Month: June 2017

Nevada #21

Nevada #21

February 4 – 8, 2017 – 101 miles

Lake Mead – our beautiful campsite overlooking lake.
Lake Mead from River Mountain Loop Trail.

Traveled from Mesa, AZ to Lake Mead, NV arriving about 5 PM, we are now in Pacific Time Zone. It was a beautiful drive and we were able to get a campsite at Lake Mead RV in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area and on the bike trail.  Good Wifi tonight!

Super Bowl Sunday and we are off to ride the River Mountains Loop Trail.  It’s a loop so we road clockwise which we found out later was the correct decision since that seems to be the least strenuous .  The scenery was beautiful, trail was paved, wide and very difficult. We considered turning around at 10 miles but pushed on to complete the 35 miles. This was a tough ride with a 2000 plus elevation change.  Long, long uphill from Lake Mead to Boulder City.

Above Boulder City, NV

We then had a long down hill to Henderson and onto the infamous Three Sisters. I have to confess we walked over the crest of two of those sisters. Then we had lots of steep uphill and downhill twists and turns until we returned to camp.  We were exhausted and spent the next day recuperating.

After our rest day we were up early to ride the scenic Historic Railroad Trail which is in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area.  The trail travels several hundred feet above Lake Mead and through five tunnels to end at Hoover Dam.  The tunnels were blasted out in 1930 for trains to pass through carrying stone to the dam site.  Views of Lake Mead were amazing and each tunnel had its own unique features.

Tunnels on Historic Railroad Trail.
Historic Railroad Trail

That same afternoon we went into Henderson, NV and road Pacific Railroad Trail and the 215 Trail.  While this was a good ride it seemed a bit blah after the beautiful scenery in National Rec Area. One highlight – on our return it was a slight downhill for about 8 miles. Fast and fun!!

Lenny had been wanting to try electric bikes and found Pedego Bikes in Henderson that rented them by the day. So the next day we headed out for an electric bike adventure.  We loaded the bikes on our rack and went off to ride the River Mountains Loop Trail again.  I was a skeptic but this was fun!  When we finished we were tired and felt like we had a good work out.  We were concerned that the batteries may not last for the challenging 35 miles so we probably worked harder then necessary.  Howard, the owner was really excited that we had ridden the entire trail and only used half of the charge.

Boulder City again – Pedego electric bikes.
  • River Mountains Trail Loop
  • Historic Railroad Trail
  • Pacific Railroad Trail and 275 Trail

 

 

 

Arizona #20

Arizona # 20  January 30 – February 3, 2017  102 Miles

Headed for Oro Valley north of Tucson. It was a long trip from Big Bend in Texas to Tucson.  Oh yeah, Texas is BIG!!  Guess we are spoiled because the scenery along the way seemed a bit boring.

We planned to camp at Catalina State Park, once again a campground right on the bike path. There weren’t any campsites available the first night so we stayed at a Wal-Mart that was across the street. Bonus was dinner out. Yay!! Cold nights so we were thankful that we have a really good heater.

Entrance to Catalina State Park in Oro Valley, AZ

Catalina is a beautiful park, cacti of all shapes and sizes. We saw a Cooper Hawk one morning sitting on top of a saguaro cactus and one evening we saw a huge owl fly into a nearby tree. Flo loved running in the shallow, sandy river bottom. I think she was surprised there was no salt taste in the water. While hiking with Flo one morning I saw a women riding a horse called a “Gypsy”.  She said he was from the British Isles – beautiful with feathering on lower legs similar to what you see on a Clydesdale. Very unusual.

Catalina State Park

We rode two days on the Canada del Oro River Park Trail. The first day we connected to the Santa Cruz River Park Trail for a total of 34 miles.  The second day we road the Canada del Oro and the Rittolo River Park Trail for 37 miles. We saw several roadrunners. They are the quickest little birds!!  Beep! Beep! There were only a couple of street crossing as  there were undercrossings at most of the roads.  Both days we fought the wind on our return. Tired!! Found a really nice local restaurant that was having $1.00 taco night. We love $1.00 tacos!!

There was frost on the ground the morning we left to head for Mesa, AZ.  We plan to visit my cousin Carol and her husband Ron.  Fortunately we were able to park right beside their home.  We had a wonderful visit, caught up on our laundry. Yay! Carol and I went to the movies one afternoon and saw “A Dog’s Purpose”. (Take Kleenex!)  Nice to have a couple of days off the bikes.

We took an afternoon to ride Rio Saldo Paths and Indian Bend Wash.  The start of the Rio Salado Paths was in Mesa at Wrigleyville West, the Cubs spring training facilities. We followed the trail along the Salt River in Tempe, past Arizona State University campus and across a really nice bridge to the Indian Bend Wash trail.

Wrigleyville West

Indian Bend Wash took us to Scottsdale, the spring training facilities for the San Francisco Giants.  Their ball fields were beautiful. Part of the Rio Salado Paths was under construction – the workers were very kind in letting us pass through.  While putting out bikes back on the motorhome our mild mannered Flo showed some aggressive barking toward a park ranger.  He threatened to tase her. We are so thankful he did not! Not certain what set her off, but Lenny was inside and I was outside when he approached.  Guess she thought I needed protection.

We said our good-byes to Ron and Carol on February 4, 2017 and headed for Lake Mead, NV.

  • Canada Del Oro River Park Trail to Santa Cruz River Park Trail
  • Canada Del Oro to Rittolo River Park
  • Rio Saldo Paths/Indian Bend Wash