Desert Camp Day 4 - The Fort / Patagonia

Click below for today's route and ride stats:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/160219617

Had a bit of a coughing fit last night.  Tighness in the chest following the ride yesterday followed by coughing though dinner and throught the night.  Although the numberrs were unimpressive from yesterday, I rode almost the whole day solo and felt I probably worked a bit too hard and definitely wanted to slack it back for today's ride. 

Today's ride traveled back toward the way we came last Sunday from Tucson, except we would be traveling through an active military base, Fort Huachuca, which is just about six miles out of Sierra Vista.  IDs were required at the gate, and unfortunately our Aussie and Canadian companions were not permitted on the base, so they were required to ride an alternative route around it.

I started off with Steve again today and advised him I was definitely taking it easy to avoid aggrivating the resperitory distress I was experiencing.  We later met up with Rob and the three of us hung in proximity for the first part of the day. 

The Fort was pretty busy with traffic and whatnot, and there wasn't anything too special to take note of per se, just pretty much looked like any other town, just a lot of cammo and such.  Upon leaving the fort, which was at the base of another mountain, we did have a lot of tight steep rollers which offered a good time.  The terrain gave way to hilly to rolling prairie as we turned left, up, right and then down.  Sunny again all day, so temps were quite pleasant in the mid 50s in the mid morning.  The roads were also pretty desolate so we essentially had it all to ourselves.

By mile 37, we reached the town of Sonoita, where there was a rest stop which doubled as our lunch spot as well.  Today, the optional extension of the route continued to the west for 12.5 miles to the town of Patagonia.  There, it was an about face and back to lunch in the same spot.  Now the "fun" part of the extension was that Patagonia was about 800 feet below our current location in Sonoita, so there was an easy as you please continual downhill of 1 to 2 percent grade to the bottom and an equal climb back out to the top of the hill.

Steve and I averaged about 26 mph on the way down, in about 28 minutes.  Steve took off up the hill like a man posessed.  I didn't have a choice, so I just marked two riders in front of me and hung on.  It took me just under an hour to get back to the top, exactly twice the time and half the speed of the way down.  Fair enough.

When I reached the top, it was one of my favorite PAC Tour lunches, grilled cheese with tomato.  The sun was finally getting warm enough that I was able to shed my leg warmers and wind shell.  I kept lunch short as I was continuing to cough and was not feeling well overall.  Wanted to keep moving to get back and see if I could get some rest in before dinner. 

I got back on the road and head back east toward Whetstone rather than going back through the Fort which cut our some of the hills.  I was moving steadily but slowly.  A few miles outside of Whetstone I look back in my mirror and see a rider dotting the horizon.  I surmized it must be Steve trying to reel me in ... so I hammered for a few miles to keep him at bay.  As I approached the final turn to Sierra Vista, and our now regular Shell station, I needed to stop.  I reached the stop light just before Steve caught me and turned past.  Slugged a Red Bull and got back on the road with a slight tailwind back to SV. 

When I got back into town, I stopped for the obligatory Reeses Blizzard.  After a hot shower, I climbed into bed feeling like total crap.  I popped 3 ibuprophen, knowing I had a fever.  This is not looking good!.