Ride to the mountains

[cactusjack]

Today a few of us rode up to Show Low, AZ, in the White Mountains. This is a great ride of around 350 miles. We met in Gilbert and rode out US 60 to Globe. From Globe, we proceeded on US-60 through the Salt River Canyon. The Salt River Canyon drops 2000' in about 3 miles. It's steep and has lots of switchbacks. It's a fun ride, but getting stuck behind a semi takes most of the fun out of it. Then once you're at the bottom, you cross the river and climb 2000' up the other side. Show Low is in the pines, at 6330'. It was a gorgeous day in the area and the fresh pine air is always a treat. We ate lunch at a mexican cafe and then after filling up the tanks, we started down SR260 towards Payson. We stopped at a place called the Red Onion in Heber for a quick beer and then continued on to Payson. As we got closer to Payson, the temperature started climbing. At about 4000', it was in the high 90's in Payson, and we knew it was going to be a hot 80 miles back to the valley. About 15 miles S of Payson, the highway was damaged by spring runoff and they have both directions of traffic routed through the northbound side of the road, while the southbound lanes are being repaired. This detour, along with heavy Sunday afternoon traffic made for about a 30-minute time-waster as we cooked, just inching along for 4 or 5 miles. Once traffic got moving again, we high-tailed it back to the Valley, where it was a blistering 105 this afternoon. My legs were getting burned by the gas tank. We stopped along the way for another round of beers and then headed for home. It was a fun day with some good people but it made me wish I lived in the mountains.