Crossing the Old West

Dwight and I have had a great ride across an area of Arizona that is
about as old west as can still be found. We departed Tucson for good
on Friday morning and headed south east along the Old Spanish Trail,
which took us to Colossal caverns. We have decided to take it a little
easier and see more of the sites.

The caves were a worthwhile stop. We signed up for the tour after a
lunch of peanut butter on bagels. Our guide, Travis, let us stash our
bikes behind their office. He then took us through an amazing cavern
system with several features that I hadn't seen before. There were
several formations of cave ice, a layer of sediment that forms and
solidifies, then stays suspended when the water leaves.

After the cave we headed back into the mountains toward Sonoita. We
made it about 60 miles total and stopped when we found a flat spot in
the national forest.

The next morning we woke up to see snow covered peaks to our south and
an unknown amount of hills between us and Tombstone. We stopped after
12 miles for some Internet and breakfast. After our break, we turned
east and headed to Tombstone.

Tombstone was the least old west place we went because it tried too
hard to relive the times of Wyatt Earp and the OK Corral. We did feel
like new cowboys riding into town as we pedaled down the middle of the
old historic distric.

After lunch, we decided to keep going the last 22 miles to Bisbee.
It was about 1600 and we expected about an hour and a half of
daylight. The first half was a nice downhill that allowed us to keep a
nice pace. When we got to the bottom of the valley, the bridge over
the creek had an Arizona survey marker that indicated the elevation
was 4624 feet. Six miles later we rolled into Bisbee at 5300 feet. It
was one of the more strenuous sections of our ride.

Bisbee is a great town. It is a lot more what you'd expect out of the
old west because it has allowed itself to evolve while still
maintaining its charm.