Golder Grand Tour

The power of an idea — for whatever reason the west side of the Catalinas has always been a ‘play’ area in my mind, not a place to get in a long ride. This thread was started by Louis, and instantly the idea clicked with me.

A Grand Tour was long, long overdue. Better squeeze it into 2009 while we still can.

Start out with a little sand and awkward rock through Catalina State Park — Bridle and Sutherland trails.

Then climb “the rockiest road in Tucson” — Sutherland. Considering the competition, that title carries some serious weight.

Jim joined for us for the first half of the ride. That picture is the smoothest Sutherland gets. Progress is slow, attention must be paid to your line at all times — I was loving it in all its relentless glory.

On to the Baby Jesus trail. That’s a crappy pic as far as composition, light, and background go, but I love how it shows the awkwardness / challenge that pervades BabyJ. Leaning, sliding, and finally you’re off and walking. Repeat.

It almost looks like Chad is going to fall over backwards, but he pulled it off.

Hundreds of colorful fish in the cattle trough. How did they all get there?

On to CP singletrack and Rattlesnake Gulch / Cherry Tank.

Tom from Seattle joined us for the ride.

He had some funny quotes as the energy thirsty and blood thirsty trail wore on.

“Are we going to ride any ‘clean’ trail?”

“There’s a certain bullshit factor to the riding, but it’s fun stuff.”

“How much longer is it going to stay like this? I’m just trying to prepare mentally.”

Considering he had no idea what he was in for, he did really well. Super strong rider and very resilient.

Wheelie kick it, Chad!

Four hours in, we had covered almost 17 miles. And we had not been fiddle fartin’ around.

Energy and blood thirsty, rough and tumble. It’s mountain biking, you know, cross country.

It was time to descend the Gap road…. whoooooooeeeeeeeeeeeee!! Miles flew by, Chad showed me his B-lines, grins grew.

We connected the Gap to the Chutes, sans pavement, but paid the price of some CDO wash walking. There are trails to ride instead, but we couldn’t find them. Next time!

We debated a bit about the availability of daylight and energy for challenging the upper 50 loop. No Grand Tour would be complete without it, and we didn’t fight through all the hard stuff just to bail on the ‘easy.’

Real or fake grimace? Your call.

It was a good choice. Our hours of toiling through the cat claw, hopping tires up rocks, dodging catcus and power bursting climbs had finely tuned our ‘west side catalina’ riding senses. These trails now seemed easy, though they are anything but.

We flashed through the upper loop, mid gate and out through lower deer camp.

The rest was elementary. Blast the lower 50, almost wishing for a big ring. Blink as the climbs disappear under your wheels, and enjoy more endless downhill, all the way back to Catalina State Park, blazing with golden light.

What a great way to end a ride, not to mention 2009.

Stats:

34 miles
6000′ climbing
6:40 time

The climbing to distance ratio only begins to hint at the difficulty. I’m thinking it might make sense as a “virtual” race route, similar to the TMP Rock n’ Road Challenge. Different character to this one, though…