Tucson Mountain Park Loop

Scott and I had plans to do some a good epic today, the new route for the Antelope Peak Challenge. The route and info are not up on the site yet, but the new 116-mile long course option is not going to disappoint. Anyway, that fell through after some car trouble on Scott's end.

We opted for a milder, closer to Tucson loop... The Tucson Mountain Park Loop from each of our respective houses (see below for route and profile).

I met Scott at CDO and continued on toward Starr Pass and Robles (shown here)



up and over Golden Gate



and then to Sweet Trails and [I]over[/I] Brown Mountain






[I]Pictures Courtesy of Scott[/I]



After Brown Mountain, I began to bonk. My legs felt like Jello. Excited to see the Coke machine at Saguaro National Park visitor center, I was only let down by the fact that the $1 sucker machine was broken. Epic failure. After about 15 attempts, I finally got it to work.



2 Pepsis later (the iced tea button was actually Pepsi), the epic failure averted for now.

One of the few dirt road sections in all the loop is in Saguaro National Park, providing some good scenery




Before riding back on the gasline (Scott had to return to Sweetwater to ride since we met at CDO Trailhead and then home to get the car).



[B]Post-loop food:[/B] Nico's Breakfast Burrito

The loop info:
[B]64.5 miles
6861 feet of climbing
about 75% singletrack/dirt road[/B]