Quad National-Mormon

Loaded up the bikes for a weekend in Phoenix. I picked up my packet and even went out to the race before deciding that my lungs were not going to be able to hold up during the race, so I decided to go to South Mountain for some mountain biking (Dave and I did Desert Classic coast-to-coast on Saturday).

I stopped by Cactus Bikes to get an extra tube, and rode over from the Safeway to avoid the parking at Pima Canyon, I turned the GPS on at the trailhead and began my fun, technical climb up National. Trails like National make me ponder why I even have a road bike. The trail is surreal in every form, each time I rode it, I dabbed less and less. I had a light pace and did not carry my camelbak, both made me clean more sections than ever before. When I got to the bottom of national again, I decided to do it again. Although this time, I remembered more of the lines. And so began my quest to do the loop 4 times in 2 hours. Passing each hiker was the most memorable part of the loop,

"Back for more?"
"Great day, you just seem to be warming up."
"Nice to see you again."

Such comments were in part due to my asking everybody about their day, doing track stands to let them pass, or asking if they wanted me to go first. It was an all-around great day on the bike, despite tons of people on the trail. Plan is to see how far I can climb the Lemmon tomorrow by way of Milagrosa-Molino-Prison-Bug-Greenie.



I did the national-mormon loop 4 times, here are the stats:

18.9 miles
3100 feet of climbing
Playlist: the Doors and Mozart