Back in the desert

Flagstaff and Colorado were great and all, but it’s nice to be back in the desert.

‘Recovery’ rides were the style for a while, and even when it’s 100* out, there’s still some good riding to be had. Just wait until the sun nears the horizon.

Even better if there are some clouds to block the sun.

I pushed the limits of ‘recovery’, riding actual trails. Bumped into some friends out in the Tucson Mountains.

Chad, doing his best impression of Chad, out taking a few of his students for a ride.

The Tucson MTB crew closing a rogue trail in the wash. Back to sand…

Colossal Cave Arizona Trail with Doug and Paula on foot. Though the trails are not slow, they had no problem keeping up with my recovery pace.

Best part about waking up early to ‘avoid’ the heat? When you’re done riding, you get to eat breakfast!

Bzzz Bzzz

It’s been a weak monsoon season so far, based on the fact that our yard isn’t completely out of control with weeds. But there’s still a lot of life and greenery out on the trails.

I met Chad and crew up on the mountain (Mt. Lemmon) for some 8000k+ cool weather riding.

Climbing Aspen Draw the rain covered us and the fog rolled in. I was reminded of the Colorado Trail in that I was expecting to be riding like this most of the time. Strange to be reminded of an expectation rather than actual memories.

Speaking of the Colorado Trail, just hopping on my bike still reminds me of that ride. And that is a good thing. Form like that does not fade quickly.

Jellyfish roam the skies… August in the Sonoran Desert.

I can’t get over how incredible the evenings have been lately. I feel like I’m getting lucky because it’s supposed to be ‘yucky’ here this time of year. But jellyfish form, drop the temperature by 20 degrees, blot out the sun. Or the sun goes down by itself and changes the world, lighting up the clouds.

It’s so dynamic, never a dull moment, even climbing pavement through neighborhoods. Flip on the lights (still using my CTR setup and finding it quite adequate) for the descent back into town — through culverts, across freshly terraformed sand surfaces, coyotes yelping at the stars above, tires leaving the ground despite invisible landings.

Yeah, it’s great to be back. I’m looking forward to fall, and, well, just about everything.