Motocaching the Grand Canyon State - Day 4

After a delicious waffle and cereal breakfast I departed eastward for about 5 miles before turning south again on Highway 191 which would take me through Apache County.  I stopped for a couple of caches featuring stories of the Arizona Rangers and their history.  I stopped for a couple more as well just for good measure.

At St. Johns I turned southwest on Highway 61 going down to Show Low which was the first town of any size in Arizona I had seen.  I continued southwest now on Highway 60 through the San Carlos Reservation.  From Show Low down to Globe was the best motorcycling of the whole trip.  There were hairpin turns down a long wooded canyon and up the other side for about 40 miles.  The road was excellent and although there was some traffic I was able to get by it without much delay.  I did stop near the bottom of one canyon to pick up two caches for Apache County.

It was about midday when I reached Globe so I gassed up and ate my sardine lunch in the shade of the convenience store parking lot.  I made an unsuccessful attempt at a cache in Globe but since I already had two for Gila County it didn’t bother me too much.

Now I turned southeast on Highway 70 toward Safford in Graham County.  There were very few caches in Graham County but I had four lined up near Safford.  Would you believe I had DNF’s on three of them? Counting the DNF in Globe that was four DNF’s out of five caches – not too encouraging. 

 

My destination for the night was Wilcox which was directly south on Highway 191.  However, in order to get Greenlee County I had to continue east on Highway 70 and do an out and back over to Greenlee.  There were very few caches in this county so from my previous lack of success in Graham County I was pretty worried about Greenlee as I had only three lined up.  Fortunately I found the first two with no problem and retraced my route back to Safford.  Along the way I noticed rain clouds to the north but I skirted them.

I had a fairly pleasant ride from Safford down to Wilcox, Rex Allen’s home.   After checking in at the Super 8 I left my gear at the motel and went out to pick up a few Cochise County caches in Wilcox.  I found one at an interesting site called the Mascot Railroad before heading out to a cemetery.  Meanwhile the sky kept darkening.  The cemetery was on a dirt/sand road and the rain began as I was leaving.  By the time I got back in town it was pouring.  Of course, I had left my rain gear back at the motel.  I parked my bike under a sidewalk tree and got shelter for myself under a store awning.  I waited the worst of it out but got soaked before getting back to the motel.  I wasn’t expecting a thunderstorm in Arizona.  After getting cleaned up I found a Pizza Hut that was open and had a rather disappointing experience there – more with the service than the food.  I did have enough left over for lunch the next day though. [To be continued] M/W