Day 9: Ride to Tonto Basin AZ

Before I get into todays ride I need to give a special shout out to my Son and his Fiancé.  Bradley and Shannon started the 72 hour Adventure Race across Florida this morning at 10AM in Tampa.  They will run, bike, row and orienteer their way to St. Augustine FL before 10AM on Sunday morning.  The have a GPS tracker so we can follow them on their way.  As of tonight they are doing well...   I will give you the update tomorrow.   

Bradley & Shannon at one of the check points.
Thanks to Shannon's Mom, Nora who is helping
with the event and sending us pics.

As expected, the ride today was difficult.  I was on the road for just short of 8 hours, had one more front tire flat and climbed my behind off.  All in all, a great day riding to Tonto Basin.

Sign Across the road entering town.  
Not much of a town to show.

The ride started early around 7:30 AM after a hotel breakfast of coffee, apple sauce and blueberry bread.  

I have the 10 covered for tomorrow.
Not sure about the next day.

Early on the ride benefitted from a day off but 8 hours on the road will wear on anyone.  After reaching Jake’s Corner and turning on Route-118, I thought it would be an easy 20 miles to camp.  Well the wind that was behind me all day was now square in my face and making life miserable.  Cell service in the area was spotty so locating Sandy was tricky.  About 7 miles out we connected, and I had one of those moments thinking about 7 more miles into the wind.  Well in typical Sandy fashion, when I arrived camp was setup and beer waiting.  All was good at that point.  As always, the one pot wonder dinner went down easy.  Of course, it is good and has nothing to do with burning 3K calories.

I could not do it without Sandy's support

The ride was full of cool Arizona desert and rock scenery.   I took a few pictures along the way but did not stop much.  I did take a picture of the Phoenix sign on the mountain.  The city is behind us now, the next major destination is El Paso TX.  I am not sure how long this will take.

Sign just outside of town

Valley entering Tonto Basin

The weather for the ride today was generally cold!!!   The climbing made it bearable, but I needed my heavy wind breaker for the down hills.  As I mentioned for most of the ride the wind was helping until the final 20 miles.  

 

My only friend on the ride
Other than Sandy of course.

Today’s ride stats:

Start Time:  7:39 AM Mountain Time                     Finish Time:  3:28 PM Mountain Time

Elapse Time:  7 Hr.48 Min                                       Ride Time:  6 Hr. 44 Min

Distance:  80.9 Miles                                               Average Speed:  12.0 mph

Climbing/Descent:  6368/5499 Ft.                          TSS: 226

Average Power:  161 Watts                                      Normalized Power:  182 Watts

Calories:  3893                                                            Ave/Max HR: 118/142bpm

 

The down time today was split between eating lunch with Sandy and fixing a flat tire.  The front went down again.   I am debating if I should change the tire before I leave tomorrow. 

Leaving from Lunch...
Thanks Sandy!

I ate well today, on the way to camp Sandy passed me and we stopped for a ham sandwich.  Before and after lunch I ate 3 cliff bars.  Because it was cold, I did not drink as much as I should but finished most of 3 bottle and had a Gatorade for lunch.

 

For tomorrow we will attempt to get to Peridot AZ.  Look it up, I am sure there will be nothing there.  We will camp tomorrow then we need to figure out the weather.  By Sunday it will be in the 20’s in the morning and high winds.  Looks like a hotel stay is coming up soon.