Ride Around The Santa Ritas (RATS)

It has become sort of an unspoken tradition to do (or at least plan) this ride every year. The first year was nothing less than a beat down. Check out that last picture of Max Morris spread out on the ground after the RATS ride back in 2008. This ride has become somewhat of a gauge for me to see how well I am really doing on the bike.

I got a nice wake up call at 4:15am from Max to meet him for breakfast. Biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs, hash browns, toast, and coffee; these are all the things needed for a 12-hour day on the bike. After parking the car at the intersection of Box Canyon and Madera Canyon, we set out under the moonlight, with a light tail wind.

Max riding in front of Elephant Head

I love doing these 10+ hour rides on the bike. After doing a handful of said rides a year, I know just how my body reacts. First, you carb load in the morning. Then, reality sets in, so my stomach begins to do an awkward combination of butterflies (nervousness, maybe) and giddiness. After I begin pedaling, my legs begin to ache for the first 2 hours as I begin to warm-up. Does this happen to anyone else doing these big rides?

Mt Hopkins Road looking south toward Rio Rico

It was a similar start for me this year. The entire time climbing up Mt Hopkins Rd, my legs ached and begged for some relief. No such relief with Max off the front. I tried to keep up as he sped ahead. No luck. Max was ripping it up.


Nearing the top, we rested to take in some of the views. This one looking southwest toward Rio Rico shows most of the climb up (far right, middle).




Greeted by singletrack and snow, my legs were slowly beginning to wake up. Things got interesting after the snow.








Steep...that is how I sum up this ride. There was a recent thread on TucsonMTB.com about the steepest climbs in the Tucson area. A few of these climbs were mentioned multiple times. If Max was beating me on the climbs, then I was going to leave him on the descents...and so, that is how the day continued. Max would jump ahead on the climbs, and I would catch up with him on the ascents.



The big unknown was some of the "immigrant trails" that are used to connect the dirt road. The condition was, to our dismay, very poor and mostly unrideable. It made for about a 45 minute hike-a-bike. There were some signs of some recent hikers, like this "Naranjada Borbon" that intrigued me. It does not take a Spanish teacher to guess what that translates into.



We bombed down...







...climbed up...




and climbed down. Repeat process until you have around 13,000 feet of climbing.



As we neared Kentucky Camp around 3pm, that 20% chance of rain seemed like it was creeping up. The temperature dropped and clouds begin to accumulate. For the next 2 hours, we got a light rain, just enough to make it necessary to wear arm/knee warmers.



Previous rides have all pointed to a 12-14 hour finish. The plan was to rest as little as possible and ride at a descent pace. The Kentucky Camp AZ Trail contoured singletrack went by in a flash.



11 hours, 20 minutes later we got back to our car. No mechanical, about four 15-minute stops and a descent pace contributed to the faster than expected pace. At days end, it was a beat down on my body. Although not in the shape that I want to be in, I am happy that the hopeless "survival mode" was never needed. The next couple of weeks (APC and Tortolita) should help in getting me back to where I would like to be with respect to fitness.

AZT Jamboree and Outside Magazine Bike Testing

 The Arizona Trail Jamboree is in its 3rd year now.  The trail has expanded so much since then, in part to monetary donors that see the trail in a similar manner....a gem that can be used by many users.

 With a little under 100 people signed up this year, shuttling was going to be the easy part. As in the years past, SW Trekkers donated their time and vehicles for the shuttling. SDMB had a killer aid station, beer, water food and above all baked pizza on demand from their oven! (Thank you Vern, Cat and Brian)




Scott showed up as the shuttles were leaving us a little under 3.5 hours to play around on the bikes doing an out-n-back before the shuttlers began their tumultuous arrival back at the camp. 



Tire choice seems to be a hot issue these days....




With two sides of the argument being hotly contested....weight vs. sidewall protection. We are still not sure who is winning the debate.







After the ride, we grilled and drank, and above all talked and laughed all in the name of helping out the Arizona Trail. It brings a smile to my face just thinking about it. So, thank you to everyone that helped. I am still waiting for a final figure for this year, but I estimate it to be around $3500 for the AZT.

If you want more pictures from the event, check out the following:

AZ MTBR Thread
TucsonMTB.com Pictures

The next day, Aaron Gulley from Outside Magazine invited us to demo bikes at Starr Pass. I was able to do this last year for Aaron and really enjoyed it. This time is was 29ers. Similar to last year, you ride a loop and then rate the bike.



 

We did two different loops... Cat Mtn or Hooligan/Stone House (both from from the Genser TH). I was able to ride some great bikes, among them the Sultan Turner(below), Cannondale Scalpel and the Niner Jet 9 RDO (below). It's interesting to see how these differ from my current Lenz Sport Behemoth and Leviathan.
 


We had a good group running loops during the entire morning and afternoon.




The Hooligan Loop was a hit with some of the testers. Check out Aaron with that smile! A few more pictures from the day.




Starr Pass really is a special place to be. I was reminded this as the lighting began to set and the moon started to come up over the Catalinas.

Cowboy Trails Revisted

Family time in Las Vegas means some more short rides at the Cowboy Trails near Red Rock State Park. With names like Bomb Voyage, Bob Gnarly, and Boneshaker as the technical trails, it's bound to give anyone who rides it a smile. Add in some beautiful background and you might just make the drive from southern Utah to come visit the area. Today,

After two days in the area, here are a few of the pictures.

N. San Diego Loop

It has been a few years that I have been vacationing in northern San Diego. Over the years, I have slowly been accumulating several connectors to the reserves in the area. With all of the dots connected (see here for previous rides), Collin and I set out to do the 60 mile loop. We started out on San Dieguito Path, right out the back gate of the house. The weather was beautiful, temps were perfect for a long ride.
This section of the loop was inspired by the Archipelago Ride that is done every year. The route winds its way to Black Mountain and later Los Pensaquitos. Collin's longest ride before this loop was the 4-hour, 30 mile Kentucky Camp loop. Doubling that longest ride would prove to be super challenging. We were moving at a fast pace in the morning, but that was slowly slipping as the telephone line trails began to get steeper and steeper.

Los Pensaquitos is part of the the 100-mile Sea to Sea (Del Mar to Salton Sea) that is used a multi-user trail. It seems that some of the trail is hard to find and rarely signed. The trail continues toward Poway, going under Interstate 15 (shown above) and continuing on toward South Poway Trail. It was at this point where we had to decide to take the highway up to Mt Woodson or continue on the unknown South Poway Trail. Due to the amount of climbing ahead, we decided to take the easier road route. We continued up Poway to Highway 67, skipping the out-n-back on Iron Mountain. We climbed the backside of Mt Woodson. This is the section that I had never ridden. Information on Mt Woodson calls it a technical wonderland for mountain bikers. I was not quite sure about the front side of Mt Woodson until a hiker asked us if we were going to "descend that steep trail!?" I answered affirmatively. His response made me a little gitty, "You are going to have to walk a bunch, there is no way you are going to ride all of it!" Ahhhhh........sounds like the perfect way to descend a mountain. up to 2900 feet. The hiker could not have been more wrong...the tight switchbacks and water bars were a perfect switch from the mostly double/singltrack that this loop has. Singletrack bliss! Shouts of joy were followed by slow switchback moves, even an occasional impressed hiker commenting, "I cannot believe you are riding down this" or my favorite, "How did you guys get up here!?" Collin descending the front of Mt Woodson The option to go down a trail called Fry presented itself, but the left option seemed steeper. At the bottom of Mt Woodson, we quickly rode through Poway Lake Trails and over to the Espola Rd.Having just descended some singletrack, I was high on life and we picked up the pace. We stopped at the Circle K on Rancho Bernardo and I15 to buy some snacks and gatorade. Collin had an dinner party to attend, so he went straight to cut off some miles. I would continue straight to finish the loop solo. We made a silly bet to see who could get back to the house faster. Twisting around Lake Hodges on singletrack was a great way to get closer to the finish off the loop. I put my head down and pedaled fast.

Climbing this hill on Elfin was the last part of the epic.
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We finished the loop at roughly 8.5 hours, 7.5 hours of moving time. Topofusion says that there is about 7500 feet of climbing for the entire 60 mile loop. It was a fantastic loop, Mt Woodson being the highlight.

If I were to do it differently, I would have continued on South Poway Trail to Highway 67 and try to scout out a way to get from Iron Mountain to Mt Woodson. Also, I had previously scouted out a way to get away from using Espola Rd by using the trail that connects Hodges with Mule Ears, Old Coach (Maderas Community). I think that would make this a classic loop.


Any other suggestions from anyone that knows N. San Diego? Click here to get the GPX file.



(demo version of Topofusion, sorry Scott, I have the demo version on this PC)