Small Steps

 Haven't posted in a while, so let's see:

Drove to Utah to attempt Utah Mixed Epic again and failed horribly. Got off balance swinging my stupid leg over the seat and the rear seat bag and ended up on the ground on the same shoulder I hurt back in summer '18. Fiddled around getting to the top of Bountiful Peak. Sat there for a bit, probably could have continued, but had a hurting pity party and rode my butt back down the damm mountain and to SLC airport and got my car. Took a few days for the shoulder to ease up, all better now ... except for a little pop every now and then.

Farmington Bay

Climbing

Mountain Lake 

Salt Lake Valley

Riding some more now that it's cooled down. Probably not as much as I should. 

Mount Lemmon Gravel Grinder was put off a year due to Covid and I still had a registration from last year, so ended up in Oracle on Saturday morning and decided to do the 40 mile version. Had a great time! It was damm near perfect. Maybe 200 of us rolling out, I started in the back and felt pretty good for the whole race. I think the best part is the Haul Road ... it was pretty smooth and generally downhill for 10 miles or so?  Felt like a real bicycle rider for a change. The uphill on Webb Road sucked as usual, but there is great company out there, just about everyone is in some stage of suckage. Anyways got a podium that I didn't even know about ... apparently they created a 70plus age category and I was #1.  I was already in Oracle Junction scoring huevos rancheros at Lupe's when I found out.

Someplace on the Haul Road

El Tour de Tucson coming up in a few weeks. See how that goes.

I have big thoughts. Would love to do Camino del Diablo again, to do Baja again, to do Tour Divide next year. Will just have to see how the winds blow. But was really happy to FINISH something even if it was a little 40 mile gravel grinder.

Hot

Stopped at the Bike Ranch in Hachita to see our good friend Jeff and get a couple of hours of sleep. Up at 3:30 am to eat something quick, drink some OJ and drive to Antelope Wells.  When we got there right at 5am John M was walking his bike to the chain link fence in front of the Border Station.

Lined up quickly and rolled out. It was actually a little chilly, had my base layer on. John and I talked for a few minutes and I could sense he was a lot faster than me, so I dropped back and he gapped me by quite a bit .. then I needed to stop for a quick break and I didn't see him again.

As Gus who left at midnight said "the first 80 miles were great" ... I think I got to Separ better than ever before, I felt strong, wasn't winded. I got some drinks and sat on the porch with them, then got a bag of ice and iced up my Camelback and my bottles.

Started rolling to Thorn Ranch and that went well, then made that left turn off Gage Road and things got slow ... a headwind with about 100 degrees behind it just drained me. I stopped at a yucca tree for some shade, but that didn't help much. Used a couple of GU's which might have been the cause of my upset stomach later, but was able to get to highway 70.

And then the hard part started ... Gus and I met and switched places riding past the mine and on into Silver City, but we might have taken 4 hours to go 20 miles or so. It wasn't pretty. And when I got to that Chevron station the food mart was closed. Having thrown up by the mine, now I had the dry heaves. 

Well, we got a mile down and found an open conv store and went our separate ways to find hotels for the night.

On Saturday morning I got up, hit Denny's for breakfast and decided to go straight for it rather than rest and recuperate. I did pretty good climbing up to Pinos Altos, stopped a petted the doggie at the museum and continued on. Someplace near the top I was getting pretty tired. Hit the other side going down and Iwas feeling fried. Stopped on a downhill in the heat. Then stopped on the flatter section going towards Lake Roberts. Finally made it to the general store and got 2 Cokes and went outside to drink them.

I may have hung out for an hour and a half there, just sitting outside in what shade I could find. Got some cold waters and 2 cokes to go. Made the climbs around Lake Roberts ok and then pretty much was out of "gas" by the time I got to Sapillo campground where the CDT comes in. I took a photo of the trees in the wind ... the Wahoo said it was 105, maybe a bit higher than was it was but I was melted.

I pushed the bike up Star Road, laid down again, got to the top and camped right there. Fixed a cup of soup and felt better and decided to sleep on it. 

Got up in the morning and started up Star road again, and I had no energy. So I turned downhill towards Mimbres to look for food. The old Mimbres Cafe was closed, so hit San Lorenzo and waited an hour for them to open. Had a great breakfast, and then rode towards Silver City. Called home and let Susan know I was pretty much done.

I slept, sent a scratch note to Matthew. Got up this morning and went up a little hill and I was still weak. Don't know what I did maybe we'll be back to normal in a few days, but Tour Divide is done for me for this year.

Diablo Mountains

Had seen this area when I rode to Buenos Aires from the Arivaca Highway on Batamote road and wondered what was over there. Then I saw some posts from other riders about some "Hunter Access Road" and so decided to give it a shot.

The starting point is just west of the Border Patrol CP on I-19. There is a frontage road on the west side of the freeway and you see the Hunter Access sign and turn in and just park right there.

Pretty straightforward riding, I did this in two parts, going about 10 miles and then turning around the first day and then the next day going to Arivaca and heading east from there to where I got the previous day, that piece was about 28 miles, starting from the Arivaca Community Center out and back.

The country is so dry right now, we need rain badly. #megadrought

Climbing up from the start

Rough country on either side of the road

After the pass ... turnaround point

Baboquivari ( zoomed in )

On the way back to start .. Elephant Head shows 

Grove of cottonwoods is protected from the ATV's

Day 2 rolling from Arivaca .. still in what passes for suburbia down there

Sign in here

Riding along, pretty good road 

Solar powered windmill

Where we turned around the day before

Same area different view ( you can see this from Arivaca Highway if you look in the right place )

Hola vaca's

Cienega Creek from the North

Another exploration of the area to the east of the Empire Mountains on Sun, Dec 27.  I just wanted to get all the way to Cienega Creek and back from Old Sonoita Highway and it worked out pretty well.

Parked on Old Sonoita about 1.4 miles from the Highway 83 intersection, there's a wide spot there. Pulled the bike out and rolled back down the hill to where the ATV people park, through the AZ State Land gate and south we went.

The first part is all rollers and rollers, then it flattens out a little bit. It's just miles of pretty empty country back there with the occasional ATV. For a Sunday it was really pretty empty. Maybe one ATV in the morning and two or three in the afternoon as I was heading back, so not too bad.

The whole thing was rideable, even for me, except for one or two wash descents that I walked down and tried to climb out of on the other side but stalled. 

Got to the sheets of metal hanging in the middle of Cienega creek, had a little something to eat and headed back. Ended up with about 5 hours of riding more or less, 3700 feet of climbing and 25 miles. Think it's on Strava at  https://www.strava.com/activities/4527245912 

Empire foothills