Mechanicals and Flats

I woke up today for the Aspen to Millie ride, in a daze I started to search around for my bike gear that had been tossed on the ground from yesterday's ride. During my commute to work, I managed to misplace my prescription sunglasses (essential piece of gear when flying down Lemmon at 40+ mph). After looking for about 20 minutes, I decided that I probably left them at work during my bike commute. Bummer. I tossed in some contact lenses and glasses, loaded my bike, and grabbed some oatmeal and raisins. No coffee, no sunglasses, this was starting off to be a bad day already.

We shuttled to the top of Mt Lemmon for an all day mountain bike ride "down" Mt Lemmon. Things slowly got better as we started on Aspen Draw, dodging pine trees and streams. This is the Arizona that I will come to love this summer, escaping to Mt Lemmon is going to be a common weekend occurrence this summer I have decided.

We started at Aspen Draw on some semi-technical trail and ended up tossing in the towel after Bugs Springs, partly due to mechanicals and flats and partly do to a lackluster motivation to continue. A gatorade and fudge stop also was a major culprit in the decision to bail rather than continuing down the relentless technical Prison and Milagrosa trails. Frankly, I could have done Prison but I (nor my front shock/bike) was not ready to do Millie.

Those that are unfamiliar with this network of trails, take my word when I say this is one of the best, technical rides in Arizona. The route is also part of the Climb or Die (Scott's idea) challenge that Scott and I have been trying ton conquer. During today's ride, we managed to only cover 29 miles over the course of the 6 hour trip. Honestly, it may be easier for me to ascend this mountain than to descend it.

Ride Time: 5:56
Total milage: 29.80
Ascent: 6521
Descent: 12829

A shot looking down at Bug Springs, south toward Tucson.

I think we all took our spills pretty well, especially Steve, who not only ate it twice, he managed to break his new ultimate Avid Juicy hydraulic (which retail for $500) while taking a spill on Bugs. Surprisingly, I had no flats or mechanicals today, although everyone else at one time either had a flat, mechanical, or both.

Looking forward to some the Coconino Dirty Century in Flagstaff on Saturday and some reconning around the Tortolitas...

...on Tuesday, super early morning.


Max and Vern, thanks for the beverages. Thanks again to Cat for the shuttle ride and congrats again on graduating!