The Long Road Ahead (With No Bike Lanes)

For those of you who don't know, I am planning a 700 mile loop on my bicycle around Arizona. The loop will take me from Tucson to Phoenix, up through Payson and into Show Low. I will then head east towards the Arizona New Mexico border, where I will come down through the
Apache-Sitgreaves Forest and start working my way back home.

On my drive up to Pinetop (just north of Show Low) yesterday, I was able to see the first 300 miles of my trip. The road to Phoenix (going through Florence) is really boring and bland, but that was to be expected. However, once I got out of Phoenix and into the Tonto national forest, the scenery changed dramatically. The environment was very lush and green, with many running creeks and streams. Needless to say, finding fresh water along this stretch will be easy. The terrain was very hilly with dramatic uphills and downhills. However, after we hit Payson (about half way between Phoenix and Show Low) the road turned into a single 2500 ft ascent as we climbed up the Mogollon rim. This will certainly be the most strenuous part of my trip. Once I got up around 7000 ft, everything was covered under a few feet a snow, which will without a doubt make camping a whole lot of fun.

The next few weeks, I will spend conditioning, and doing short trips in order to whip myself into shape. I have all the gear needed, although I am now debating whether or not I will want a small snow shovel. I'm not sure what to call this thing that I will be doing, but Alpine Bike-Packing sounds pretty cool.

-Andy