight. 

After rain most of last night and yesterday, we were glad to see the sun shining this morning. We spent our morning wandering through some market streets, then we showered and checked out of our hotel. After dinner at a local Smashing Burger, we took a final walk and returned to our hotel to wait for our airport transfer.  

The airport seemed insanely busy with many more people standing outside than could have scheduled flights. Once inside, we made our way through all the checks, and we settled into some chairs. Our flight wasn’t scheduled until 11pm, so it was a short overnight flight to Hong Kong.