So Saturday morning we woke up bright and early (5:00am), and got our gear together and hit the road.  The ride was going well, we stopped in the Town of Oracle to refill our water bottles, stretch and use the bathroom, then got back on the bikes.  We went down through San Manuel, past their airport, town hall, fire department, and out the other side of the town.  About five miles later we made a sudden left turn, crossed a cattle guard and saw a sign, “Pavement Ends”.  Woops.  Neither of us had actually been on the roads we were riding!  I looked down at my bike computer, saw it read 51 miles, so I told Bill, “Well, looks like we’re headed home”.  We turned around and felt a slight breeze in our face, which felt nice; it was already about 85 degrees outside.  As we turned back onto Oracle and started the long climb out of San Manuel and into the Town of Oracle, we realized it wasn’t a slight breeze but a full on wind in our faces. 

We road the next 45 miles with one of the strongest headwinds I’ve ever had the displeasure of riding in.  Normally, down Oracle, we ride about 26-28MPH.  This headwind was slowing us to 16MPH!  We finally pulled in right around noon, after 6.5 hours on the bike, totally exhausted.  We both promptly fell onto a couch and passed out.

Here’s the route we took: http://www.mapmyride.com/route/us/az/tucson/278127351979842015 compared to the route we wanted to take: http://www.mapmyride.com/route/us/az/tucson/487127326521218087