In Tucson

After checking out the Gulf War era tank and APC at the little outfit, we headed out the backdoor to bushwack back to the AZT. It was one mile, but despite yesterday’s trouble, we decided to take the adventurous route again. This time we got a little trail magic — we found an old 2 track road that took us to a gate within 20 feet of the AZT. Perfect. Scott’s blunder from yesterday turned out well today as it saved us an hour of climbing, and we re-rode a tiny portion of the trail.

The canelo west section was wonderful. Very nice singletrack. We followed the most traveled singletrack at one point that led us directly into a immigrant campground littered with trash. We backtracked to find the AZT as the tiniest, overgrown singletrack you can imagine. The immigrant trail is getting 1000 times the use, easily. I’m sure we aren’t the first to get lost here.

In Patagonia we visited Lee’s sister, filled up on food, then left to climb away into the Santa Rita mountains. After some tough work we were in Gardner Canyon enjoying the ‘flume’ singletrack. The weather was unbelievably perfect for climbing. I’m happy to report that I cleaned the “Ascent of Death” although it took a chunk of change out of my dwindling supply of energy. I did not, however, get the Steak-Dinner challenge section, but I did give it two good efforts.

We rolled into Kentucky Camp, where the Forest Service rents out a cabin for $75 a night. The sun was going down as we chatted with the camp hosts. Finally we asked if we could camp out on the porch of the historic building, so they suggested we sleep in the house!

At 35 degrees in the morning we were glad to be in the old adobe structure. The camp hosts, Dean and Levarene (?) were ever so kind to us in the morning, shoving food in our faces and coffee into Lee’s belly. We left a bit late to enjoy still more singletrack in the Santa Ritas.

It was a superb morning to blast through green meadows and climb steep, rocky trails. What a treat. At Box Canyon road a DEA agent disguised as a rancher asked us if we had seen any backpackers who “didn’t look like they should be here.” Nope, sorry sir.

As we rolled down Oak Tree canyon we saw a pilot car up on highway 83. But the trail magic continued — we came out right at the end of the construction. This meant we had clear road, then a short train of cars to let by, then more clear road. We tucked in for a big descent out of the Santa Ritas.

Our road construction luck ran out on Old Sonoita road — they were currently chip sealing it. The thought of tar all over our bikes turned us away from connecting over to Davidson canyon, though I had hoped to cross under I-10 there.

Instead we rolled over Marsh Station RD, then took a bit of dirt to drop into 3 bridges.

At 3 bridges we had the pleasure of riding brand new singletrack thanks to the Cienega Construction project. It was satisfiying to ride, knowing the work I (and others) have put into it. The trail, of course, doesn’t connect through yet, so it was bushwack time yet again. Hike-a-bike in the midday sun put the hurt on us, so by the time we rolled into the ranch at Colossal Cave, we were ready for some shade. First we talked to the rancher, Rick–about all sorts of things. Next was the cave’s staff scientist who was an absolute fountain of knowledge on the geology of the area. Besides teaching us about the formation of the sky islands in southern AZ (he claims they are the most complicated and difficult geological problems in the US) he clued us into some great ride ideas in Mexico. Think hidden volcanoes and hot springs.

I called Mark Flint and Paula to set up a meeting plan, then after talking to the geology whiz for a while longer, we set off up the back side of the mountain park. At La Sevilla picnic area we picked up fresh singletrack (constructed last weekend!) along the canyon side. I had high expecations for this trail, and it’s getting better every time I go out. Very nice tread, awesome rock challenges and a nice view of the Rincon Mountains. After doing some hike-a-bike to finish up this stretch of almost-built trail we continued over to a long stretch of singletrack completed last fall. The miles just flew by, and mid-way we met up with Mark Flint. It seemed like the perfect idea to ride this with Mark, since he and I did most of the final trail design on it. It was the perfect idea. We enjoyed a nice descent and a beautiful evening. After saying goodbye to Mark we rolled out more pavement and are now relaxing at Steve Anderson’s bachelor pad. We have a few gear issues to deal with, but are now formulating a plan to assault Mt. Lemmon tomorrow. It’s going to be a big day no matter how we approach it.

152 miles so far, 15,000 feet of climbing, tons o’ rough singletrack.

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