Day 50: Globe to Tonto Basin

April 5, 2025

It was nice to get off us US-70 onto AZ-188.

Typical road and scenery. The road was low traffic and the riding nice. The shoulder and roadway were o.k. The scenery was Wonderfull and speaks for itself. The only thing that marred the day was the large number of motorcyclists. There cycles were very loud and a number of them refused to give us any space when they passed. It seemed some even sped up to make extra noise.

Theodore Roosevelt Lake in the background.

At the Punkin Center Lodge, our hotel for the night. It looked like a fun way to cruise these roads.

Punkin Center Lodge (Dive) Bar, where we ate lunch. I ate their burger special, which was indeed worth crossing a creek for as advertised. Ethan got one too.

We saw caravans of these during the day.

7I went to bed at about 10 and woke up about 5:15 and couldn't really get back to sleep as I had a headache that turned into a migraine. I got up about 6:00 to start getting ready as I had to get breakfast ready. I went down at about 6:30, but JW was already boiling water and JG and BD had already set up breakfast. That was very nice of them. There were a few things to get ready, but not many. So, I made my breakfast and started eating. I had the usual and made a ham and swiss sandwich for lunch. I took a few bars some string cheese, and a couple clementines. We started putting away breakfast at 7:30, as per the usual rule. We had lots of people help, which is one really great thing about this group. I helped JG get bikes off the roof. We left JW's and JF's bikes up there as they wanted to go back to where they started and do those extra 8 miles. JW, JF, JE and SR are the only people who have, as yet, ridden EFI. The map meeting was at 7:45, and JG agreed to meet us at about mile 25 in Roosevelt. We thought we might beat him there as he had to take the EFI guys, return get the trailer, and I think do some maintenance on his own bike. So, we carried our lunches with us.

We ended up leaving about 8:30. By then it was not too cold. I wore tights, a long-sleeve shirt, my vest, and thick wool socks. I left the toe covers on my shoes, but probably didn't need them. I think it was in the upper 40s when we left, but was not supposed to get out of the 60s. I packed my Canari rain jacket because there was some rain in the forecast. SR rode with us again.

We took US-70 through Globe. It was Saturday morning so there wasn't too much traffic. We took a whole lane through most of town. Outside of town we turned onto AZ-188. The pavement wasn't great, but was o.k. We rode on the roadway and shoulder, depending on traffic and the roughness of the latter. There wasn't much traffic, except that there were reasonably large number of motorcycles. They were loud and far too many of them didn't give us an adequate distance when they passed. There was some headwind, but it wasn't too bad.

At mile 13 we started the big climb for the day. We gained 800 feet in 4 miles. My rear brake started dragging, so we stopped briefly to stop that. In all, except that my legs were dead an I wanted to try too save them for tomorrow, it was a nice climb. The gradients were way less than indicated on my Karoo (and in RWGPS). It almost seemed like the elevation data they used was from before the road was installed. That was a nice surprise that continued throughout the day.

The payback for all that climbing was a 5-mile 1500 foot descent. The road was nice and wide so we could ride in the roadway most of the time. The curves were sweeping and we didn't have to use breaks at all. Ethan pulled away a little and went up to 38 mph. I think my max was. about 36. I think it would have been higher except that there was some headwind. It was definitely Type 1 fun. The views on the downhill were spectacular. There were lots of Saguaro and views of the surrounding mountains and Lake Theodore Roosevelt.

We kept riding until we got to the town of Roosevelt. There was a small grocery store there and no van yet. So, Ethan and I each got a Gatorade electrolyte replacement. He got an ice cream bar and I got some Reeses pieces. BW was also there and got coffee. The van arrived not to long after and I filled my second water bottle and we set off.

We stopped a few times on the rest of the ride to take some pictures, change gear, answer the call of nature, and eat a quick snack. The ride was very nice except for the aforementioned motorcycles. We got to the Punkin Center Lodge, our hotel (yes, 2 nights in a row!) for the night, at about 12:45. BW caught up with us just outside of town as we were taking pictures, etc, and we rode in together. We decided to eat lunch at the Bar at the hotel. It was a true dive bar. I got a very good hamburger and a house salad. As we were eating JG arrived with the van. So, when we were done we got our stuff from the van and went to our rooms. It was nice to be in so early and not to have to deal with tents.

In the afternoon I waxed both of our chains. Ethan helped BW change his tire, which had a slow leak yesterday. It was tubeless and he put on a new one. It went very smoothly and BW was very thankful. He found a wire and 2 thorns in his tire. It is amazing that he rode the whole day with them with no leak. He also helped JW find 2 wires and 2 thorns in his tire which had been causing to have frequent flats. BD thanked me for bringing Ethan on the trip and said it was great to talk with him. It has indeed been great riding with him and has brought me a lot of joy.

JF and DS did the cooking. The made a vegetable barley soup that was very good. I added some cheese, Kalamata olives, cheese, and chipotle Chalupa to it. It was very filling and good.

This evening I caught up on the journal. I didn't have time yesterday, and I struggled a bit uploading pictures as the internet isn't great here. Also, I got some pictures from Ethan and they were Live Photos and Cycleblazed doesn't deal well with those.

I mentioned that the elevation at seemed to be quite a bit off. RWGPS predicted 3700 feet of climbing and the route on Ethan's Karoo said over 5000 feet (I didn't check mine). It ended up being 2300. I rested my legs, averaging 89 watts (maybe partly because of that big downhill). I hope they feel good for tomorrow as we have 84 miles to get to Mesa with almost 6000 feet of climbing. Most of that is early in the ride. We all hope that the elevation predictions are overestimates as they were today. The following day is a rest day, so I don't plan to try to save my legs. The wind looks as if it will be light. The temperature at start will be similar to today and warmer when we get to Mesa. Ethan leaves on Monday morning for the Sea Otter Classic, so this will be my last ride with him on this trip. I am really looking forward to it. I am also looking forward to the last day off. After tomorrow there are only 7 more days of riding!

Today's ride: 53 miles (85 km)
Total: 2,548 miles (4,101 km)

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