Catching up.

 

Red Mountain in the Morning

Ok,  it has been way to long and I apologize.  I lost my mini SD card adapter that lets me upload my cell phone pictures and the last few weeks of school are murder around our house and I haven't done a whole lot of riding lately.  I will share some thoughts about the recent riding I have done though.

On Memorial day I still had not got the Coy Mistress back from the shop but the rumor was that SRAM had finally shipped the shifter.  Anyway, no road bike points to a good day to Mountain bike.  I decided my route of choice would be a loop around the Hawes system up to Usery Pass and some combination of trails up there and then back.

Old Paint

It was chilly just after dawn but I thoroughly enjoyed the great trails going from the canal bridge back up to the Saguaro trail and then down to the Bush Highway.   I was feeling OK,  not unstoppable but pretty good.  Since I was going long I decided to forego the big climb up to Twisted Sister and get to the Wild Horse trail via a short climb on pavement. 

I actually had a roadie behind me much of the last bit of the hill which amused me greatly since my bike probably weight twice what his did and my tires were huge and knobby.  I made it to the top ahead of him and ducked behind the guard rail onto the wild horse trail.

I was having a good time going up the trail when a guy came up from behind like I was standing still and passed me saying there was another guy way back.  I didn't think I was going that slow but I guess I was.  I managed to almost make it to the top before the other guy caught me.  I passed them at the top and headed on.  I managed to find a wash without sand that was too loose I rode up so as to avoid pavement as long as possible but eventually I was forced onto the road.

View just before the place I biffed it..

The shortcut up to the pass mountain trail was every bit as sandy as folks had said it was and I ended up walking a half mile or so before it started to climb out of the wash.  It was a lung cruncher climbing up to the trail and I was going to just ride straight down into the park but decided I would just take a peek around the mountain on the pass mountain trail which was not very technical in this section.  Of course by the time I was around and had the beautiful valley underneath me I decided to do the whole enchilada.  I had to walk several times but not nearly as many as I did last time without suspension.

After I reached the saddle I walked much of the really technical section behind it that could kill a poor fellow like myself without any armor on (yeah,  serious mountain bikers wear armor,  which is not as weird as you might think as I found out).  Even so I managed to slam down hard enough to break my seat loose.  I also managed to go down and stick my hand in a cholla and lay down in a bunch of sticker/goatheads.  I got a flat in here too but I would do the pump and ride with it until I got to the picnic ramada's in Usery Park.

The kicker in this section was of course the ever flattening tire, and also the lack of water.  I was getting hot and thirsty but I knew I was close.  Eventually I arrived at the horse staging area and gulped water down to my hearts content and filled my bottles.  At a ramada just down the trail I fixed my tire.  I was pretty much shot at this point and elected to shoot down the moon rock trail in the hopes that a side trail might take me into the houseing project at the end of McDowell road so I wouldn't have to take the long way around back.  My suspicions were not unfounded and I was quickly back on pavement speeding back to my car,  thoroughly wasted.  It was around 25 miles.  3 hours and 50 minutes.  Lots of work,  little distance, tons of scenery.

Yours truly on the downhill side.

Well, there is not much else to say really, I have included a few pictures from my recent commutes plus one of my summer setup on my commuter rig. 2 bottles for drinking 1 bottle for pouring over my head. I rode the 18 miles back to the car yesterday in 107 degree heat and it seemed to work pretty good. I am sure when the humidity goes up it won't be as effective but for now it is quite passable.

Water is life in the desert heat

Canal path

Interesting storage facility off 16th street.