Cycling in the Winter

by Joe Anderson

It doesn't work very well in Bloomington, IN, our hometown. During 9 months of the year, bicycling in southern Indiana is fantastic, as featured in the movie "Breaking Away." Our Bloomington Bicycle Club has route books that list over 100 loop rides (from 10 to 200 miles in length). While Bloomington offers some of the most scenic and varied bicycling opportunities in the country, when winter sets in it is difficult to get many outdoor miles. I'm a 65-year-old destination rider, one who does not enjoy riding a trainer or doing a spin class at the YMCA. I ride to eat and to see and experience the countryside and meet the local people.

In search of warmer riding conditions, Barbara and I headed southwest this winter. We loaded up our motor home and headed for our first destination, Houston, TX, where we spent a couple weeks with Barbara's sister, Marcia. Being avid bicyclists we had packed two bicycles for the trip south: my Trek 5200 and our folding Bike Friday tandem.

Although Houston is not the ideal bicycling destination, by scouting neighborhood roads it was possible to find a decent route out of the city. After only five miles of city streets I could be in rural Texas, riding to places like Pecan Grove and Fulshear. The main problem isn't traffic congestion, once the ideal exit route is found, it's the flat terrain. If the Texas winds aren't blowing, I can do a 60-mile ride without changing gears, not ideal for someone trying to get his butt back in shape after a month off the bike.

The second leg of our southwestern trip took us to Big Bend National Park where we spent two days, me riding my Trek and Barbara hiking to "The Window" in the Chisos Basin before meeting for lunch at the lodge and watching the Arizona Cardinals earn a trip to the Super Bowl. My ride was 28 miles with ten miles of gradual downhill, ten miles of gradual uphill, and eight miles of granny gear, grinding it out, uphill. Barbara's hike was a 5-mile, 500 foot of climb personal best for her.

After leaving Big Bend, we stopped in Las Cruces, so I could complete the final six miles of my 1998 coast-to-coast bicycle trip. A late March snow storm in Cloudcroft, New Mexico that year, required us to be hauled off the mountain until we were below the snow line. I started at the top of the pass this time and coasted the six miles required to finish my route, then I rode back up to the pass and coasted the sixteen miles at 30+ mph from Cloudcroft back to Alamogordo. It was indeed satisfying to relive the excitement of that trip.

Cottonwood, Arizona, was our final destination, and we have already spent five weeks in this area. Cottonwood has some great bicycling opportunities that can be combined with hiking and sightseeing. The local bicycle club, the Verde Valley Cycling Coalition (VVCC) offers many opportunities to ride with other cyclists of various abilities, speeds, and distances. Barbara and I rode our tandem on VVCC club rides. Their Monday 11:00 am rides with Maggie took us to various destinations depending upon the wind and the temperature. We've toured Dead Horse Ranch State Park, Oak Creek Valley Road overlooking Cornville, and the fish hatchery at Page Springs. The leisurely pace of the Monday rides allow us to enjoy the beautiful scenery. Each Friday at 10:00 am the VVCC enjoys a twenty-mile loop ride from Jerona's Coffee Shop through the Cottonwood Ranch community before flying down 89A to Clarkdale on our way to Tuzigoot and back through Old Town Cottonwood. The group, which can be as large as 20 riders, always stops for coffee and pastries after the ride. VVCC also has a regular Saturday ride which starts in the Village of Oak Creek (VOC) and traverses the red rock country toward Sedona before circling back to VOC for side trips up Verde Valley School Road and Jack's Canyon Road. Of course the National Forest Service Visitor Center on Hwy 179 and the beautiful, new smooth roads with marked bicycle lanes make this Saturday ride a real delight.

Barbara and I drove to Prescott for shopping and a movie one day. I, of course, took my bike so that I could return via Mingus Mountain and Jerome while Barbara spent time in the shops. Coming up Mingus from Prescott is much easier than riding to the top from Cottonwood, as I discovered last week. The elevation change from Cottonwood goes from 3,000 feet to 7,020 in about 13 miles. Highway 89A over Mingus has lots of switchbacks, seven percent grades, and spectacular views of the Sedona red rocks, the San Francisco Peaks north of Flagstaff, and the Verde River valley.

Yesterday, the day before we were scheduled to drive to Sierra Vista, I rode from the Thousand Trails Camp on Hwy 260 through Sedona and up Oak Creek Canyon to the overlook with the Indian market. This is an 83- mile round trip with another 4,000 feet of elevation change and is a traditional cross-country route used for the Race Across AMerica. The Decycles group, a bicycle tour with about 60 teens and their chaperones, from Bloomington climbed it last summer after enjoying swimming at Slide Rock State Park.

Riding in the southwest is quite different than riding in Indiana where the biggest hill is only 400 feet high. Granted the grades on those hills can be in the fifteen to twenty percent range for short distances, but the rolling terrain and quiet back roads are hard to beat. Here in Arizona we ride on wide shoulders with lots of traffic just a few feet away. Recent highway improvements to 89A in Cottonwood and the new divided SR 260 from Cottonwood half way to Interstate 17 is also great for bicycling. The northbound lane of 260, however is old and doesn't have a shoulder. That, the rumble strip and the debris along the edge make this quite dangerous. The beautiful four lane divided route from Cottonwood to Sedona with the 10 foot shoulders outside the rumble strip is great, so long as broken glass doesn't cause a flat tire. We have been here five weeks already and truly enjoy the area with its wild life (eagles, antelope, white tailed deer, coyote and dead skunks).

Gary Felix, a VVCC riding buddy from Jerome, once said you can only see five percent of Arizona from the road, so Barbara and I, with Al Abbott's encouragement, have purchased hiking poles and put our bike water bottles on straps or in a belt bag and set out on two eight-mile hikes in the Sedona Red Rocks. It is truly thrilling to see Bell Rock, Cathedral Rock, Courthouse, Cock's Comb and many other rock formations from the back country. We are in training for a trip to the Grand Canyon, only 150 miles away and hope to do some of the Bright Angel Trail when we return to Cottonwood in a couple of weeks.