This route was almost entirely on Historic Hwy 80 where we passed through the famous town of Tombstone for lunch and saw the gunslinger reenactors for the outlaw Earps and Doc Holiday. The route was beautiful with quintessential high elevation desert plateaus. Despite the arid landscape, we caught a view of some stream that supported cottonwood trees. Weather has warmed up so we shed all our jackets and eventually our base layers before the day was over. Although we started in the 40’s, the temperature reached a 75 deg F.
The big challenge of the day was not just 3500 feet of ascent over 57 miles, but a final stretch of 5.5 mile climb to 6000 feet elevation. After that we enjoyed a great descent into the town of Bisbee where we enjoyed the historic streets and a great dinner.
I hope our legs recover because our next two days are 80 miles and a near century ride.
