Legs of steel

After placing three more patches (eight now in all) on my trailer tube and passing the largest roadkill thusfar (a horse), I dropped into a cafe in Strawberry to try to reinflate my spirits. I ordered a slice of chocolate pecan pie and found in the phonebook a bike shop fifteen miles up the road in Payson.

At the bike shop I not only bought a new tube and patch kit, the owner tossed in an additional tube for free with some helpful info about what to expect up the road.

After a climb up to 7700 feet (from below 5000' in Payson), I took a quick dip in Willow Lake on the rim and continued to Forest Lakes where I bought canned dinner and asked for directional advice. The shopkeep told me of another washboard road (as if I hadn't learned my lesson already) to Heber via Black Canyon Lake. There I found a great campsite in Sitgreaves National Park and passed out surrounded by pine trees and looking into the star-filled sky.