It was a most spectacular morning, sunny 61° a cooling breeze blowing; perfect day to sit on the veranda sipping coffee and watch the sun dance on the mountain.  But our motel didn’t have a veranda, or a view and we were destined to bike; so this is our version.

A fierce wind was blowing down the canyon wall and the road construction we’d experienced on our way in to town yesterday, followed up the course we were to take.  We had not been looking forward to this climb and the 15 mph wind and construction was an unhelpful one-two punch to add to the day.The white dots close to the top right are trucks.

A mile in, we had a tunnel to navigate.  Our map had warned that traffic was heavy and the sidewalk was minimal.  Oddly enough, the road construction worked to our advantage; an entire lane was blocked off for workers, who were more than willing to allow us to use it.  The climbing was slow and we took short breaks when we had an extra inch of road.  The wind was relentless and determined to beat us down, gusting from 20 to 30 mph.  But it was as gorgeous as it was grueling; majestic rocks of the Queen Creek Canyon offered diverse albeit temporary distractions.  At one of the rougher areas of construction, Jim pulled beside us and suggested going behind the barriers for safety.  He met us at the next opening and detailed for us the next couple miles; down the Devils Canyon and then the climb back up.  Jim then drove ahead and if we were forced to be on the road, he would pull in behind us and keep the traffic from bearing down; over and above and very appreciated. It had been one of our most interesting sections of any course.

Finally, after over two hours of biking and ten miles we reached the Top of The World 4600 foot pass.  A small section of tall trees, then more rock to start our descent.  We only had two miles of true down hill (had to pedal down the 6% grade just to manage over 10 mph) then back to up and down riding, wind always in our face.  One last gift from construction workers was an invitation to bike down the closed road, while traffic was being held.  We just had to be respectful of one tight spot on the way down.

By the time we reached Miami (Copper Center of the World), we had dropped 1200 feet.  It was a quiet ride through Miami that joined the outskirts of Globe with a lot of ups and downs in between.  After being on the road for four hours, we had only managed just over 21 miles, but needed a lunch and rest break.  It was a nice hour break and one of the best lunches I’ve ever had.  On the road again, it took 45 minutes for us to pedal our last four more miles to our stop, the wind slowing us to the last minute.

We were looking forward to a large Margarita and some good Mexican food at the restaurant two doors down. We should have known the food was not going to be great, when they didn’t serve Margaritas…..how does that happen?  Can’t eat great every night.

Today was a scheduled short 26 miles in order to rest for the next few long days ahead.  But it took us six hours (4 hours of riding) to get here, hoping the wind will favor us on the next few days.