January 15, 2016
Given the choice of riding 130km or spending his birthday exploring Bisbee, Andrew elected to explore this quirky burg.
Facts about the Bisbee 1000
The most unique physical fitness challenge (or friendly fitness walk) in the USA! Bisbee 1000 The Great Stair Climb is the only outdoor stair climb in the U.S. and is arguably one of the most unusual and challenging events in the world. The 4.5-mile course features nine staircases (over 1000 total steps) connected by winding roads, with a total course elevation gain/loss of ~1175 ft. While enjoying the challenge, runners and walkers alike see some of the most scenic parts of Old Bisbee.
What happened…
Amanda writes: Today we took a day off in Bisbee. We knew we were on a tight schedule to get back to San Carlos for our dog sit, but Bisbee was super cool. We took the day off and our host gave us a personal tour and we celebrated Andrew’s birthday.
I am the CFO of this trip and I was really glad that I had budgeted this part of our trip in a special way. While living on the tight budget that we are can be daunting at times, I do still try and allow for special occasions and I’m a big fan of birthday’s. So today Andrew got the special coffee, the pop, the nice dinner complete with his birthday cake all without thought or mention of the costs. Andrew is pretty patient with my endless reminders of our budget so my gift to him today was free reign of the purse strings.
Andrew writes: In years past, we have celebrated Amanda’s birthday by cycling ungodly distances in an attempt to make one another cry. For instance, there was the time in 2007 when I “made” Amanda cycle her first 100km+ ride (130km) in California on her birthday. Oh what fun that was! So rather than subject myself to that possibility, I told Amanda that we weren’t going to be riding today. Instead, David, our Warmshowers host, gave us a tour of the town of Bisbee!
David took us down to the local “free store”, but there wasn’t anything to tempt us into taking, but David found a really cool jewelled scarf that he wore for the tour. Then we set off on Stairway#1 to start the “Bisbee 1000”.
About two hours later, and having climbed more than 1000 stairs, we had explored all of Bisbee including Castle Rock, the Catholic Church, some decorated mini-vans, City Hall, and both the North and South hillsides. Amanda and I were even offered free lunch in the park on the walk home. It’s not that we look homeless (or do we!?), and David said that they serve up a pretty good lunch. We walked in to a bunch of different antique stores in search of….I dunno, something to do I suppose, and finally we enjoyed a fancy $6 coffee and cinnamon bun at the Bisbee Coffee Co. Bisbee really is kinda neat!
The evening was pretty chill, with David showing Amanda how to make steamed pork buns, and there was black forest cake for dessert, which is my favourite. If it wasn’t so cold, and didn’t get dark at 2pm when the sun went below the north mountain horizon I could see myself living in Bisbee. David on the other hand has just lived here for two years and is already planning his next move which sounds like will be to Victoria, Canada. We wish him good luck and great success there!