Southeastern, AZ - BAC Beyond Saguaros - Tucson Bisbee Tour

Elgin, AZ - April 2012

A Bit of Trip History

We did our first Southeastern Arizona bicycle tour in March of 2008 with Adventure Cycling. That trip started southeast of Tucson at an RV Park. The trip took us south to Patagonia via Sonoita, east to Tombstone, south to Bisbee (2 nights), back to Tombstone and ended in Bension where we shuttled back to the RV Park where we started.

We really enjoyed this five days of riding but thought the trip could be made into a complete loop starting and ending in Tucson.

In March of 2009 Jim Abel and Graham Fleming led a Bicycle Adventure Club trip starting in Amado, AZ and finished in Tucson. In early 2012 we contacted Jim and he gave us premission to take over the trip and modify it to start and end in Tucson.

In April of 2012 we set out on a self supported credit card scouting trip of our revised loop. We made reservations at some of the hotels from the 2009 trip. We planned overnights in Amado, Patagonia, Sierra Vista, Bisbee and Sonoita. The complete loop is approximately 300 miles. This gave us a chance to actually scout the main loop and check out all the lodging and dining options. We used our Garmin 705 to track all the routes which we used later to revise the daily route cues.

The scouting trip was preparation and planning for a new Bicycle Adventure Club trip in early spring 2013. The trip now includes 9 nights lodging and 8 days of cycling. We have layover days in Amado and Bisbee. We are offering two routes from Tucson to Amado that have opportunities to visit the San Xavier Mission and the Titan Missile Museum. For the Amado layover day we have three optional out and back routes to Whipple Observatory on Mt Hopkins, Tumacacori/Tubac and Arivaca. The transfer day from Amado takes us south to Rio Rico along the Santa Cruz River and east on South RIver Road to AZ-82 and northest to Patagonia. From Patogonia we will ride through the Sonoita/Elgin Wine Region and Fort Huachuca to Sierra Vista. From Sierra Vista to Bisbee we have two route choices. The most direct route takes us by San Pedro House and the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area with an opportunity to visit, hike and enjoy the bird preserve. For the Bisbee layover day we have two loop routes, the shorter to Naco and the longer to Douglas.

We will be in Bisbee for the weekend and for those who don't have the urge for more miles, there is plenty to do such as Copper Queen Mine Tour, Mining Museum, shopping or the Bisbee Steps Walking Tour. From Bisbee we head north to "The Town too Tough to Die" Historic Tombstone. Our route takes us down Old Tombstone's Allen Street towards the OK Corral. If you didn't do a mine tour in Bisbee, you will have a second chance at the Good Enough Mine at 5th & Toughnut St. There is also the World's Largest Rose Bush, or take in a gunfight at the OK Corral. Don't stay too long because there is quite a bit of ride remainig to the wine country of Sonoita. Our final day's ride returns us to Tucson along the northern edge of Davis Monthan Air Force Base (the airplane boneyard) and the Aviation Bikeway to Downtown.

 


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