Labor Day Gate's Pass

The Gate's Pass road ride is one of the better known Tucson road rides. To the yellow-jersey wearing, $5000 bike riding, spandex wheenies in town it is known as "the poor man's Mt. Lemmon".

Not really though, I just made that up.

Anyway, it's a sweet, scenic road ride starting in the city, going west up and over Gate's Pass through the Saguaro National Park West. The pass itself is pretty brutal, but short. As long as you can go for short periods of time up some high degree slope you're good. It's the headwinds you need to worry about. Pictures..

This one is from the top of the pass looking East into the city of Tucson...pretty steep but nothing compared to the climb on the way back over.

This picture doesn't capture the complete brutality of it, but it is from Saguaro National Park looking East towards Gate's Pass (the road cuts right up through the saddle of the mountain). It's a short climb, maybe a mile or so, but the slope in some spots is close to 18 percent. Comparable to a black diamond.

That's my bike, aka "Red". Picked it up at a garage sale while living in DC. Every time I take it out some unknown object falls off, but it has gotten me this far. I really should get a new one, but I think I'll wait until it completely craps out. I think it's a 1995 Cannondale R500...don't judge.

And here's a wreck I came across on the way home. Damn teenagers.

Saturday Oracle Ridge Trail Ride

Saturday morning my friend Rick and I arrived at the Oracle Ridge trailhead in Oracle, AZ early. We were riding by 9:30, but acclimating to the altitude hit us pretty hard. By the end of the day we climbed from 4700 ft. to over 7500 ft. in elevation.

The Oracle Ridge trail is part of the Arizona trail system that cuts up and over the Santa Catalina Mountain range (north Tucson area). It is very technical and, in some spots, downright scary. We knew we'd be riding the ridge up to the peak of the Santa Catalinas, but one misjudgement or lapse in control and you could be tumbling down a very steep slope. Needless to say, we did a whole lot more walking than we were expecting, and left ourselves in a pretty bad situation time, and water availability wise.

Here's a elevation map of the Arizona trail, with the highest point being in the Santa Catalinas...the area we were in.

All in all, it was a 12 mile climb to the town of Summerhaven where we raided the Convenient store 5 minutes before closing time. I had 3 white castle microwaveable cheeseburgers, a snickers bar, and all kinds of beef jerky goodness...

The descent was a classic...about a 15 mile cruise down a winding dirt road. after that, it was about a 10 mile road ride back to the car. Something cool to point out in the picture with Rick below...it had snowed the night before on Mt. Lemmon. A nice surprise for late May in Arizona.