400 km bevet to Arivaca, March 26, 2005
by Glenn Moyer

I woke up at 2am to a great prospect: A trip to Casa Grande without rain, a first for 2005. A full moon, clear skies and cool air greeted the riders for the 4am start. Heading southeast out of town we quickly broke into two groups, the fast group, whose blinking taillights disappeared into the darkened road ahead within about five minutes, and the rest of us. The ride to the first control grew progressively cooler as we rode, down to 38 degrees as we reached the Dairy Queen on I-10. I had chosen the wrong gloves. My stiff fingers couldn't open the zip lock bag that protected my brevet card, or shut off my helmet light. Luckly Susan, our Den Mother, took care of both for me.

Back on the bike, now heading down the frontage road as the sky lightened, the temperature dropped one more degree, to 37 degrees, as we rode along. I had to stop riding to tear a Gatorade bar open with my teeth, my hands still more like clumps at the ends of my arms. It wasn't like I couldn't do important stuff like shift or steer, it was just those small motor movements that were out of the question. Maybe because I was cold, the sunrise, though lacking any brilliant hues, was glorious. About this time we saw Pam Reed on the second day of her 301-mile frontage road run. I suddenly felt saner. Not entirely sane, just saner.

Our slower group broke up slightly at the Circle K in Marana, but we were back together by Avra Valley Road where we had a "North by Northwest" experience as a small prop plane seemed to barely clear the road as it took off from the Marana airport. Traffic, which had been pretty much non-existent in the early hours, was still light as we headed south on Sandario Road. The first (and for me at least the only) traffic "thrill" came just before the bend in Sandario when a flat-bed tow truck buzzed us all at a high speed. Glad he didn't come by when we were a few hundred further down the road. Mile Wide Road, the first climb of the day, such as they were on this wonderfully flat route, spread us out for good. After the secret control on Kinney Road, Paul Layton and I left together but quickly got separated by the rollers. That was about mile 65. I saw Paul again at the Arivaca control but was by myself until mile 230.

The second climb was the very gradual rise of Mission Road through the Tohono O'odham reservation and up behind the Asarco copper mines. The seven-mile decent on Helmet Peak Road to Sahuarita was doubly pleasurable with the nice tail wind. That tail wind, out of the north west, followed me south through Green Valley and I made good time until the Cow Palace when I started the final climb, up to Arivaca. By this point I had a twinge in my left knee and hip that prevented me from pushing so I just geared down and crawled up the stair-step hills. The reward was a quick downhill just outside of town where I reached my top speed of the day, 41 miles an hour. I saw Gerry Goode leaving the check point as I was approaching.

The highlight of the day was having the legendary Sandiway Fong stamp and time my brevet card in Arivaca. He wasn't feeling well and had abandoned. Not only is he an incredibly strong rider, he's got good sense too. (Hope you felt better quickly Sandy.) I ate a cookie and grabbed couple of Susan's delicious turkey/cranberry wraps, pulled the rest of my food out of my drop bag, and headed out after about 15 minutes, shortly after Paul pulled in. The last time I was in Arivaca was about ten years ago when I rode in from the other direction. All I remember from that trip was a lot of climbing so I was sure it would be all down hill heading west to Sasabe Highway, but I was wrong. Though the overall grade was down hill, there were still considerable rollers for the next 18 or so miles and my left knee, hip, and now ankle wouldn't allow any pushing. That was a slow two hours. Time went fast, the bike and I went slow.

I'm always very conscious of making sure I eat enough when riding but this day I think I ate too much. Continuing north out of the rollers on highway 286 the formerly friendly tailwind became a persistent headwind, and my stomach wasn't happy. Though I still had plenty of Gatorade, my stomach didn't need any more work, and I had foolishly run out of water. All I could do was count down the mile markers to Robles Junction. With about ten miles to go time my Cateye front headlight went bouncing down the road. The (home made) mounting bracket that I use to attach it the bottom bracket (I ride a recumbent and the bottom bracket is the front-most part of the frame) had broken. I picked it up and pushed on. The good news was the light had survived, I had a second one still on the bike and a spare Cateye in my bike bag. Good boy scout.

When I got to Robles Junction I nursed a bottle of water for about 20 minutes and just sat on the bench by the front door. My plan for being back at the Circle K in Marana before sunset was gone. But so was my indigestion. I took another ten minutes to eat the other turkey wrap that I had saved from Arivaca, filled my water bottles, attached the Cateye to my handlebar (where it would now illuminate my feet beautifully) put the spare Cateye on my helmet, changed to clear glasses, donned my windbreaker, and pushed off to the east down highway 86. The highway department has put down large gravel adjacent to the roadway so riding the shoulder, wherever a car had driven off the road it sprayed gravel on the shoulder. It was like flying through a flak filled sky. It wasn't a question of whether you would hit any, just how bad. I did make through without serious incident.

The sun went down as I headed north on Sandario. As I crested the slight rise near Saguaro National Park I knew it really was all down hill from here. I registered only 4450 feet of climbing. The farms of Marana chilled the air, but it wasn't as bad as it had been in the morning. A the Circle K control the clerk was quite anxious to sign my brevet card but I had to remind her twice to charge me for my water. I wonder if my appearance had anything to do with it? Heading back up the I-10 frontage road the air warmed and the miles clicked by easily. At the Dairy Queen I saw Gerry Goode and pulled in. He was contemplating his lighting situation: low batteries. Since I had three headlights we figured that between us we had enough light and we headed toward Casa Grande together. That was a very pleasant two hours as we talked and rode along. We arrived back at 10:50pm.

As I checked in at the theatre in Casa Grande, my left knee, hip, and ankle, and my right quad reminded me I had just achieved a personal best for one-day mileage. And my stomach reminded me I had cut down from my normal gorging while riding. I quickly loaded up the van and headed out to Wendy's where I sat in the drive through for 21 minutes before getting a cold burger, fries, and coke for the drive back down to Tucson. Less than 24 hours after getting up I was back in bed. Thanks to all for participating, even you Durangatangs who I never saw. And thanks to Susan for making it possible.

Glenn Moyer