Chad‘s Arizona Trail Jamboree ride brought out over 100 riders and raised $5000 for Arizona’s best trail — the one the covers the entire state. It was great to see so much support for the AZT from the mountain bike community. The ATA works hard to built awesome singletrack, and does a great job of keeping mountain bikers in mind.
Case in point: the Cienega Corridor segment of the AZT. 25+ miles of primo singletrack on the southeast side of Tucson.
The idea of the Jamboree is simple: ride a bunch of AZT. Most riders got a shuttle out to Box Canyon road, then rode back in Pistol Hill Rd. Though a shuttle, it’s no easy ride! Krista and I were looking for a few more miles, so we started at Pistol Hill and rode out/back to the Lakes Road.
photo by Krista Park
When we met up with Dejay and crew, we turned around. Dejay got a little excited nailing the jumps on the Lakes road and had a bit of a spill. His mishap saved me the embarrassment of totally missing the turn back onto the AZT, seriously calling into question my title as the “human GPS.”
Krista’s a blur riding under Interstate 10.
The riding was stellar, and hanging out with everyone afterward even better. I put some faces to names and email addresses, and also got to meet the other Scott Morris that lives in Tucson, rides a mountain bike and is a software guy! Coincidence? Or were all Scott Morris’s born to ride and compute?! I’ve been hearing about this Scott Morris for years, and our paths finally crossed.
Paula took Krista’s skills clinic and among other things, learned to pedal lift her front tire! It was really cool to see Paula getting excited about riding. She was really picking up the “carving” on the practice course through the palm trees.
Krista puts on a nice clinic — highly recommended. It had me thinking through some of the things I do on the bike, and questioning them.
After the clinic we rode with Chloe Forsman, a super fast Tucson rider. It was fun to follow her around on some new west side roads, then we cruised around Robles and Starr Pass.
Paula’s first number place since surgery! (Sun Run 10k in Tucson) Too bad she couldn’t muster any excitement for the day…
She wasn’t allowed to actually race (by her coach), but even at a “jog” pace with a ~mile of running she took second in her age group. She’s on her way back. It was great to see her back where she loves to be — in a race, even if she wasn’t really racing.
Back on the road?
No! The road bike is collecting dust for now.
And Old Pueblo is on the gasline horizon. Can’t wait to blast out a few more laps this year…
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