RAAZ Day 9 - Show Low camp site to Big Lake

64.7 miles, 5275’ climbing

At our camp site, about 10 miles past Show Low, Sarah’s sleeping pad failed. It was a long night on rocky tent site for her. We thought the valve was the likely culprit.

We were close to civilization and a paved road. We packed up early knowing it was a long day to Big Lake, and the store there closes early at this time of year. We turned onto a few miles of pavement early in the day, the smooth riding easing the start to the day. Soon we were on a washboard gravel road with high speed traffic, then finally we turned off into the woods.

The bulk of the morning was spent going from one dirt road to another in the pines, oaks, and aspens. Most roads were good with the usual rocks and ruts. We chatted with a turkey hunter who lamented the lack of snow and rain this winter.

We had a long climb, about 9 continuous miles, to the high point of our entire ride, around 9600’. Cloud cover kept us from getting hot, and there was a predicted chance of rain that never materialized. We saw storm cells, but it looked like the rain wasn’t reaching the ground, but it did bring strong headwinds for much of the day.

We stopped for sandwiches, but the cheese we had just purchased in Show Low, with a sell-by date of Sept 2026, was full of green mold. Yech! Plain rolls for lunch. We continued up hill.

At around 8900’ of elevation, Sarah saw a creature on the roadside, head facing her. For some moments they stared at each other head on, then the creature turned and dashed into the trees. It was clearly a Mexican Gray wolf, much too large to be a coyote. They are known to be in this area, having been reintroduced in years past. As we rode past the trees where it left the road, we tried to catch another glimpse of it, but there were only chittering squirrels. We’ve seen wolves before in Canada and Yellowstone, but never in Arizona. A couple of miles later we saw a handful of turkeys cross the road ahead of us, quickly disappearing into the trees, a prudent choice given all the turkey hunters that are out and about.

Soon we came over the high point of our ride, out into some open meadows and strong headwinds. We could see the Sunrise Ski Area and Pole Knoll, where we have snowshoed in the past. The wind was vicious. It should not be necessary to pedal down hill, and it’s particularly offensive when it’s a washboard road! We slowed down. Eventually some hills and stands of trees gave us shelter.

We knew the store at the Big Lake marina closed at 5pm, and we were not likely to get there. Shawn the rider we had driven to start with had passed thru 2 days ago and told us there were showers at the campground, so we were motivated by the thought of rinsing off. As we approached Big Lake, our route had us turn onto a rail grade trail that was so faint that it was nearly invisible. Shawn had also mentioned this, so we plowed ahead.  This was the only singletrack riding on the whole route. We stirred up clouds of mosquitos in tall grass as we approached the lake, then we were on pavement to the Apache Trout campground which had luxuries such as potable water, picnic tables, and showers. Sarah tried to use a ponytail holder to partition off the leak in her sleeping mat, but it didn’t work. That’s a problem to be addressed later, and it was another night on cold rocks for her.