It was a great overnight and we awoke to a beautiful morning. BIG breakfast included so we had lots of fuel for today’s ride.  Having gotten up at

5:00am (when breakfast was served) I was ready to go at 8:00am, so shoved off on down the road.

The ads for beautiful downtown Safford . . .

Once again water rules in the dessert . . .

There was snow on the mountains as we left Safford . . .

This is what a BIG intersection looks like in the middle of Arizona. Not much there but the ‘old fork in the road’.

We turned towards Clifton and there was no question on which way to go. The road runs as far as the eye can see!

Along the way it looked like ADOT was using some of the local prison labor to cut brush along the side of the road and feeding it into chippers. I may have risked my life by stopping to take a shot!

More flowers in full bloom along the roadway. Nice!

Whole hillsides were full of flowers and other plants in bloom.

As we pedaled along we came to the Black Hills of Arizona. For many miles we were able to look at what look like a basalt core of a volcano that had ‘melted’ away many eons ago.

Thought I saw my first dead critter along the road but it ended up being a domestic dog. Still had it’s collar  on. How it got in the middle of ‘no where’ is a mystery.

After climbing for some time we came to what every rider loves to see . . . a HUGE downhill sign. Ran for ten miles all the way to Three Way.

Here is downtown Three Way, with an old outdoor movie theater! This became a decision point for all the riders.

The route we had from Safford to Silver City was too long to finish in one day. Our plan, before we received all the ACA maps, was to overnight in Clifton, nine miles off route, and return to the route the following morning. Once we got the maps we realized there were two campgrounds up the mountain that could be utilized to cut the route in half. I arrived at Three Way at about noon and decided it was too early to stop so continued up to the pass to spend the night camping. The rest of the crew overnighted in Clifton. X marks thee campsite.

So I headed off to the pass and spend the night on the mountain. Red line shows the pass.

One could look back from the climb and see the ‘BIG’ downhill we came down towards Clifton.

This was the climb to the pass. There were several more switchbacks that you cannot see in the photo.

Climbing the road, SLOWLY, gave one plenty of time to see the geologic formations around along the road.

Looking back you could see several of the switchbacks on the way up.

At 6,000 ft the terrain and vegetation certainly changes. We we in Ponderosa Pine forested country.

The top of the pass was at 6,250ft and the campground was about 300ft lower. I got to the campsite about 2:30pm and met some interesting folks. Here are Manuel and Theresa who were heading to Silver City. Manuel was a retired vet who had served 24 years in the Navy. They live in Sun City, AZ near where we stayed in Youngstown.

Soon along came Nigel from Manchester, UK. He started in Florida 35 days ago and was heading for San Diego. We had a nice chat. Ends up he is a forester too, now working in Renewable Energy, mostly wooden pellets. Ends up he saw the largest pellet factory in the world, located in Georgia, which ships A LOT of their product to guess where . . . the UK.

 

The sag wagon arrived with my gear at 5:30pm and I quickly set it up camp before sunset, which came fast with a definite cool down. I had only brought my 45 degree sleeping bag and the temps got to 40. It was a chilly night!