1/19/2026, 46.65 mi, 5:05 hr: min, 2917 ft. vertical
The Patagonia 50 extends the 30-mile loop south to the Mexico border, riding through the Patagonia Mountains and down into the San Rafael Valley. This valley was used by the first European explorers to enter what is now the United States, west of the Rocky Mountains. It looks much the same as it did in 1539, all grassland. Most other areas in Patagonia are being encroached upon by Mesquite trees. According to Google, in Southern Arizona, the transition from open grasslands to mesquite-dominated shrublands is a complex ecological shift. While it might seem like a simple case of trees moving in, it is actually the result of several human and environmental factors, primarily fire suppression, livestock grazing, and climate shifts, working in tandem over the last 150 years.
The valley soil has a high clay content, which makes a superb riding surface when dry, but as we were warned, it becomes “death mud” when wet.
01/18/2026, 28.8 mi, 2:57 hr: min, 1719 ft. vertical
After a two-day drive down from Fort Collins, Colorado, we pulled into Patagonia, Airzona after dark. We set up camp at Terra Sol, which is a backpacker vibe campground with a kitchen, hot shower, and heated bathrooms. The Terra Sol amenities, combined with the propane heater in our tent and four-inch thick sleeping pads, made a plush base camp setup.
It took most of the morning to settle in, so we selected the Patagona 30 mile route for our first ride. It starts with a gentle climb for the first 15 miles, then loops back mostly downhill on the way back, lollipop style. Easy gravel, no wind to speak of, clear blue skies, and temperatures in the 60s. Perfect for shorts and a thin long sleeve hoody. We prepared our bikes that evening with the goal of an earlier start the next day.
November 22-24, 2025 90.9 miles, 6591 ft. elev gain
The White Rim Trail (link) is a classic mountain bike ride in Moab, UT. I know this for a fact, since Lisa and I first rode it in 1988 – 37 years ago. We chose a clockwise direction over three days, mostly because of camping permits. In this direction, it also has a net descent of 800 ft from rim to rim, which is a bonus.
Day 0. John Raguse and I left Fort Collins at 10 am for the 6 1/2 hour drive to Canyonlands National Park in Utah. Remarkably, I-70 was clear of snow, the result of a 23% of normal snow pack.
After a quick stop in Grand Junction to refuel, we were on our way, making it to Horsethief campground with a 1/2 hour of daylight to spare. Brendan and Abby arrived a 1/2 hour before us and got a campsite – there were plenty.
Day 1. Started out slow, to let the frost clear from the tents – a theme repeated for the rest of the trip. After transferring gear to Brendan’s Tundra and dropping off my truck at the Overloop parking lot, we were off at 10 am. I drove down Schafer so I could take video, and started my ride about 10 miles in.
After a short stop at Musselman Arch, we continued on, making it to Gooseberry campsite by 2 PM, leaving plenty of time to set up the big tent, cook dinner, and get the propane heater going before sunset. With clear skies, the temperatures drop into the 30s quickly. Running on low, the heater easily kept the tent in the 60s.
Day 2. At 38 miles, it was 10 miles longer than the first day. We spent an hour or so checking out Holman slot canyon, and it took a while to push our bikes up the Hogback, so we did not make it to camp until 3pm. Luckily, the day was warm – in the 60s – and we had plenty of time to set up camp. Are a smaller portion of steak, rice, and salad, it was back to the tent to avoid the cold. A short trip outside to take photos of the stars and into the sleeping bags by 8 PM. I sleep so well camping, it must be the exercise, cool temperatures, and a clear mind.
Day 3. It was only 15 miles to the top of the canyon, and I drove all but the first 6 miles. “I have to fly my drone” was my excuse. It worked, and I avoided the big climb out on Mineral Bottom Road, just saying. I will mention that the climb up and out of the Potato Bottom Basin was just as technical and tight as Murphy Hogback – Brendan drove this section.
Mountains to Coast (link) is a supported ride where your gear gets transports from campsite to campsite, gpx routes are published, sags are arranged, and evening entertainment is available. Three hundred ninety seven miles and nearly 19,000 feet of vertical is a good test for future bike tours, since that averages out to 66 miles and 3150 feet of climbing per day.
Day 1 – Lake Lure to Lincolnton – 70.23 miles / +4436 elev. gain Day 2 – Lincolnton to Kannapolis – 63.99 miles / +2831 elev. gain Day 3 – Kannapolis to Asheboro – 64.70 miles / +3980 elev. gain Day 4 – Asheboro to Fuquay-Varina – 75.93 miles / +4236 elev. gain Day 5 – Fuquay-Varina to Goldsboro – 663.55 miles / +2139 elev. gain Day 6 – Goldsboro to Wallace – 58.38 miles / +1283 elev. gain Total – Lake Lure to Wallace – 397 miles / +18,905 elev. gain
Day 0.
We totally underestimated the drive time from Nashville to Lake Lure and ended up arriving mid afternoon instead of noon as we planned. Nonetheless, we had an hour to spare before before check-in ended. After getting the truck to the long-term parking field and the tent setup we had happy hour with our Davis Phinney (DPF) crew. Since DPF, is a non profit supporting people with Parkinsons, PWP in PD slang I started eyeing everyone trying to figure out who else had PD; turns out it was me, myself, and I. The biggest worry for the day was where to find a decent cup of coffee tomorrow morning. Fortunately the venue was at the posh Club Wyndham Resort, complete with a Starbucks, bar and restaurant. It’s hard to believe that Lake Lure was devastated by Hurricane Helene last fall. Cleanup efforts, which includes lowering the lake to remove over 1 million cubic yards of debris and sediment is still underway, with a targeted reopening date of May 1, 2026.
Day 1. Lake Lure to Lincolnton – 70.23 miles / +4436 elev. gain (Strava)
Day 1 started with a steep climb out of Lake Lure and the continued up and down for the rest of the day. The police did an excellent job stopping traffic at busy intersections and while the roads had little to no shoulder there was enough of us – nearly 700 riders – that cars could not help but see us. Sags were well timed and stocked, clearly this was not M2C’s first rodeo. The highlight of the day was the Muscadines sag. Muscadines native to the southeast and are typically used in making artisan wines, juice, hull pie and jelly, or so my google search tells me. I can tell you they are large, have a thick skin and bunch of seeds inside. They do taste good and we could eat as many as we wanted,
Day 2 – Lincolnton to Kannapolis – 63.99 miles / +2831 elev. gain
After the obligatory team photo and stop for good coffee, we were off. I thought I would be writing in my journal every night but the daily routine consists of up at 6 am, packup camp, load gear on U-Haul, caffeinate, leave between 7:30 and 8, ride until 1:30 to 2:30. Setup camp, shower, attend happy hour between 4-5, find and eat dinner from 5-6, start winding down at 7, asleep by 8 or 9PM. The routine works well for me. The highlight was camping in the center of the University of Nort Carolina Campus.
Day 3 – Kannapolis to Asheboro – 64.70 miles / +3980 elev. gain
We woke up to heavy fog, which made for a wet tent. I am sure I saw lots of interesting stuff, but since I did not write it down I will never know for sure. I do remember the stopping point was at the top of a 17% grade hill – hard to forget that.
Day 4 – Asheboro to Fuquay-Varina – 75.93 miles / +4236 elev. gain
Same as the day before. Luckily, I found tall Ben with 30 miles to go and we rode in together. Listening to all his bike tour stories, made the miles go by faster, since I was starting to drag after riding too hard the first few days. Oh we found a millipede in the tent when we were packing up. I guess he was keeping the daddy longlegs we kept finding company. I forgot how many crawly bugs there are in the East. No mosquitoes or gnats, which I found kind of surprising.
Day 5 – Fuquay-Varina to Goldsboro – 63.55 miles / +2139 elev. gain
Rinse and repeat of the day before, expect we are solidly out of the mountains. I do remember helping polish off a bottle of wine at happy hour.
Day 6 – Goldsboro to Wallace – 58.38 miles / +1283 elev. gain
Flat. No head wind. Lots of sandy soil, barking dogs, and peanut fields. The low light was the final day from Wallace to the coast was canceled, due to an approaching Nor’easter and threats of 4-5 inches of rain, 30 mph winds, and gusts above 40. We ended up taking an empty hotel room, from a friend of the group that was heading home. Big mistake, I will say no more on the topic. Should have, would have, could have stayed in the tent, since the rain had not started yet when we woke up.
Day 7 – Bus ride back to Lake Lure and drive from Lake Lure to Knoxville saw us arriving at 7PM. Overall, a good introduction to multi-day bike trips. Most likely will not do another Mountains To Coast. We invaded a bunch of small towns with 700 cyclists each day, which meant scrambling for meals and such a little challenging. I think future trips will be limited to just us a few close friends on self-designed tracks.
On a final note, there were many interesting bikes, and one old school mountain bike that was always finding it’s way to the sags before me.
Lisa and I decided to break up the drive from Milwaukee to Lake Lure, North Carolina with a ride. Since southern Illinois was on the way and I knew of the from my days living in Kentucky we picked a Strava route of reasonable length, “A shawnee gravel expedition from eddyville.” I will save you the suspense, do not use this route! It started out as a typical gravel ride, chipseal reads, fast gravel and such. However, about 20 miles in, the track turned right past a closed gate. We were in the National Forest, no cell service, and the map on my Garmin showed the map we were on just looping back on it’s self. So past the gate we went. Pretty quickly the double track degraded into single track, then to a unused hiking trail and finally into an abandoned logging road. The track on the garmin did show it connecting back onto a main road and we did not want to backtrack so we continued on. When the logging road hit a creek crossing, I said enough. Looked at the map and saw we were only a few hundred feet from a rail road. So we beelined it to the rail road and started the very bumpy 2 mile ride to a paved road. Somewhere along the way the bumping must of activated the SOS feature on the iPhone, or maybe my Apple watch. Anyway, when I got to road and pulled out my phone I saw several text messages from a 911 operator telling me that help way on the way. After calling off the rescue, we were back on our way. Other than the type 2 fun in the middle, the ride was pretty good! Moral of the story is precheck any new courses, before uploading them to your navigation device.
Our first international bike trip! In an attempt to balance cost and departure times we flew Southwest from Denver to Chicago and Scandinavian Airlines from Chicago to Palma, Spain with a layover in Copenhagen, each way. Not sure if it made any difference, it’s still 5,300 miles and many time zones away.
In any case, we stayed at the Club del Sol Resort & Spa just outside Port de Pollenca. It’s a short 10 min bike ride from town, has bike storage, and a bus stop right at the entrance. One bedroom and a small kitchen, after two weeks there I was thinking, “I could live here”.
Day 1, April 19th, 48.18 miles / 1,353 elev. gain
Stretching our legs, after a long day of travel.
Day 2, April 20th, 52.65 / 3,264 elev. gain
3 Hills Loop – Santa Magdalena – Sant Llucia – Sa Batalla. We started by riding through Pollenca and climbed the Col de Femenia, 5.6 miles / 1,500 feet elev. gain / 5% on perfect pavement. The route passed Luuc, past the “Garage” at the top of Sa Calobra, folled by a long descent out of the Serra de Tramuntana range. From there we rode over to the short but steep climb up the Puig de Santa Llucia. From there the route directed us over to Santa Magdalena, the third climb of the day, but we were still a little jet lagged and by passed that.
Day 3, April 21st, 29.47 miles / 2,816 elev. gain
After sleeping in we chose the famous Lighthouse route out to Cape Formentor and back. Some say, “pound for pound”, the best bike ride in the world. I would not argue too much with that. I don’t have the skills to describe it, so I would suggest looking at the many YouTube videos.
Day 4, April 22nd, 75.25 miles / 3,230 elev. gain
We decided to head south that day and rode through many miles of farmland on small roads paved roads between fields, with very little traffic.
Day 5, April 23rd, Rest Day
After a long day of travel and four days of riding, we needed a break. So we took the bus into Pollenca and discovered Agromart. It’s a local farm Co-op with a number of stores spread across the island. I would compare it to the best of what Whole Foods offers in the US, but that would not due it justice.
Realizing we did not have the legs, or desire to do the 100 mile loop to ride some of the famous climbs in the Tramuntana Mountains we hired a taxi to ferry us one way to the town of Bunyola. from there it was a short ride north to the Coll de Soller. A tunnel goes through the mountain, so the climb is mostly absent of cars. At 4.7 miles / 1100 feet and a gentle 4.4% grade it is casual, but stunning. From there we rode some very busy roads through Soller and up Pug de Major. At 8.9 miles and 2700 feet of climbing at a steady 6-7% grade it felt like Colorado, but with more oxygen. It was here where I realized how slow I ride. After a 100 bikes passed me I heard music behind be approaching at decent clip. I thought how rude to be blaring music with the windows down. No, No it was a group of 4 early 20’s riders with a boom-box blaring techno music. The passed me like was cycling backwards and were quickly out of sight and sound. Nearing the top I noticed a rider I was actually gaining on. I applied all the watts I could muster and bridged to him like the fast turtle I am. What I found was a guy in his 60’s – I guess – on what I believe was a 3-speed beach cruiser. He even had flat pedal and sandals. From there we rode the top of the range back to Lluc, down the Col de Femenia and back to the condo. We stopped at Lluc for food and sat beside a historic drinking water trough dating to 1589 is located in the main square. It was originally built for the animals of pilgrims arriving at the monastery on horseback and is still operational.
Day 8, April 26th, 31.04 miles /3,280 elev. gain
With the trip winding down we chose Cape Formentor again as our final ride. It is relatively short and this time we added on a short but steep climb at the end to the Albercutx Watchtower. This time around we paid for some photo’s of us and they are worth every penny.
With a total of 360.3 miles / 20,962 elev. gain in a week of riding this was a stunning success for our first bike trip out of the US. The airfare was reasonable, the lodging was less expensive than the US, we had kitchen and cooked many of our own meals. I could totally see us doing a few of these trips a year. On a personal note, being 4 month post a 2 level ACDF cervical spine surgery, I can report that all my body parts still work, and my neck and shoulders did not hurt much more than the rest of my body. Also, while there is no doubt I have Parkinson’s Disease I flew back realizing my life was not over yet. Now all I have to do convince myself to stop working, so I have more time for bike trips.
