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.