Day 10 - Tonto Basin to Globe AZ

51 miles with 4,876 feet of climb

For an added benefit, we are entering uGoathead Thorn country. These little thorny plants are known tire killers. While yesterday we had a rolling long upward ascent, today we had one primary climb that was over 2,000 feet. Overall, we had 4,879 feet of climb.

The day started misty and rain was expected around the time would be starting the big climb of the day. Rain gear was the name of the game. We traveled along Roosevelt Lake for a while and it had a real beauty on a cloudy morning with the mountain tops in the distance shrouded in mist. Kathy saw some wild boars cross the road.

The climb itself was unrelenting with the grade getting steeper as we climbed. If I thought yesterday’s climbs were hard, this one single climb was worse. It started with a series of small climbs, but by mile 30, it was one six mile climb with an up to a 12% grade in places. It was also starting to mist. At the beginning of the ride, we could see the surrounding misty mountains, but it really wasn’t wet riding - yet. It started to get wetter and wetter, but not full-on rain. The climb itself was unrelenting. It grew progressively harder and wetter. I was riding by myself, but I could see people ahead of me and I knew who was behind me. I wanted to stop, but I didn’t. I felt like if I did stop while climbing, I wouldn’t get on my bike again, so I dug deep and continued to climb. I had every song I knew about roads running through my head, even kid songs. I felt like Thomas the Tank Engine. I couldn’t stop thinking about “the wheels on the bus go round and round…” and kept wondering why the bear went over the mountain. The Grateful Dead’s song “Casey Jones” kept me going for a while “Driving that train, high on Cocaine, Casey better watch your speed…” I climbed and climbed, grinding out the miles. As I gained altitude (we were already in the mountains) the wind got more biting. I ended doing the stretch without stopping once. I owned that climb. As a reward, I put on my heavier rain jacket.

Downhill, when there was some, was wet asphalt, encouraging slow descents. The riders ended up getting split apart. Shirley had a flat going downhill that took a while to repair. Fortunately, Dennis happened by with the van to help out fixing it.

When we were getting near Globe, and it was beginning to rain harder, Harris and I decided to see if we could get hot chocolate at a little Mexican place along the highway. We were able to put our bikes inside a doorway and lock them. They didn’t have hot chocolate, but they did have coffee and we ended staying there for lunch.

As a result of our dalliance, we were the last ones in for the day. We had two campsites for the group and what was left was farthest away from the trailer where our stuff was. We had to hike about 100 yards to the site, but our consolation was it was closer to the bathrooms and showers. There was also laundry available at $2.25 a load and $2.00 to dry. We had dinner in the rain. After our map meeting outlining the challenges for tomorrow, James and I shared a load of laundry and dried our clothes. Normally, I line dry my riding clothes, but that wasn’t practical.

As I write this I am in my tent and there is driving rain and thunder. I hope it ends before tomorrow morning and we can have a rain-free day. Packing a wet tent is never fun, but that’s the reality.

On my Surly

Day 10 stats

Dinner

In search of hot chocolate

Lunch out of the rain

Dennis, a fearless leader