42.9 miles, 1965’ climbing
Greentree Hotel, Flagstaff
We didn’t leave until after breakfast at the very comfortable La Quinta hotel. Once we rolled out just before 7, we were soon pedaling uphill on pavement past the pretty Santa Fe Reservoir which is in the pines. After about 4 miles on asphalt, we turned onto a large, maintained gravel road that goes past Dogtown Lake. There were a fair number of trailers and tents where people were camping in the forest. We passed Dogtown Lake which we camped at a few summers ago on a bikepacking trip. It has a nice campground. Today we continued through the pines, avoiding washboard. We passed some open meadows with private land, and then were back in the trees.
After about 20 miles of cycling, our route turned off the maintained road onto a smaller forest road that first followed a phone line then turned into the forest. The next 10 miles were the most challenging and interesting riding of the trip. It was a nice change from the graded roads we have been following, and also more strenuous. There was about a mile of rocks and ruts that required us to choose our lines more carefully. It was fun.
About 30ish miles into our ride, we emerged onto another maintained road. We stopped for lunch on the roadside, then continued on past Roger’s Lake, a dry lake with some parking areas and nature trails. We stopped to look through telescopes trained on the lake, but we didn’t see anything.
Our route continued around towards Fort Tuthill. The Flagstaff Interurban gravel trail took us directly to a hotel, and nearby was a Basha’s grocery store and a number of restaurants. It was a short day, and the cooler temperatures made it easier.
We’ve reached the half way point on our trip. Our pace isn’t too speedy, but given that we’ve been off our bikes recently while travelling, it feels good. We’re thinking it will be 5 more riding days to get to the New Mexico border.
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