Enduro 2014

Time to fire this blog back up since I am just not happy with the way the pics look on facebook.

My buddy J-Bake has been wanting to put on a little local Enduro now for awhile and showcase some of the awesome riding Tucson has to offer. I told him I was I would be happy to help out and ride in it. Problem is when the time finally came my back was out so I told him I would just have to hike it and take pics. 15 brave souls showed up and we headed out into the blazing winter sun.

Bikes, Views, Beers, & Birds

Great week of riding and hiking. Sunday was the big day with a 30 mile ride 7000ft climbing day. spent 6.5hrs on the bike working my way around the upper reaches of Mt Lemmon. It was a crazy long day but it was awesome to push myself to ride the whole planned route. Got rained on 3 times that days and spent I nice 20 minute break in Summerhaven birding with a father and son team that were visiting from outta town. The day was filled with tons of climbing each providing though awesome views off of Lemmon. A few pictures below.

Just getting the day started. Views from Sunset trail. 

Next up was one of my favorite spots with awesome views to the north. Oracle Ridge trail. Part of the Arizona Trail. 

Guess I wasn't "alone" out in the wilderness. 

 Eventually got to make my way all the way over to those towers. It would be the last push of the dya when I got over there. wanted to throw in the towel and take the short cut back to the car but kept telling myself I had already climbed so much and that if I quit then I would earn that Mexican CocaCola I had in the cooler.

View of Tucson from the highest point of the day. Had been raining on me just 15 minutes earlier. 

My legs say I earned that cold brew. 

Also had a fun day hiking with Kimmeh!!!. We went out so I could do a little bird photo shoot. Its always nice spending the day out on the trail with her.

Black Throated Sparrow. Was one of my main goals of the day was to get a few shots of them.

 Black Throated Sparrow

Cactus Wren

Varied Bunting. Biggest surprise of the day. 

Kingbird 

And then a few random biking pics.

Lemmon Drop 2012

Its been a few years since I had completed the full Lemmon Drop and I felt like this year was my year again. Problem was when the time came around this year to get in on the shuttle for it I was down with an injury. Thought I had missed my window to get the Lemmon Drop in this year but as luck would have it the weather has been amazing and there was a second shuttle scheduled. This was my chance only 5 weeks after separating my shoulder and I was gonna take it. Checked around to see if I had any friends left that were willing to go with me after trying to kill most of them off throughout the summer and was able to scrape one up. Jonathan Buchanan was the man and maybe one of the few people that enjoy hike a bike as much as me.  He would would act as my camera muse on the ride and provide the fashion sense we needed. We booked the shuttle and were on our way. Couldn't have asked for a better day to be on our bikes. Tucson in December can be a mix sometimes weather wise but this year its pure gold. There are not enough hours in the day to get in all you want to do when its this nice out. Just chili enough at 9000' to wear longs sleeves and just warm enough at 2500' when you finish to make an ice cold drink a necessity. We parted ways with our fellow shuttlers and head off down our first of 10 trails on the day and to start chipping away at the 10000' of elevation loss ahead of us. Sounds rough right?

Aspen Draw. Not a soul in sight and barely a leaf left on a tree. 

J-Bake Bumming down the road. He was mugged as you can see for all his lunch money. Guess I'll have to share mine .

 Finally starting to warm up on Sunset Trail. Think maybe J was dressed to subtle though.

Making good time blazing thru the trails. Onto Bigelow now. Already go the warm clothes off. 

This sign pretty much sums up all my feelings for the incinerator trail. 

By the time we got to Green Mt. spirits were high we were having a great ride.  We were about 1/3 of the way thru the day and our run had been perfect. The day was turning out to be perfect. 

 J and I both nailed this crazy hard switchback on Green. There are three water bars leading in with a super tight turn. It looks like you are gonna go straight off the edge if you fall. Not the easiest switchback on the mountain thats for sure. After nailing this one though I was feeling pretty good mentally but after the barrage of water bars we had just went thru my bad shoulder was on fire.

After finishing Green and the Bugs Hike a Bike we decided to take our lunch break. J had brought nothing but a bag full of candy and I had almost did the same except for one turkey, salami, and cheese burrito. Traded half of it to J so he could have some real food for half of his chocolate chip cookie. Best trade ever. After chatting with what I think were our first hikers and bikers of the day on bugs and grubbing down we continued on. Its amazing that we had already been riding for maybe 3-4hrs and this was the first time we had come across any other trail uses on such a beautiful day. More people should be out enjoying themselves on days like this.

J-bake throwing up some Hero Dust on Bugs.

After you finish Bugs/Prison Camp all you have left is one last trail. Problem is its HARD. You are tired. beat down, and hungry when you get to the Molino parking lot. Many a Lemmon Drops have ended in the shade here at Molino. We were tempted. Even though we were laying on hard asphalt the shade made it the perfect place to throw in the towel and take a nap. There was even a redneck carrying a dead deer on his back in the parking lot. Why would we ever want to leave. We could just get on our bikes right here and coast all the way to a chicken quesadilla and a chocolate milk. Not today though. We were gonna finish and this was the ride. It had been perfect so far and we knew we were finishing the ride. We got up outta the shade and headed towards Millie.

 Hike a Bike. Its one of the only guarantees on the Lemmon Drop.  Well that and it won't be easy.

Being glad we never skipped Millie. The views are spectacular back there. The trail is brutally hard but its pretty to look at. 

Home stretch we know we are getting close to the end. At times you could see the bottom. Plus we had a special surprise waiting for us at the finish. 

Best roadside come up yet. I had spotted this little Kool-Aid gem sitting on the side of the road way back near the top of Bigelow. J stopped and picked it, carried it for the whole ride, then we enjoyed it at the bottom. It was pure sugar heaven.  Just what we needed to fuel us for the 5 mile road ride to the car.

Finishing up in the perfect lighting of the setting sun. 

Stats on the day.
35 miles
10,204 ft of descending
4024ft of climbing
8:10 minutes from Bus to Car.
1 mechanical. Me broken chain. Couldn't handle my raw power on Millie.
 Best part was I didn't even lose a riding friend. Lately my crazy long rides have ended in tragedy not this time.

CDO its all you need.

I finally have come to the conclusion that the CDO trail hates me. After two 11+ hr outings on it finding our way, doing trail work, and being lost the Forest Service finally opened it up for us. I thought finally now is my chance to ride this amazing trail the right way with out having to lug tools, carry my bike over dead trees, and find my way thru a maze of locust trees. I was wrong. The CDO hates me. The ride started out spectacular ride thru some of the burned upper parts of Lemmon offers some of the best views in Tucson. The first few miles of this trail I just can't get enough of and if it wasn't so steep I would just ride out n backs on it when I want shorter rides. Everyone should be able to enjoy this part of the trail only problem is to get to you have to commit to a pretty serious day. Guess thats just one of the perks.

A little love note left by our rabbit out in front. you can't not smile when you are about to do this trail.

Just can't seem to take enough pics in this first section. I love it.

Its still there. When is this landmark gonna fall. All the others have.

After the first few miles of shared Sammie/CDO trail they split and you make a quick drop down into the CDO drainage. Right away we can see the FS had done some great work benching in the old trail. Just a year ago there really wasn't much there to make your way on. After you make the quick dip into the drainage your greated to miles of wooded trail slightly overgrown but followable the entire way. I think Duncan and I only had to pause once to see where the trail went and even then it only took about 2 seconds to find.

It was not stop riding in the beautiful backwoods of Lemmon.

I remember riding thru this section never wanting to end. The leaves crushing beneath the tires, the trees overhead, and the flowers everywhere. I don't think the word AWESOME was used enough on this ride and it was by far the most used word. 

And then CDO told me again how much she hates me. She tore my heart right off my bike and smashed it on the cool forest floor.

But we had one of the finest trained airplane mechanics and a roll of duct tape so I was not gonna let her win this one.

The bike was beaten and running like warm garbage but I had plenty or sweet sweet trail to ride and so I was not gonnna give up. That and we were in the middle on nowhere so it was not like I could call Kimmeh to come get me. On we pressed me lagging behind a little and having to stop and adjust my new rear derailleur a few times but still making pretty damn good time. I knew there was gonna be a pretty long climb that I was gonna have to hike but I did not care this trail is to good to care about the pain ahead.

There were flowers and creek crossing everywhere. There is not another trail in Tucson that has this much to offer.

Rode thru so many feilds of flowers Duncan had them stuffed into his shoes.

They seemed endless and the only souls we seen were butterflies and lizards. They didn't mind sharing this gem one bit with us.

The amount of wild flowers was just scary good!

After all that great riding we were finally done with the CDO trail but it had one more little departed gift for us. Right before the big climb back out we got to have a nice cool down in the running water of the CDO. It was very refreshing to dip your jersey in the water and slap it on while it was still wet and cold as you make your way to "the climb". I knew this was gonna suck extra bad for me since my bike was in no condition to be peddled under any strain and the SS gearing we had got it into was not anywhere near conducive for climbing.  Push Push Push was my objective for the next 45 minutes. Best thing though is I had no ipod but memories of that trail to get me mentally up the hill.

Even the views on the jeep road are great.

After 45 minutes of pushing I had finally made it up to the guys who were still not ready to kill me for slowing them down so much and we were off. I knew it was almost all downhill back to the cars with very little climbing to have to walk and I knew there were cold beers and a chair waiting for me. I put the camera away and just hammered as hard as my broken pony would to reach our destination.

No matter what that trail does to me or how much it shows me it hates me I still think it is the best trail in Tucson and I can't wait to get back there as soon as I can.



Final Profile