Day 9 - May 27 (Memorial Day) (77 m / 89 m)
This morning we started out a little after 4 AM (Luey, Andy & Dave). Noah had the option of sleeping in and riding up the mtn with Fu in his big pick-up truck. You know what Noah chose!
Aside from our first bike accident, we made good time in the morning out of PHX. And, who has spent years riding scooters in Taiwan, accidentally pulled his left-hand break, the front break, when stopping suddenly. In Taiwan, scooters use the left-hand break for rear breaking, and many bike riders in Taiwan switch the hand brakes, just to avoid that common mistake. Andy is fine, except for a few scrapes.
Fu & Noah met up with us when we were half-way, at about 45 miles, and after much climbing. Payson is at 5,000 ft and PHX is at at a little over 1,000 ft. If it was only 4,000 ft of climbing -- that would have been fine. No, there were several long Cat 2 & 3 climbs. Yes, mtn climbs are categorized by their level of difficulty, with Cat. 1 being the hardest. Altogether, there was more than 6,800 ft of climbing. Luey & Andy did the whole thing in 12 hours. I called it quits after 10 hours and 77 miles, and when Fu needed to get back to PHX. He was our support vehicle all day -- what a blessing no having to carry our panniers.
Tomorrow we head to Show Low and and the White Mtn Christian Church.
Thanks for praying!
D, N, L, A
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