Saturday, October 11, 2008

I miss the rain

I miss the rain. But don't tell anyone I ever said that. That is why when I saw the forecast for rain, I immediately began toying with the idea of a moonlight climb up Mt Lemmon from my house.

The profile of the route says it all....



After 26 miles of pedaling, I got to the bottom of La Milagrosa and began climbing in the moonlight. The plan was Milagrosa-Aspen, almost all on singletrack (I would be skipping the dreaded Green Mountain on the way up, then to descend it all. I had the supplies/clothes I needed to muster it up and back down, now I just had to see if the conditions would permit me.

As I was finishing the last section of Milagrosa, I nailed my eggbeater and busted it. Nice. I managed to make one of the sides work, but it was pretty hard to find which side it was when I was descending Molino and trying to clip in. While I was on Prison Camp, it started to rain a little bit, but nothing too horrible.

After about 30 minutes of riding against 30 mph wind gusts near windy point, I decided that it was time to turn around. I blazed down to Prison Camp, before exiting the mountain.

79.92 miles
10,509 feet of climbing
9:22 moving time
Most awkward moment: passing a truck with a flat tire. The driver decided not to change the tire, rather he would drive down Mt Lemmon going 5 mph and let his rim make this horrible noise.
Music: No Ipod or camera, just some pretty nasty wind

I love mountain biking at night. I love mountain biking in the fall. Next race, the Rock y Road 50/50.

2 comments:

Rockin' said...

OK, it's later.

ScottM said...

Heck of an effort Chad, and bonus points for riding there from home.

Would have been a sunrise (or late morning?) had you finished all the way to the top.

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