Riding Update

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.