DAY 9: 9/28 Punkin Center, AZ to Globe AZ

DAY 9: 9/28/21 Punkin Center, AZ 54 miles to Globe, AZ. 4539’ of climbing! –

We left the lodge, just after 8am. Like most days so far, the riding started off great. In early mornings, the air is coolest, the light is softest, the sounds of traffic are minimal and perhaps most significantly our bodies are freshest. 

Today had another quality and a first, the clouds felt like they were alongside us. Were we so high, the clouds so low or a combination? It was serene and new, and the adventurer spirit in us appreciated a fresh backdrop. 

It felt like we rode alongside the clouds.

A few miles later we stopped at the supermarket in Tonto Basin to pick up breakfast (bananas and yogurt) and lunch of premade turkey sandwiches and my impulse purchase of icing covered pretzels misleadingly marketed as yogurt covered as that’s healthier.

After a short ride, we had Theodore Roosevelt Lake running for about several miles (I think 10) from North to South along our left side. With mountains beyond it, this was glorious. 

For such a large lake, I was shocked at how motionless it was. That was a good sign of no wind. The day started off perfectly biking with Heather next to mountains with water alongside us and near perfect weather. I’ve hit a trifecta. But like so many other days the highs can quickly turn to lows (and vice versa).

About 9:45am I pulled into the lookout at Bachelor’s Cove and sipped some water while drinking in the view.  

Drinking in the views

Preparing to leave, I turned my bike to the right to return to the road and yikes I was stuck! I ran over a cactus laying flat and sticking out, like when one put a foot out to trip someone in elementary school. (Does anybody still do that?) Shoot! I was stuck on it and could see the spines (thorns) of the cactus in my front tire. I thought this will surely interrupt our day, one might say it was cactus interrupt-us. 

The cactus culprit

I cursed myself silly several times like I recently did when getting sevened out in the game of Catan with my daughters Sydney and Jamie. I spent 15 minutes using my first aid tweezers to pick spines from my tire. Then as I spun the tire and ran my hand over it to check for more, I ended up transferring all these little spines from the tire into my hand. I then tweezed these out from my hand. Or as many as I could see. For the balance of the day, when I moved my hand a certain way I’d wince as I discovered each new hidden dagger.

Tweezing my tire

Heather was not amused and I sensed frustrated. This kind of self-inflicted injury had played out in our adventures before and always to me: broken ribs snowmobiling in Park City, hundreds of cuts on my scalp volcano boarding in Nicaragua, and the list goes on. Now on top of yesterday’s ailments, I’ve added a new one. Heather on the other hand is as aways, a rock. Dependable. Durable. Steady. She is a Woman of Steel. (Yes Superman reference intended.) I guess as a two-time Ironman (Ironwoman or Ironperson?) she has earned the steel description. 

Woman of steel

I finally got back on the road and after a mile felt secure that I had no flat. I literally said a blessing of gratitude aloud over my tires. 

For a few years, Heather has wisely said not all miles are created equal. Today the first 30 were somewhat flat, we then faced a grueling 1500’ climb (about a third of the day’s total) packed into about only 6 miles. Yes indeed not all miles are created equal. Nor days.

Yet somehow despite my issues, I hit a flow state of riding. It was a quiet road with a wide, smoothly paved shoulder and I was feeling it! I fixed my stare on the mountains and closed my eyes for one second or as long as it took to pedal one revolution. It felt amazing. I did it a few more times and then for two seconds. And finally for 3 seconds or three revolutions of my pedals. It was meditative. I was in the zone!

In the zone

Eventually we got to Globe and passed through the small town that like so many others had empty storefronts, diagonal parking, and names of stores (those open and those gone) with somebody’s name that’s not a national chain (Kim’s, Farley’s, JC’s).

A mile from the hotel, a killer 400’ climb through a residential area awaited us. We started from a left turn of less than 90 degrees, so with zero momentum. It was such a steep grade that there was no way straight up. I heard Heather behind me say she can’t do it.. So I coached her in traversing it up, turning 45 degrees to the left and then to the right to cut down the severity of the angle of the climb. This worked fine as long as no traffic came either way. I knew one thing which was that if I ride up this monster, there’s no way she’s giving me bragging rights as I still occasionally reference her walking up one climb in Cape Breton back in 2018. She is nearly as competitive as I am!

We both conquered that last hill, showered quickly and went for dinner to a Mexican restaurant popular with locals. Since it wasn’t very good, we will leave it unnamed. We did learn Burro is the local reference to Burrito. It reminded me of our very first date at a restaurant in January 1991when the soup was so bad we paid and left to go eat elsewhere. Heather told me later she was shocked but taken with that bold action. I now asked if we had our first date here and I did the same and paid and left after the poor guacamole, would she have felt the same way? She retorted that if I took her to a place like this on our first date, there would not be a second date. Touché.

© Copyright Mark Segal 2021.