It’s been 10 years since I’ve gone ‘home’ for Christmas. There are a lot of reasons why this is, the most obvious ones being the superior weather in Tucson, and my debilitating addiction to riding bikes on dirt. Well, this year the shoreline trails were nearly dry… but that was just a coincidence. I was looking forwarding to seeing everyone and experiencing ‘the Holidays’ back in Salt Lake.
I borrowed my Dad’s bike, and my brother and I headed for the usual first target: Hero Hill. On a too-small bike (and 26″ – gasp!) and with the snow, I didn’t put my chances of a clean ‘summit bid’ very high at first. That likelihood increased a bit on the initial slopes, then plummeted as I looked at the crux in the middle — covered in slippery snow. Bikes do fairly well on snow, until you get to 25% grade or so! Then all bets are off.
I thought I was sunk several times, but kept pedaling even when my wheels were sliding, and hit it with everything I had.
The rest was elementary — fitness kicks in and you just keep it steady. A clean ascent of Hero Hill on December 26!
My younger brother joined for another ride, this time heading for Dry Creek and the Bobsled.
I finally swallowed my pride and bought a real camera (Canon T2i), and love the clarity in the images so far. Usually facial expressions are lost with my point&shoot.
Playing around with focus / focal depth is fun too.
There’s a city in there somewhere. I think I could deal with the cold, but not the air. Put cold, air and snow together and it is not hard to see why I made my way south.. at least for the winters.
The brothers turned around, and I had a few moments of frustration with my back and trying to feel comfortable while riding. Luckily the trail conditions got pretty nutty as I turned down the Bobsled. First it was a little mud, then a solid ice rink, which continued another 100 yards down the trail. I bushwhacked around it, then tried to gain confidence enough to rail the snowy turns on the rest of the bobsled below. By the bottom I was laughing out loud as I inched higher and higher on the banked corners.. 26″ wheels holding like champ!
Down by the junked cars my fingers left me and as I pedaled back through the city and lower shoreline trails I was flooded with memories of so many well-intentioned but ill-realized rides of SLC falls and winters past. Struggling to stay warm, struggling to find rideable trails, struggling to get home before dark.
It was a classic end to the ride: freezing while coming down 1300 South, out of daylight, out of warmth and just about out of patience. Nostalgic, sure, but all I could think about was wunderground.com telling me it was in the 70’s back in Tucson.
Of course, I didn’t come to ride, I came to visit family, and that part of the trip was superb. I’m really lucky to have such an awesome family, including the animals such as Ro Cat above.
it wouldn’t be christmas w/o legos!
I learned a lot about the new camera while there, taking shots of the various goings on and good folks around. It’s been super fun, but we’ll see how many rides I actually end up lugging it around on.
naked knees!
So far… nearly none in Tucson. I flew back in and spent the next 72 hours pretty much solely focused on being out in the sun, moving through the desert. And only took the small camera along. For the first ride, I was on my bike within a few minutes of getting back from the airport. The sun was so incredibly energizing that I rode purely on solar power for 2 hours — no glycogen or fat stores needed.
Perhaps by not as much coincidence as I might think (since I always seem to exit the trailsystem as it gets dark, at roughly the same time) the sun lit up the Cholla Monster I took a photo of before. I’m still not exactly sure where the cactus is, but the sun (at this time of year) shoots right through Starr Pass itself, so that only the cactus and the immediate area is blessed with its warmth. I’m guessing I’ll find myself there again before the sun moves too much further north…
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