TMP jaunt
March 16, 2008 at 5:23 am | In Pedaling | Leave a CommentTags: A Mountain, Siren, TMP
Rode with Chuck and the Critter from Fenix. It was Chris’ birthday last weekend and he decided to spend in Tucson. We pieced together a great ride from town, up A mountain, then down the the 36th st. entrance (new to the fenicians). Move around the main loop then up Golden gate. Rode clean up to the saddle then down the lower golden gate techness. Up the road an back in at Camino de Oeste for a stroll through the wildflowers to the stone house then back out on Mariott trail (thanks to whoever spent time pulling boulders out of the trail in the name of making it “easier” for those who ride from the hotel WTF???)
A stop at La Herradura on the way back for a post ride burrito and back home. Good to see you Chuck and Chris, come back soon!
Who is this guy?
Golden Gate Goodness
Cheers
Break from the rain, Sunshine is here
December 13, 2007 at 6:14 pm | In Pedaling | 1 CommentTags: A Mountain
It has pretty much been raining since last Friday. The moisture was welcome but not so conducive to being outside especially for a wimpy desert dweller. Well the rain has passed leaving sunshine and cool crisp air. Rode for a few hours last night, caught a most amazing sunset on the back side of Gates pass as I pedaled around McCain loop. On the way down the backside, the sun was warm and bright, casting brilliant shadows on the rock face next to me. The air was biting, especially on my bare hands, but working hard around the loop and up the back side of gates kept me plenty warm. Most of the second half of the ride was with my back to the west but any time I would change directions to the north or south, I could catch a view of the burning western horizon. Spectacular indeed.
This morning I got up tired and late but wanted to get out on the Thursday morning ride with Ignacio and company. I knew I was running late so I headed up Anklam in hopes I would meet up with them coming at me somewhere on Camino de Oeste. In town, the air was crisp and clear. As I headed up Anklam, just past St. Mary’s hospital I hit a body of clouds lingering in the hills. The air quickly became dense with moisture and visibility went to less than 50 feet. Shortly after passing the turn up to Starr Pass, the clouds were gone, I looked back to see the top layer of the clouds below me, NUTS?
I continued on and got onto Camino de Oeste, without seeing the group, I was almost down to Silverbell and planned on just heading back up the flat road. A bit to my chagrin, I finally crossed paths with the group at the bottom of the road, soooo, turn it around and head back up, ouch. Ignacio likes to lay it down on this stretch and I’m usually a sucker for his bait. Some hard work and coughing later and we were back at the top. Casual conversation got us back down where we had all decided we didn’t need to head up A mountain as usual but as we caught our first glimps of the hill, none of us could resist. Clouds blanketed the middle third of the peak, with some wisps creeping up to the top. Again pedaling through the clouds, as we reached the south side of the mountain, we were in this blinding fog as the sun was coming through and illuminating each particle of moisture in the air. We could only see the road immediately in front of us until we came through and above. Coast back into town and grab a coffee.
Good pedaling this morning
Hiking, some rain, and some pedaling.
December 10, 2007 at 6:44 am | In Hiking, Pedaling | 2 CommentsTags: A Mountain, Food, La Milagrosa, TMP
Emily seems to have brought some of Chicago here with here in the form of cool, damp, and rain. Fine by me as we don’t see it often and I have the great confidence that we will be back to our regularly scheduled programming soon enough. In the meantime, Emily and I have been doing some hiking. On Thursday we went up Finger Rock trail 3+ miles before we decided to turn it around. That trail is great for the legs with plenty’o’steep.
Friday was spent with a morning pedal on the road and some errands followed by studying for my one and only final exam that evening. It has been years since I’ve taken a final exam, especially in a gen ed. type course i.e. lecture hall, tons of students, alternating tests for adjacent seats, wow. Check that one off the list. Saturday morning was rainy, Emily and I went over to the Summit hut and stared at maps for a while scoping out places we want to explore. We’ve got to get into the Rincons in the near future. I’m usually pedaling a bicycle when outside so exploration in those mountains has been a bit limited due to all the wilderness. I’m really looking forward too some trail running and hiking, maybe some overnights.
Later in the day once the rain stopped and we started to see some blue to the sky, we headed out to scramble around in La Milagrosa Canyon. We were met with water running all over the place which got me a bit cautious. The first crossing was almost knee deep with a pretty good push to the flow. Next we came to the convergence of Milagrosa canyon and Agua Caliente canyon. Too my surprise, Milagrosa was dry and Agua Caliente was booming. Must take a look at some maps to figure that one out. Anyway, we scrambled around, among the rocks and got to the ‘pools’ which looked like they had been standing quite a while, unimpressed, and with dwindling daylight we scrambled over the ridge and descended down the scree slopes to Agua Caliente. The water kept us in the scree and brush and by the time we got back to the convergence just as it was becoming too dark to see. Huff it back to the car and pick up some beers.
Dinner was grilled red snapper, pasta w/sun dried tomato pesto and a roasted beet salad, all washed down with Dogfish Head 60min IPA.
Today I slept in and headed out for a ride in TMP. Trail and weather conditions were ideal, nice cool air and super tack velcro. Today was a freebee day in the washes as traction was a plenty. We did some rather nice exploring on some faint, seldom used singletrack then moved around the main loop backwards. Toss in a few tasty side trails on the way and back down the hill into town. On the way down we hit up the back side of A mountain where the peanut butter mud was significantly less than the previous ride.
good night!
More of the weather….
December 2, 2007 at 5:15 am | In Pedaling, School | 1 CommentTags: A Mountain, Hidden Canyon, Mountain biking, Nite riding, Rain, Rainbows, Tires
A long day of work on the Decathlon proposal ended with this.
followed by some of this.
and got some of this which we don’t see much of
The route was a quick shot up to the Marriot trail and Hidden Canyon from campus area. Chris #1 met me at the house and we rolled out. On the way, we saw Chris #2 on his way out the door up to a quick run up A mountain. We convinced him to come with us instead. He didn’t sound too enthusiastic about Hidden Canyon but humored us, how nice. Hidden canyon was marvelous with fresh tacky trail. I cleaned a few more switchbacks with a big grin on the face. We got back down to the hotel and decided we couldn’t deny Chris #2 his original intent of going up A mountain so we headed up the back way. Not nearly as nasty as I expected on the climb up to the saddle but that is where we encountered the mud, weird, sticky crap, it grabbed onto the tires then proceeded to grab small rocks and fling them everywhere. We are spoiled. Capped the night off with a few “Racer 5″ tall beers.
Woke up in the morning and tinkered on bikes. Katie mentioned her cruiser bike riding “slow and lumpy”? I think this is what she was talking about.
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