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.