Mountains, Lakes, and Old Friends

Sunrise on the Bush Highway overpass on the beeline hwy.

I am not going to write a lengthy blog entry tonight. It's late and I lost a lot of sleep Saturday due to my waking up 3 AM to get a ride in before we drove up to Flagstaff for my 20 year high school reunion. The pictures kind of tell it though.

Though it was early, I did see a few other cyclists climbing Usery. The temp was 81 degrees at 3:30 am. I found a spot that was 73 just before dawn over near the lake but that was a strange pocket of cool air and not the norm.

Sunrise over four peaks.

The sunrise was just to pretty to not take a few pictures of. Traffic was light and it was a perfect morning. I stashed a water bottle at the blue point bridge but I didn't need it as I had stocked up on water in the previous days and did fine most of the ride (4 hours, 2.5 water bottles and I didn't lose any weight over the ride so I did really well).

My faithful steed (so far) on the fishing platform at Saguaro lake.

I surpised a whole herd of Javalina (hows that for a tong twister) on my way down to Butcher Jones just after dawn. There were around 10 of them. It was kind of cool.

Faithful steed at Butcher Jones beach

Looking across Saguaro Lake from keyhole area.

I decided to ride down to both butcher jones and the boat ramps to get some extra climbing in. It was a beautiful day to ride down to the lake.

Riding along road next to lake.

Bush Highway below Dam

The cliffs along the bush hwy are always pretty and under the first rays of the morning make me wish I had brought the good camera. I was pleased that this time I did NOT get a wasp in my jersey coming down this hill (I have learned to zip up the jersey before descending in summertime).

Cliffs along Bush Hwy.

Edge of Civilisation near User Pass.

It was 90 degress when I got home. I managed to get 3400' feet of climbing in over 60 miles with an average speed of 15 mph. Not horribly fast, but not my worst time either. It was a beautiful morning.

The reunion turned out nice too. I wasn't a member of the popular crowd by any means. I was pleased to find I had friends of friends there and eventually friends I hadn't seen in 20 years showed up too.