The stars were shining brightly when I pulled out of the driveway at six in the morning to join my friend and riding partner John for today's ride. My wife, Carolyn, was scheduled to conduct training in Bagdad, Arizona, as part of her job as Grant Coordinator for the "Raising a Reader" program under Yavapai College's Early Childhood Education department. She suggested the ride from Prescott to Bagdad would be interesting and scenic, so I headed out for the 63.2 mile (101 km) trek to one of Arizona's largest copper mines (more on this later).
Besides being dark, it was also cold--right around freezing. John was waiting for me at the corner of Canyon Drive and White Spar Road, just a few minutes' ride from my home. His first words were, "I'm sure glad you have a light!" He didn't. But my "mini-light" did a fine job of illuminating the road ahead of us. We were going up the mountain, so our speed was on the low side, which was perfect in our low-light condition. However, within a half hour the first rays of morning came sneaking over the mountain tops on to the road, and extra illumination was no longer necessary.
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| The sun beginning to rise on Arizona Highway 89, south of Prescott. (notice the flash on the road and the reflector). |
After about a 10 mile climb, we coasted down to Kirkland Junction and cut across to Kirkland (25 miles from our starting point),where the road to the right went back to Prescott, and the road ahead pointed to Bagdad. John has to head back home, so he turns right for the 29 mile, mostly uphill loop back to Prescott. (I learned later, driving home with Carolyn, that there was terrible construction on that road. I haven't heard from John today, but I trust he navigated this situation successfully!) I continue straight, and the sign reads "Bagdad 38 miles. This is new territory for me, as I've never cycled nor driven this road before.
Not far from the turnoff, a couple of boulders stand on either side of the ride, and just past them the terrain begins to change. I name these rocks, "The Bagdad Gate." The next few miles I'll cycle through canyons, over washes and beside creeks. I was still feeling fairly fresh, and 22 miles before Badgad, Carolyn pulls up beside me in her car and gets a "status report." At this point, I'm still going pretty strong, so she drives on to her appointment. The pattern of this ride alternates between 10 mile climbs uphill, then ten mile screaming downhills.
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| "The Bagdad Gate" |
I climb up through the McCloud Mountains, past Mission Canyon and some beautiful desert scenery. At Mile Marker 19 (19 miles from my destination), begin a steep and thrilling 8 mile descent, where I streak around curves at speeds between 30 and 40 mph (50-65 kmh). After the last stretch of uphill, this is refreshing and invigorating.
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| Cycling through the McCloud Mountains |
The problem with descents is that one covers a lot of distance in a very short amount of time. Why is this problematic? About Mile Marker 11 I turn a curve to see the broad but dry Santa Maria River in front of me. Rivers mean only one thing--the low point of the descent. I've ridden over 50 miles at this point, and I suddenly realize that the last 11 miles will be all uphill. The temperature is beginning to push 80 degrees. There is no shade whatsoever on the route now that the sun is high in the sky. I'm down to a dozen ounces of Gatorade. (I've eaten only one PowerBar since leaving home.) The scenery is still amazing as I continue what turns out to be a grueling climb. I come to a sign that reads "Bagdad 4 miles," but the way I'm feeling at the moment, it might as well have read 400 miles. My "tank" is close to empty, and my heart rate continues to rise with the terrain. In what seemed like an eternity, I spy buildings lurking around the next bend. I'm almost there.
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| Saguaro cactus forests near Bagdad, AZ |
Carolyn is waiting for me at the only diner is this company-owned town of less than 1,700 inhabitants (the only pool of population within 20 miles. The other is Hillside, which is a very small settlement which exists almost solely to load copper and molybdenum ore onto trains for transport to a processing plant in southern Arizona). I crawl into the parking lot 5 hours and 45 minutes after leaving home, feeling a sense of accomplishment but at the same time very glad to be done. We walk (well, Carolyn walks and I kind of waddle) into the diner where I inhale two large glasses of Dr. Pepper, a double cheeseberger and curl fries. I'm beginning to feel human again.
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| The open pit Bagdad mine. (Photo from the Internet... one can't get to the mine without a special pass.) |
The town of Bagdad sits at 4,101 feet above sea level. The mine was staked in 1882, and 770 tons of ore a day are extracted from the pit. In 2011, 194 million tons of copper ore and 10 million tons of molybdenum resulted from operations in Bagdad.
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