Who Rides Through the Desert? Honestly…
We knew this ride was going to be a doozy for more than one reason. First, we had to cover nearly 400 miles in 2 days. That’s 200 miles a day folks. Yeah, I know you can add. Just clarifying for emphasis.
So, how were we going to do that?! [Note: Our schedule is based on the MLB schedule. If we had to choose, we would NOT do 400 miles in two days. But the powers that be determined our schedule]
Additionally, there are NO gas stations, rest areas or towns basically anywhere out in the desert. So if you are biking, through the desert, and need water, you better have it on you. We had to consider this when planning our route for the day. But HOW were we going to combat that little problem? Well, let me tell you…
Slingshot! We started a new strategy that proved very effective for this leg because of the distance AND the heat. We would divide the 4 riders of the day into 2 teams. Then it was time to go to work on the bike.
FIRST TEAM… ASSEMBLE!
Team 1 – Say riders The Meatgrinder (Chase) and Mother Huckleberry (Adam), would get up very early. 5 AM early! We’d have a super quick breakfast of oatmeal and fruit (on-the-hand), get our cycling gear ready, put on our jerseys (o wait, we slept in those) and hit the road as quick as possible. This would ensure that we could get our 100 miles in as early as possible.
SECOND TEAM, BRING IT IN!!
Team 2 – Say riders Rex (Rex) and Xtra-Large (Steve), would quickly break down last night’s camp, jump in the car, and drive ahead to the stopping point of Team 1, 100 miles ahead. Team 2 would then start from the stopping point of Team 1 and bike 100 miles farther. All four riders and the driver would meet at that final stopping point 100 miles ahead from where Team 2 started. So, the idea would be 4 riders would cover 200 miles between the 4 of them all in a day’s work.
Still following along…..?
That was the idea. But then the heat presented another problem.
Throughout Team 2’s 100 miles. Xtra-Large wasn’t feeling too good from all of the heat. Not enough water mixed with a desert… equals blahhhhh.
So we had to alter our approach a little. Easy solution! We just shortened the slingshot distance. Instead of driving 100 miles ahead, we would drive anywhere from 30-60 miles ahead, pending terrain and time of day. This would break up the day’s riding for our riders so that they could re-fuel, re-hydrate and re-sunscreen-it-up.
Our riders would still ride 100 miles a day. It would just be in a leap-frogging manner over the course of the ride. Pretty stellar AND safe. And well, funny you should ask, that IS in our core values of Biking for Baseball: Safety First.
We are ALL about the safety. Especially in the desert! Wow was it crazy hot out there! And it’s only May. We are soo thankful we are not riding through here in July, August or September. That, would be unfun.
We started off our ride towards Phoenix, basically at sea level in the Ocean Beach area of San Diego. 60 miles and 4,000 feet of elevation later and we were at the town of Julian. This was about the last we saw of civilization for a while. Bring on the desert!
Actually, the desert was much more manageable than we thought it would be. I think our strategy was a good one and led us to focus on the 30 miles at hand and not the fact that we were cycling through an endless desert. We tried to get on the bike as early as possible and even ride a bit into the night in order to work around the hot part of the day.
It really is a cool feeling to see that you are biking through a friggin’ desert. I mean, a desert. We even biked through Imperial Sand Dunes National Park. Really? That is cool and not many people have had the, dare I say, pleasure of doing so. We saw sand-boarding lizards, mirages of each other, sand dunes untouched and no other cyclists. We will remember this FOR.EV.VER.
But eventually our fun had to end. We ended up crushing the ride, making great time and even being able to make it to Tempe Beach Park with BBBS of Central Arizona kids and volunteers, giving a clinic on soft toss and having ‘em take some mean swings.
It got even better! Well, kind of 🙂 We thought the game we had tickets for was Friday night’s game. Well, we received the tickets aaaaaaand they said Saturday. Ahhhh! So now, we had the potential of seeing two games in one city. Boom! Always the optimist. We did it of course. We had GREAT seats right off the third base dugout for the game after buying the cheap seats and sneaking down to the expensive seats to get a good view of BEAUTIFUL Chase Field. Couldn’t wait to get a picture with Chase at Chase Field!
And it was nice to just be able to watch baseball. Usually we are anxious about seeing the first pitch, getting pictures, talking to people about Biking for Baseball, and checking out the stadium. This one was about relaxing, talking baseball, and watching baseball. We saw a first career MLB HR from AJ Pollock (congrats!) and a HR from our favorite ex-Royal, Melky Cabrera of the Giants. The fans, the atmosphere, the game, the seats the beers; all wins from the home team Diamondbacks and the home team B4B. What a day!
Chase Field, Dodger Stadium, and Petco Park. All great parks and back-to-back-to-back. After finishing a grueling ride through the desert, this was a wonderful way to spend our evening. What a week!