Climbing Box Canyon Road

We completed a 106 mile ride today from Indio to Blythe.  It was extremely challenging.  We left the hotel very early this morning as we saw the sun rising as we entered onto the main highway. We traveled first to a small town called Mecca located about 17 miles southeast of Indio, traveling along a side highway. We then climbed 1500 ft. from Mecca along Box Canyon Road , an isolated road that was beautiful,  but slow going. It took us 3 hours to travel 34 miles as we found ourselves in a continuous gradual climb from Mecca to I-10.

Once we reached I-10, we traveled for about 70 miles until we exited in Blythe.  The path along I-10 was through the Colorado Desert, a wilderness that had very few exits and no service provided for a distance of 60 miles.  Although we packed a load of water in our bulging bike bags, we realized that we were going to run low.  It was 90 degrees and we were consuming large quantities of water. We stopped at a road construction site and Dan talked the workers into letting us fill our bottles. I think those guys thought we were nuts.

This ride was every bit the gut check that I was anticipating. I am satisfied that I have now completed my first Century (100 mile ride) and did so with a load of over 30 pounds on my bike. Dan was really strong today as i found myself hanging on his wheel much of the time.

Tomorrow is a new day.  We are plotting our route now and hope to lower the mileage total to give us a day to recover.  Today really took a toll on our bodies. 

This trip would be much easier if we had someone toting our belongings and a route that was proven by other riders.  In some ways, we are blazing a trail as we have very little solid intel to configure our routes.  I guess that is what makes it so fun.