Bikes & Sunset

What for could anyone ask for. Had a few good rides this past week. Not a ton of miles but have been enjoying the cruises on the Single Speed.

Some Sweetwater Action

And few from Lemmon

Prison Camp repeats via the road. 

Las Cienegas and some Biking

Haven't shared any pic in awhile. Been kinda lazy and tired of summer. Hardly any riding or anything that past few weeks. Just lots of house demolition. So decided to get things going again with a little day trip to Las Cienegas grasslands southeast of Tucson. Figured with all the recent rain it would be nice and green. Day turned out kinda bunk. Got down there and had some great sunlight for about 20 minutes then a weak storm rolled in and killed the mood. Stuck it out hoping for at least a salvageable sunset which I ended up getting. Not ideal but not bad either. Need to make another trip down there soon.

You can see the corner of the storm off to the right. Looming.

Things starting to clear up a bit as the sun was starting to go down.

 The cruiser enjoying the show as well.

 Layers

 Not bad out.

 Last hints.

Also  a few random riding shots from the past few weeks and a few from an awesome cactus bloom.

 Starr Pass Valley

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.

Hot week of riding.

OK its almost to damn hot to even go outside and push the little button on my camera. That means I hardly have any pictures these last few weeks to share but here are a few biking related ones.

First up ran into this goofball and his little dog. 

Then there was a slight bit of drinking to be had for Duncan's going away Bars on Bikes party

Then some Lemmon action with the wife

Then some sweet sweet shade and sunset.

Busy Fun Week

Man what a great week so far. We have managed to hold of triple digit weather which is awesome. It makes the riding slightly more better. Still has been forcing me up on Lemmon to stay cool. Still getting big rides down here in the desert but am enjoying the mountain a lot. Was even able to convince my buddy Tara to join me on a Lemmon Meringue ride. Its way more climbing then she is use to but she made it. I have now successfully taken another victim on that loop without a causality. Might be able to turn her into a XC geek after all. I mean who doesn't love climbing 4000ft in 17.5 miles on there bike at high elevations. Plus this week I thru in another scorching mid day 40miler from work to Starr Pass. Had purchased a peanut butter cookie as a special treat for making myself ride in the heat. Thought I was gonna be able to watch a spectacular sunset as I ate it form the trail but was running a little to fast. Didn't feel like waiting an hour on the trail for the sun to go down. Kinda wished I had though it turned out to be one of the best this year. Stil got to see it from my bike saddle to that always will do. 

Also had a nice Gaillardia photo shoot in the yard. I have a million of these things popping up right now and they are to colorful to ignore.

Then yesterday had one of my first birding adventures in a long while. There were some reports of a rare bird up here in AZ on vacation so Greg, Matt, and myself went to have a stare. We never found it but did see lots of cool birds. Its never a bad day birding when you can see some of the largest hummingbirds around. Its just awesome to listen to them fly. We also made a stop over in Wilcox, AZ for some water birds. They are fun to watch and they are a lot more fun to bird then others since they are usually out in the open. After a long day out I finally got home to take a nap. The 3am start time that morning was a little rough. Then I get the call from Greg after my nap that we can hit 100 species of birds on the day if we head back out. So I put on some underwear, grab my binoculars, and we are off. Finally tally for me on the day was 91. Didn't make it to 100 which Greg did but I was close. There is always next time. Plus a got a few good pictures so thats always good.

First up a few riding shots. 

Flower yard photo shoot plus some other random yard shots.

And from the birding adventure