Wickenburg Overnighter 2010

Have I gotten spoiled by Arizona weather? I know that even in Phoenix, it is sometimes possible to get caught in a shower on a ride, and so, I'll throw on my Gore-Tex if it looks like it might rain. Normally, I don't like to start riding when it already IS raining. But we've committed to doing this ride. Several riders bailed at the start, but not all, so off we ride. The first few miles just seemed like a bad idea getting wetter.

And yet, a few miles before Lake Pleasant with only about 6 miles into the ride, the rain had pretty much abated. Geographically, we crossed the barely noticable New River Wash. With all the rain we've had, it seems like it should have water in it, but the roadway seemed wetter than the wash. We were prepared to shuttle bikes around the construction zone near Lake Pleasant. Even though the construction zone is posted as 3.5 miles long, our reconnaissance had concluded that the areas in question were MUCH shorter. As it turned out, traffic on the outbound leg was light and so the construction zone was a complete non-issue. Our group made the decent into the depths of the Agua Fria river valley. Just upstream, the New Waddell Dam holds back Lake Pleasant but downstream, it looks pretty much like the desert of Marty Robbins' day. At around 1500 feet, this is the lowest elevation we'll see.

Coming up out of the valley represents a fairly demanding 6 miles of climbing. In another 10 miles we hit the highest point of the ride at around 2000 feet and then begin descending into the Hassyampa Valley and turning north and upstream on Grand Ave (US60). Last year's construction on US60 coming into Wickenburg is now completed but we were a bit disappointed by the striping. Bath, rinse clothes, happy hour, dinner, sleep, breakfast, ride... The return leg was almost completely rainless and almost windless but overcast and cooler than it should be.

I like to say, "It's difficult to justify spending a lot of money on good rain gear when you live in Phoenix, but it's impossible to test it." Well, this trip proved me wrong. I still don't know how to keep my feet warm and dry in the rain, but the rest of me fared well enough.

Thanks to everyone who made this happen. You know who you are.

I found this great picture using Google Earth. While riding through the area, you get a sense that it looks like this, but pictures taken from the road don't quite reflect it like this picture does. US60 is in the corner of the image, looking upstream toward Wickenburg. Even in the drizzle, it was beautiful. I've done this ride with heat and wind, but this is the first time I've done this ride in the rain and I'll bet money it won't rain on this ride next year!