DAY 8: 9/27 Scottsdale, AZ to Punkin Center, AZ

DAY 8: 9/27/21 Scottsdale, AZ 74 miles to Punkin Center, AZ. 5891’ of climbing! –

We left shortly before 8am with perfect cool riding weather and clouds to shield us from the sun. With the mountains of the Tonto National Forest in the horizon, the day looked promising. 

Leaving Scottsdale

Cactus Rorschach Test: what do you see?

Today’s ride was beautiful. It also was exactly how we pictured the rides in this area given our previous experiences out west. With spectacular scenery and weather to match, it was almost the perfect day - or was it?

The challenge: I was experiencing a collection of 3 minor medical issues that together by the end of the day had me saying to Heather “I’m a bloody mess! At this rate, how is my body going to last?”  

It started with me waking up with blood on my pillow as my lip was cracked and literally a bloody mess. The lip protection I used was no match for the Arizona sun, as well as the wind from riding. It was time to change my protection and in the meantime cycle bandit style.

Ride through Tonto National Forest bandit style 

The second issue, to put it delicately, was that the Chamois Butt’r was not doing its job and I was having some tush troubles. Pretty darn uncomfortable to sit on the bike. Some cyclists enjoy standing on their pedals, especially when climbing. I generally don’t. I usually stand-stretch on downhills by alternating sides to stand up on my pedals to stretch out my calves particularly. Today I needed to focus much more on frequent standing out of the saddle. I also “aired things out at lunch” to try to reduce my rear end woes. 

H and M at lunch stop 

The third issue was the lower parts of both my palms on my thumb side were swollen and by the end of the day puffy. Heather thought a bit blueish. It was worse on my right side as that hand shifts gears more (the rear cassette). At dinner, Heather thought it was bad enough to ice up, but I held off. 

And this was all after a day of rest. It seemed things were catching up with me from too much time in the saddle and on the handlebars. I know when I get tired on the bike, I, like many cyclists, lean on my hands too much to support my upper body. Ideally one should be holding the handlebars very lightly and using their core to support their upper body. So between my tush and my hands, I was concentrating all day on trying to be light of hands and light of rear end! There are three points where body meets the bike and in two out of three, the bike was grinding me down. At least for now in the third area, the feet, I was ok. I had some cramping in my right foot last week, and my feet were swollen on the high heat days, but it hadn’t persisted. 

Around midday, as Heather caught up to me from afar, she could see me off my bike, with one knee on the ground and I was bent over low to the ground. She yelled to me with worry “Are you okay?” I replied “Yes I’m great. I just had to stop and study this butterfly.” It was kind of stuck to the ground in the middle of the shoulder of the road. In the week prior to our departure, we heard a sermon about Monarch butterflies that has me semi-infatuated and intrigued with their inter-generational “programmed” flight of return. (I suppose both fortuitous and subconsciously appropriate to be enraptured by the ultimate symbol of metamorphosis just 4 days before embarking on this shifting of gears journey.) I had to get down close to see if this butterfly was a Monarch. 

Stop to smell the roses means much more than smelling roses. 

This was our second hardest day of climbing and we started to feel it by midday. 

Heather on the ascent

We arrived at what I could only describe as a scene from a movie - a motel and a short walk away the restaurant bar where we would eat dinner.  

Punkin Center Lodge

Michelle, our server at the bar, had a smile with wattage that would light up a ballroom. It was hard to imagine a more perfect setting to capture the essence of a western, one-bar, super tiny town. For some reason, it reminded me of being in a poker room near Henderson, Nevada in the summer of 1985 and playing cards with a guy named Shorty before Henderson changed under the explosive growth of nearby Las Vegas.

Punkin Center Bar

Not to be misunderstood, my issues of cracked lips, saddle sores and hand swelling are not complaints! I was loving the day! But I was growing to a new understanding of how this experience might unfold. More about that in a future blog. 

Just before dinner I emailed my dermatologist, Dr. Ansell, about my saddle sores to seek her advice. I described the issues. I offered to send a photo while wondering can I get arrested for sending pix of my rear end over the internet. I asked specifically about various creams that I had and one that Heather had, or if I needed a prescription for something else. She was amazing in replying quickly and it was after 9pm on her east coast time. She decided - tonight I’d sleep like a baby, Desitin for diaper rash was the decision to try first! 

PS She said no photos needed. :)

© Copyright Mark Segal 2021.