Tubac to Arivaca

Spent the day in an area new to me: the Tumacacori Mountains. I’m always eager to explore new territory and Lee had a ride he calls Tubac to Arivaca that he wanted GPS’d. A wilderness proposal is in the works that would close a portion of the ride; but there may be other options.

Odin and I were happy to oblige, with Mark F joining us for the ride. We started from Lee’s place in Tubac, riding on the pavement for a few miles. We then followed a little used 4×4 road until we hit National Forest land. We rode into a canyon full of trees that only got more scenic as we rode up it. The canyon shrunk slowly until opening up to a huge view of the surrounding area.

Then the climb challenges ensued. The first was granny gear central as we climbed against a fierce headwind to a high pass. Odin and I came out riding. I thought that this was the top, and that things would be generally downhill to Arivaca.

But the climb challenges kept coming. We soon found ourselves a few hundred feet above the ‘high pass.’ It was hard to take my eyes off the scenery, but many of the short grunts required full attention. After 8 or 9 successful climb challenges, my wits finally failed me. Odin took another shot and cleaned it with ease. I tried again, witless, without success. I pushed on, happy that one of our group had cleaned it.

The big country rolled on, untouched land. Eventually we reached the end of a 4×4 road, where the hike-a-bike began. Over a fence or two, then cross country to reach another nearby road. How Lee ever connected these two roads, I will never know.

Back rolling on cut ground, we hit more climb challenges. The first was a killer. All of us were defeated by it. I stayed behind, trying the left line, center line, right line, near right line, et cetera, all to no avail. I was never able to get my rear tire over the lip in the middle of the rocky, loose climb. The ride went on, this the only section none of us rode.

A few mechanicals (flat on Stan’s, broken spoke) later, we saw Lee’s father (still lively and strong in his 80’s) at the top of a hill. He shuttled us to food and Tubac, home.

The thought of a shuttle typically makes me shudder. But Arivaca sits at 3600 feet, while Tubac is at 3300. So technically it was an uphill shuttle, something rarely seen. Still, it was a shuttle. The options for looping were none too attractive, and we had Mark F on the ride, who is a guy worth waiting for, but still a guy you end up waiting for. In the end the ride was about 27 miles with 4500 feet of climbing.

My reccomendation to Lee was that this is definitely a ride worth saving.