Yesterday most of Arizona got pounded with rain. My backyard & patio flooded, thunder cracked and cats freaked out. A little further to the north and west, a few thousand mountain bikers struggled and suffered in the rain and mud at the 24 hour race. I’m sorry to have missed the epic conditions but also happy I missed the epic conditions. My mind is burning on other adventures, and my torch can only burn so bright. A solo effort was just not in the cards for this year.
I’ve always wondered how to ride from Tubac to the Santa Ritas and today Lee showed me. We hit some pockets of mud, but given how much water has fallen in the past week, we were lucky just to be riding. The sun even blasted its way through the clouds, giving us a nice warm day to enjoy the mountains.
We rode from Lee’s house, over to Lee’s shop in the middle of Tubac, then across the Santa Cruz river to begin climbing the Santa Ritas. The road was a dozer track that alternated between going straight up (fall line) and dropping into valleys to switch ridges. Great fun, really. Plenty o’ rocks to make me wonder what a 29er would feel like riding.
We reached Bull Springs road in no time, where we had some moments of indecisiveness. Too many options, all too appealing, but we eventually settled on heading to Elephant Head. We rode around the Devil’s Cashbox, then climbed up to the saddle that leads to Chino Basin. There we enjoyed an outstanding climb and spectacular (yes, spectacular, though completely unlike saddlebrooke) view of Elephant Head and beyond. I’ve always enjoyed Elephant Head, but rarely make the drive to ride it. To ride it from Lee’s house was a treat.
We took a different route back to Tubac that featured a long ridgeline descent. It was refreshing to look out across a largely undeveloped valley. We’ll see how long it stays that way.
43 miles, 5 hours moving time, 5400 feet of climbing
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