Death on Mount Lemmon

OK, overly dramatic title to the story of my 2nd ascent of this mountain.  But, there is unfortunately truth to the title.  Rather than park at the gathering place for cyclists, LaBuzz, I drove to the base of the mountain and parked in the shade along the side of the road.  The high today was in the mid 90's but up top, low 60's.  As I readied myself, a lot of emergency vehicles passed.

For as long as it takes me to climb the beast, I assumed the emergency would have been handled by the time I reached it.  I took a break at mile 14, Windy Point Vista where I addressed the usual questions, "Yes, I am really riding my bike up the mountain."  Back on the bike, a mile farther up the road, I happened upon the scene.  A car that appeared undamaged was being pulled onto a flat bed truck.  I asked a guy managing the "Stop/Slow" sign what had happened, "Injury" he replied.  Later I was told a man had probably stopped to take a picture and fell from one of the boulders.  His body was seen, wrapped in a sheet and being pulled from below.

I stopped to eat a salad in Summerhaven and then chugged on up to Ski Valley where I was surprised to see patches of snow still on the north facing slopes.  The gate was open for the 2 mile additional climb to the observatory.  I eyed it warily, turned my bike in the down hill direction and.....

…..began the 28 mile return.  What a glorious descent.  Lemmon is not a good fit for my cycling ability.  Even my best time, set last year, sucks.  On Strava, I am 4400 out of 8300 for the 21 mile climb segment.  For segments lower on the mountain, my times are a little more respectable, mid 3000s out of 14,000 efforts.  I guess that shows for the many dozens of cyclists who are on the mountain each day, how few of them go the distance.  I just use it to burn calories and so I did, 4000+.