Day 9? (I’m losing count.) Mesa to Tonto, AZ. (Tonto is the name of the Tonto National Forest). Our overnight destination was a little unincorporated area called Punkin Center in the Tonto Basin and the place, was appropriately enough, the Punkin Center Lodge. At least we had a bed.
The ride out of Mesa was fairly flat and we hit the road early, fast and hard. However, the ride was 74.3 miles with 6,437 feet of climb. In essence, we were climbing a mountain. At about mile ten we began to climb, but we really began to climb in earnest at around mile 20. There we’re a few downhill portions, but basically we climbed for 50 miles uphill. The views were breathtaking, there is an unusually robust desert bloom this year and the flowers were out everywhere here in the high desert. We saw wild horses at one point. I would have taken pictures of them, but we were climbing and the shoulder was narrow at that point.
The climb went on and on and on. It took everything I had to continue. This single day was the most elevation gain of the whole trip. The shoulder of the road varied from roughly six feet to no shoulder at all. Some portions were very rough and lots of debris, sand or loose rocks, too.
I have never had to commit my entire focus on one physical task and that was the climb. It was both physically and mentally exhausting. At one point, we came around a bend in the road and while beautiful, showed the road in a wide sweeping curve going, naturally, up. There is a real feeling of accomplishment climbing as much as we did. It wasn’t all up. The last 20 miles were mostly a descent. The shoulders were uniformly rough and jarring. Down meant grabbing tight on the handlebars poised to break or swerve at any moment to avoid a problem. It sounds like it should be fun, like a zip line at a carnival, but it was anything but fun. Half the focus was on watching the road ahead and half of the focus was on controlling the bike. Tense.
There were very limited facilities on this stretch of road and we had to be careful with our water. I carried four water bottles and refilled them at every limited opportunity. During a long downhill portion, both James and I were worried about how much water we had left when we encountered the Sunshine Towing service on the side of the road. A woman with a dune buggy was standing by a gate and James asked her for water. She generously let us fill our water bottles with her well water and was the nicest person in the world to us. It turned out that our van was parked about two miles down the road and we could have filled our water bottles there. It’s easy to get dehydrated and not really even realize it, until it hits you.
It was great to spend the night in a motel room and not have to camp after a climb like this. Tomorrow is also a challenge. It is only 51 miles from the Tonto Basin to Globe (an old mining town), but there is one monster climb. There is a small climb initially , but up to a 12% grade by mile 30. Each day presents a new and different challenge as we wind through the mountains, heading for New Mexico.
Here's the hot spot for the night's stay. I am sharing a room with Dennis, one of our leaders.
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