Day 12: Wednesday, 03/16/16, Tombstone, AZ to Douglas, AZ

Day 12 distance: 50 miles

Total miles:  637 miles

Elevation gain: 2411 feet

Map of today's ride:

 I dislike being redundant when summarizing the day's riding conditions except when those conditions are beautiful weather like we have had for nine straight days. One slight difference today was that when we left Tombstone this morning, it was already warm enough that I only wore arm warmers for about 5 miles before taking them off and finishing the day's ride in short sleeves. It currently is a very pleasant 79 degrees in Douglas. As you can see in the map above, Douglas is very close to the Mexican border, only one mile away from the Gadsden Hotel where we are spending the night. I blogged last year about the historic Gadsden Hotel, so if you would like information about it, please click the link to last year's blog at the end of today's post.

The ride today was definitely split in two half's as far as difficulty. The first half included a grade about 10 miles long with the lower part only in the 2-3% range, but the last five miles were a steady 5-7%. At the summit of the climb, we reached the highest elevation of this C2C, 5,982 feet. We rode through a tunnel just after the summit on our descent into Bisbee, Arizona. After leaving Bisbee, the 25 mile ride to Douglas had a slight downhill grade most all the way, making for a speedy ride. An excellent way to conclude the ride!

After leaving the motel this morning, we rode through the main street of Tombstone, Arizona.

The famous Tombstone Bird Cage Theater operated as a saloon, gambling hall, theater, and brothel from 1881 -1889 during the height of the silver boom.

I happened upon a man who called himself Johnny Bones as I was leaving Tombstone. Turns out Mr. Bones is a Tombstone entertainer. I should have guessed by his outfit! However, he was happy to pose for a picture at no charge.

 I just checked and this same scene is in last year's blog, taken a few miles outside of Tombstone on Highway 80. However, last year the sky was not nearly as nice and blue as today.

I snapped this picture just as we were starting the last steep ascent of our climb up the grade before Bisbee today. The contrast of the green shades caught my eye.

There were a lot of rocky outcroppings as we approached the top of today's climb.

This picture was taken of the entrance to the tunnel we rode through, a couple hundred yards beyond the summit elevation of almost 6000 feet. If not for the tunnel, we would have had to do more climbing to get over the mountain.

This is The Inn at Castle Rock in Bisbee. There are a lot of interesting structures in Bisbee. Bisbee is an old copper mining town that is built right into the hillside of a mountain. It is now a tourist destination and is full of what I would call artsy and eclectic type shops.

Space to build is at a premium in Bisbee.

The Bisbee Bicycle Brothel is a well know vintage bicycle shop in Bisbee that just reopened in a new location after being closed for a couple years. A lot of this year's coasters stopped in to browse.

Inside The Bicycle Brothel.

Copper mining led to the growth of the town of Bisbee. This is a view of one of the open pit mines. Check out the link about the Copper Queen Mine for more information about the history of Bisbee and mining.

A view of a cattle ranch a few miles outside Douglas, Arizona.

Our rider meeting was held tonight before dinner in the lobby of the Gadsden Hotel.

Tonight's dinner was provided by the Gadsden Hotel. Two days ago we all chose between butterfly shrimp, ribs, beef fajitas, or tilapia. The food was very good.

LINK to Day 12 of my 2015 C2C blog.