Bike Packing Black Canyon Trail, Arizona: Day 4 (The Cafe to Emery Henderson)

Day 4 of the road trip.  Day 3 on the trail.   Sunday morning, we woke early and got on over to the cafe for breaky.  While waiting for our food, we assessed the day’s ride, quickly deducing that some local beta we got wasn’t accurate, or that we had misinterpreted what was said.  Considering the drive back to San Diego after biking, a long day was ahead of us.

Back up the way we came the day before, and it wasn’t too long before we came to the trail junction and turned south.  Another glorious day of weather was upon us.  Feeling good, we continued to revel in the beauty of the landscape.

Some fun rock art up top:

Another cactus wren nest in the cholla:

On and on and on, we rode.  Up and over hills and mountains, was the flavor of the day.  Rocks were more prevalent, which was kind of nice.   I did take a fall that could have been disastrous, but luckily I managed to avoid the rocks below.  Hmm?  Should I switch to flat pedals for fat biking?

More photos of the Sonoran desert/mountains of Black Canyon Trail:

Before the last river crossing:

Other than knowing that I’d see my bride when I got home, I was feeling sad at this point.  I didn’t really want to stop pedaling, to leave the trail, to be done camping and building fires at night.  Out there, so to speak, is often where I prefer to be.

Like these guys/gals (?), perhaps:

BCT and me, and you

on bikes, needs hang

in bags, a-dangling

as we go, go, go

Some details:  we rode a 29er hardtail with 2.25 (or thereabouts) tires, a full sus 27.5+ with 3 inch tires, and a rigid fat bike with 4 inch tires.  All were tubeless.  My Marge Lite/Nate conversion using Clown Shoes rim strip held up fine the entire trip.  I didn’t add air once.  No flats for anyone.  No mechanicals.  No bonks.  Water was pretty much a non-issue, though 2 of us finished our supply on day 3 within the final mile of the ride.  While day 1 was easy, days 2 and 3 were more work-horse and strenuous, though I’d not say they were exhausting.