Today was a day of climbing up two passes into the high desert mountains east of Phoenix, of a little more traffic than we'd expected, and of the land of the big open-pit copper mines. We rode 55 miles and 3,950 vertical ft to end in Globe, AZ which is the center of some of the largest copper mines in north America.
As everyday, it was a day to sing the praises of our fabulous sag drivers: Louisiana Lightning and Texas Tornado, or rather, Carol and Kathleen. These sag queens are superb: they keep track of everyone on the road, serve great lunches, and today even followed several of us through the scary tunnel east of Superior, AZ. Because of the heavier-than-expected traffic and sometimes narrow road, several of us did a little sagging. In good spirits, though, we officially formed "Team WIMP" (see attached photo), and as soon as we were past the nasty part, we got back on our bikes.
The high desert is lovely and lush with dense vegetation of palo verde trees, sahuaro cactus, prickly pear, cholla, and hillsides of bright yellow blooming composite flowers and california poppies. (see attached photos).
