I put my bike on the train, then loaded it onto the front of a bus. All to get out of Greater Phoenix. The bike racks on the front of buses are a great innovation, I don't know why we don't have them in UK yet.
In the US everything is so spread out having a bike to get onto once you get off the bus makes life a lot easier. It encourages both bus and bike travel by making them both more convenient and less exhausting.
I rode for a few hours to get away from the residential areas. The scenery is quite different of to the west of Phoenix. The mountains are more solid, there are vertical cliffs and light coloured sandstone pinnacles as opposed the the giant piles of earth and loose rock that have made up the ranges until now.
The scenery was nice but the riding was not. Highway 60 is a freeway out of Phoenix with a very thin and poorly maintained shoulder which periodically disappears as the highway crosses bridges.
Overall the Phoenix valley is not a good place to be a cyclist, despite the Arizona canal cycle path, the bike carrying buses, and the really lovely people I met in the hostel, I was looking forward to not being in Phoenix anymore.
Out of town and into ranching country, I wanted to stop riding and camp up for the night, night riding on this road was not a good option.
The recession came through for me again. A vacant lot up for sale provided me with a chance to slip off the road into the Arizona desert for the night. Surrounded by the cacti and the scrub possibly for the last time in this state got me thinking about desert living.
The best way to get out of trouble in the desert is not to get into trouble in the first place. The best way to do that is to be prepared and to know what you're up against.
These once wild and hostile places have to a large extent been tamed in the modern USA, principally by the well used highways. If you know where the road is and you can get to it you can get help. If you are on the road you are onto a winner, someone will come by and the main thing is to be able to survive till they get to you.
This time of year that's easy enough it's not even really hot. Only warm, like a nice day in British summer time. A few litres of water will see you through a whole day. Shade is not essential but will make you a lot more comfortable. You are more likely to get hypothermia at night than overheated or dehydrated in the day.
In the summer it's a different ball game it reaches 50 degrees C or more. Anybody coming into the desert even in a reliable air conditioned car should tell people where they are going, know how to contact help, carry a lot of water and something to make a shade outside the car. Water, shade and wait on the road side that's all you really need these on the roads I've seen in the US.
But it wasn't always like that here. There are plenty of places in the world where people still visit or live in the desert away from well used roads. To do this you need to be self-reliant. You need to know where your water is coming from. If you don't know how and where to get it, you need to carry it with you. You also need to know how to get out or how to get rescued.
Water is life in the desert, but it is heavy. Hence limiting how much you need can help you to move around more easily. This is especially true if you don't have a vehicle. Then you really feel the weight.
Here are some of the desert living tips I've learnt so far:
1.Cover up. Loose fitting long sleeve clothes keep the sun off you and prevent excessive evaporation of sweat.
2.Wash with sand if it's there. Sand is an excellent abrasive cleaner. All your pot, pans, plates etc can be cleaned with just sand alone. Stubborn sticky residues will shift more quickly if a tiny amount of wet sand is used first, followed by a "rinse" with dry sand. You can clean yourself with sand too if you're actually mucky or oily.
3.Move early and rest in the hot part of the day. Stay in the shade when it's hot, sleep if you can. Travelling at night is a good way to conserve water and to keep warm during the cold nights. The Apache would cover vast distances at night in the desert - up to 75 miles in 24 hours day after day.
4.Drink all the water! When in dusty or gravel soil areas use small amounts water to rinse pots immediately after eating and drink the resulting mixture. Also drink the water you boiled you food in.
5.Eat food. Your body need electrolytes to maintain it's water balance and calories to cope with the extreme conditions. Salt and sugars are particularly important.
6.If things have gone wrong far from help don't ration water from the outset. Even a small amount of dehydration severely affects one's performance. Stay hydrated in the early stages when you will be making most of the crucial decisions that will most likely determine your fate.
7.Carry a straw. Dew and condensation are a lot more common than rain. But make sure the plants the dew is resting on are not poisonous. In a survival situation sleep in a tent with the fly sheet at night, if you have one. This will collect the water vapour lost in your breath as condensation on the inside of the fly. In the morning it can be collected with the straw.
8.Birds: Small seed eating birds like finches cannot survive without liquid water. They will roost by it. They drink water in the morning they fly off to look for food. They may go to water during the day but will also return to water in the evening.
9.Animal: Snakes often hibernate in the winter. At other times sleep away from where you ate. Small mammals are attracted to your food waste, then hunting snakes may accidentally stumble upon you.
Ambush predators like vipers lie in wait for their prey in areas of short cover or piles of dried leaves, look where you put your feet where there is short vegetation.
Larger animals shelter under the shade of trees and bushes in the hot part of the day, this is the most likely place to pick up ticks. Sleep away from trees and bushes at night.
Tomorrow I am leaving the true desert lands for a while as I climb up into the mountains to cross the main divide next week. The desert has been varied and interesting however I'm looking forward to a change of scene.
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