Cycling to Picacho Peak & the Tri Dude

Good ride today but the experience began the evening before when I was soaking my aching, weak muscles in the spa and sharing it with a guy who is in town for a "Personal Best" Tri training camp.  I thought the most excruciatingly boring experience was listening to a golfer describe every shot in the round of golf but nope, that has been surpassed by listening to a guy ramble on and on about every tri event, times, places, etc...  Louisville, Ironman, Lake Placid, crashing waves and my eyes glazed over and he finally asked what I did.  When I told him I worked in the golf industry he said, "Oh, I'm good at that too!"  Geesh.  Anyway, he described a training ride the camp took, which revealed a new route to me so for that, it was almost worth being brought to tears of boredom.  I headed north to Catalina, took #79 towards Phoenix but 10 miles in hung a left on a paved road called East Park Link. It was 18 miles of flat, which was a nice change of pace.  Above you can make out Picacho Peak. 

I was stopped by a train for quite awhile at a frontage road at I-10.  I rode 5 miles farther north to a market, at mile 45, where I saw a group of "Hells Angels Arizona" jacketed bikers.  These guys appeared to be the real deal and I confirmed it when I walked by one of them and said, "How's it going." and got only a grunt in reply.  There was another gang there too but smaller in number.  I sized up the situation and decided to get out before guns were drawn.

Rode toward the town of Marana on the west side of I-10, still very flat while passing a farm with neat views of distant mountains.  Then it was east on Tangerine which is an 8 mile climb but not steep and lots of false flats.  Finished with 84 miles and 2900' of climbing.  Rode the next day with a group and had a good time, finishing with 50 miles.  I have been asked how many miles I have ridden and only 765 for March.  With 30 out of 31 days sunny and all but two having temps in the 70's and 80's, some of you would have been over 1000 miles but the hiking, 64 miles, has been fantastic and do I have an adventure to describe next.  Note to self, buy the freakin GPS device for hikes.