I joined a small group ride to a new destination, the top of "A" mountain. We began with a warm-up on the bike path of 15 miles then began repeats of the hill, a 1.5 mile ascent with 450' of elevation gain. A good workout and I went up 4 times and then we did a warm down on the bike path. The "A" was build by U of A students in 1915 and as been maintained ever since. Pretty good views too. The next day I rolled around the northwest side for 54 miles and with a favorable forecast.... ...headed to Mount Lemmon. A favorable forecast is winds out of the southwest and a high in the valley of 80+ so at the top, the temperature will be around 60. I paused at the bottom to adjust everything and a group of 15 passed with a chase car. And so the grind of 26 miles to the village of Summerhaven begins. I set new personal bests at the 2.5 mile vista, 7 Cataracts Vista and.... ....Windy Point Vista where I stopped for a break and took this pic of the many lizards/chameleons that populate the area. This being Saturday, tourists were plentiful and mixed with cyclists. The guy in the yellow jersey and I ended up.... ...cruising into Summerhaven. On the ride up, I counted 118 cyclists coasting down so a busy place to be. I stopped at the Sawmill Restaurant and had a chicken Caesar salad. The hills still show evidence of the fire from about 10 years ago. A cyclist stopped at my table and told me he heard wind gusts were fierce on the ride down and so they were. Climbing out of Summerhaven there is then a 2 mile descent followed by a 2 mile ascent and then a glorious 21 mile coast but the winds were high but I made it down ok, finishing with 59 miles and 6800' of climbing. Good day.
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