Originally Posted by
pdlamb
I think it was last June when I last rode in Phoenix. There for business, got out early, started on a 50 miles ride around 3:30. 30 minutes later, both water bottles were dry, not a convenience store or gas station in sight. That was after it had cooled off from 116 to 114F.
If you've got to go in the summer, ride early and hibernate in AC after noon.
Phoenix is not on his route...Flagstaff is drastically cooler, like highs in the mid 70s normally in June, if he sticks to the route 66 route. Worrying about drastic heat (or any drastic weather) and trying to time a tour around it seems like a moot point to me given the ever changing short term weather patterns in the US. We hit a cold snap across the desert but if we had delayed our start in CA we would have been met with torrential rains and flooding in CA. The last three days of our tour hit highs in the mid 80s, two days later there was freezing rain in Jacksonville and the lows had dropped into the twenties overnight. There is just no way to plan around it on a long tour, something will always suck weather wise and you will have to persevere.