Archive for April 2nd, 2011

Long shadows in the early morning light on this unpaved canal trail; I'm facing west here. Click on image to enlarge.

1 April 2011 (posted a day later). I left the Dalrymple’s place at Chimney Rock fairly early—to try to beat the heat. The forecast for Phoenix was 99°F (and I heard tonight that the city tied a record of 100°). I got off by 7:15, after a packing and eating a bowl of cereal.

The trick was getting down to where I would pick up the Adventure Cycling route. The night before I had checked Google Maps and figured out what seemed like a good route. I started out just fine—riding downhill, then getting on one of those canal paths. At one point, though, I seemed to get off the route I had scouted, so I just tried to head east and south. Even without a compass, that’s pretty easy in a place like Arizona, where most streets are either north-south or east-west. In the morning, either you’re squinting into the sun, or it’s hitting the side of your face, sneaking past the edges of your sunglasses.

I thought I was in the desert, not Florida! Everywhere I turned there was water in the Phoenix area. This was in Sun City, shortly after heading out. Click on image to enlarge.

31 March 2011 (posted a day later, from Superior, AZ). I left my WarmShowers hosts late morning, after catching up on blogs and making some lodging arrangements. It was nice to relax a bit. Larry had provided me with detailed instructions for getting on my way.

Whenever I’m in an arid area, I love to look at how adaptation to the climate is handled. The dockside homes above are a particularly bad example of climate-responsive design. But I did see lots of features that made sense, such as low-water landscaping (xeriscaping). The multicolor stone mulches add a bit of color!