January 10, 2019 - Great Western Trail turnoff to Windy Hill Recreation Site, Tonto Natl Park, AZ

Day 10 Cross Country Bike Ride

Today was a long riding day for Tobey. He was trying to make up some of the miles from yesterday’s route correction so he was on the road by 8:30 am. Highway 87 north has beautiful scenery, but he experienced quite an elevation gain, and some crossing headwinds. You know it’s bad when even the RV struggles to maintain 45 mph!There were several oversized loads heading north at the same time, all supported by several highway patrol cars. That did serve to keep traffic a little slower for part of the morning!Sunflower was a rest stop about 25 miles down the road. Still smiling! As the day progressed, the temperature dropped so Tobey added his long biking pants and full gloves after lunch. Tobey said the downhills weren’t that fun today because the temperature was so cold and there was quite a bit of junk on the shoulder. He had to use his breaks most of the time.The sun tried to break through the clouds, but never managed to stay out for long.We finally turned SOUTH onto AZ Highway 188 after going north for almost 27 miles today! The road was 2-lane and did have a shoulder. I asked him how the shoulder was and he said, “I don’t know. I didn’t use it!” There wasn’t much traffic and he rode on the road most of the time. There were beautiful views of snow covered mountains as we approached Punkin Center (near Tonto Basin). Leaving Tonto Basin heading south, the road did get a little more narrow, but still, no traffic.Tobey noticed a clicking noise on his ride, so at our check-in point, he cleaned and lubed the chain, hoping that would help. He said it is still making the noise, so he thinks it might be his pedal. He hopes we can find a bike shop in Globe to check it out.

This is a view at the north end of Roosevelt Lake. The water level is very low.A few miles before Government Hill where Highway 88 joins Highway 188, you are able to see the bridge. It looked blue from a distance.I made a couple stops to look back at Roosevelt Lake. It was pretty!I stopped and picked Tobey up at the Windy Hill Campground turnoff in the Tonto National Forest where we are spending the night. I drove down to check out the campground before Tobey got there and it was closed, thank you Trump. I did meet one of the campground hosts and asked him how we could get into the campground. He said they were closed, but we could park at one of the boat parking areas and we didn’t have to pay since the government is shut down. There are five other folks camping here tonight.The views out at Roosevelt Lake are awesome!The sunset was amazing tonight, also.Today Tobey rode 63 miles in 8 hours today and had 4600’ of elevation gain.