In Globe: Roosevelt Lake

January 19, 2020

The day gets off to a fine start with a good breakfast and good company. For breakfast, fresh fruit and yogurt, muffins, and a delicious frittata. For company, an enjoyable, leisurely chat with the innkeeper and her brother and his wife who are down from Vancouver BC on a brief vacation and break from the rain and snow. He and the innkeeper grew up here, and their parents restored this place and converted it into the inviting B&B that it is today in a multi-year labor of love.

They did a splendid job. It’s a lovely, warm place, full of character. But it’s not quite the dream they envisioned, because when it came down to it they didn’t really enjoy running an inn after all. The daughter did though, and in fact had been running one in Israel for a number of years. She came home, took the business off their hands, and has been enjoying the quiet life in Globe ever since.

We like the place, we like her, we think you would too. If you’re down this way, give it a try.

A beautiful place. Who knew sleeping in a copper miner’s flophouse could be so pleasant?

Just imagine: this place once had fifty three rooms, filled with miners sleeping in shifts. Now there are just seven, named for colorful ores (as the inn itself is, in case you didn’t know what chrysocolla is). We’re in the Peridot Room.

This long open space used to be a row of tiny rooms, each just about large enough for a bed.

I suspect the place didn’t have quite such a bright look a century ago.

The sun porch. Looks like an inviting spot to pass a few hours or have your morning coffee, in a warmer month.

It’s been over four months now since we left Portland for Iberia. Thirty-five hundred miles later, we’re starting to feel the effects of the routine. We find ourselves a bit reluctant to get started some days, and talk of how nice it will be to slip into a different routine crops up in our conversation now and then - see a show, visit with friends, take a short ride, just hang out. Won’t that be great!

Our bodies seem a bit crankier too. Rachael’s legs are achy and reluctant to face another day on the hills; she’s definitely getting tired of spending her day sitting on the saddle bouncing down another rough road; and possibly she’s looking forward to a change in the company she keeps, and to spending less time waiting for me to take another photograph or finish the day’s post.

I’ve got my own set of issues too, which seem in perpetual rotation. For the past few days my knees have been nagging at me; before that it was my feet; then for about a week my big toe was painful, making it difficult to walk, feeling arthritic or injured; before that, the knees.

And, as always happens toward the end we’re getting short timer’s attitudes. Tomorrow we hit Tucson and start the last leg of the tour, so it won’t be long now. We start wondering what movies will be showing back home, what our B&B will be like there, what coffee houses and restaurants will be nearby.

Not quite yet though. We pop an ibuprofen, hop into the Blue Whale again, and drive north to the Theodore Roosevelt Dam. A half hour later we’re unpacking the bikes and pedaling north. We have a beautiful day ahead of us, and a therapeutic ride that’s just what the doctor ordered. Let’s look:

Video sound track: The Gypsy, by the Urban Knights

Starting out. A bit chilly yet, but not for long. Layers will be shed shortly.

Before we leave the room this morning, Rachael looks at the day’s route on RideWithGPS and blanches a bit at how squiggly the profile looks. Why don’t we take any flat rides any more, she’d like to know? I point out the scale, and that it really is a basically flat ride; it’s just the scale that makes the small rises and drops look significant. I pray that I’m right for a change, and that we’ll find a smooth road and fair winds to team up with what I expect to be a physically easy ride.

For a refreshing change, I’m right. The road is smooth. The hills are slight. The traffic is modest and considerate. There’s a good shoulder. It’s an out and back again, and when I meet up with her at the midpoint and ask her how those 15 per centers were that she was so worried about, she smiles. It’s a beautiful day, a break, practically a rest day. More like this, please.

The Theodore Roosevelt Dam, built between 1906 and 1911. Built primarily for flood control and irrigation, it was also the starting point for federal hydro power generation. At 357 feet high, it’s one of the highest masonry dams in the world.

The Theodore Roosevelt Lake Bridge, opened in 1996, reminds us of the Hoover Dam Bridge, by its appearance and purpose. It’s another huge single arch design, and reroutes traffic that formerly crossed the top of the dam. The dam was built originally with a surface just wide enough to allow two Motel-T Fords to pass, and was later changed to a single lane road when cars became too wide.

Crossing the Roosevelt Bridge. Very bike friendly, not at all scary.

Theodore Roosevelt Lake, formed by the impoundment of the Salt River.

The Four Peaks, seen from the east. This formation is also visible from Phoenix in the west, where it is one of the city’s landmark views on a clear day. Also the inspiration for Four Peaks Brewery, which I can confirm serves a killer pizza - one of the few warm memories I retained from our stay in Tempe.

I warned you that you’d be seeing a lot of these in the coming days. Get used to it.

It’s a beautiful ride today. Rachael keeps reminding me of a little known secret - you don’t always have to climb mountains to get the good views.

A stately raven perched, and sat, and nothing more. Quoth nothing, even.

About twelve miles north of the dam we pass the lake and the land flattens out a bit.

On the return, Lake Roosevelt comes into view.

Another angle on the Four Peaks. There’s a bit of snow yet on their eastern slopes, but not on the view from Phoenix.

I couldn’t tell for sure from the topo map. This might be Cactus Butte, or maybe it’s just another pretty face.

Worth another look. I stopped for a double-take because the arch is faintly reflected out against the lake. This is probably a pretty shot near sundown on a calm day.

The ride went quickly enough that we make it back into town with time to take a walk down Broad Street, the main drag through historic Globe. There’s not a lot of day left, which is fine - historic Globe’s attractions are pretty modest and it doesn’t take us too long. It’s not the most exciting historic mining town we’ve seen, actually.

Still, it’s a great stop if you want to be outdoors. I wish we’d skipped the second night in Tempe and stayed here three nights instead. I’d like to see what the ride is like continuing east toward Peridot, or maybe climbing into the interior behind Lake Roosevelt up Route 288. And we wish our last night here hadn’t been Sunday when Bloom, the Asian restaurant with allegedly the best menu in town, was closed.

The old Gila County Courthouse, now preserved and restored as a center for the arts.

The Globe post office and it’s new courthouse.

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Ride stats today: 40 miles, 1,400’; for the tour: 1,108 miles, 59,700’

Today's ride: 40 miles (64 km)
Total: 1,108 miles (1,783 km)

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Jen RahnThat's cool that you got to talk with the innkeeper about the history. Hard to imagine what it must have felt like as a crowded crash pad for miners! They really made it look beautiful.
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