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 Post subject: TR - Tucson road trip
PostPosted: Wed Feb 06, 2019 10:51 pm 
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TR for tfitz:

Every year I try to hit one or two of the Arizona endurance series races. The Tortolita 50 is one that I hadn't been able to do yet, so when a @refrigerraider mentioned he wanted to ride it too, we made plans. A friend of Russ's decided to join us as well. We made our escape from rainy San Diego on Thursday night and due to chance of further rain in AZ, set up camp at Motel6 in north Tucson. Fortunately the chance of rain tapered off there while San Diego got hammered much of the weekend, so the timing of the trip was great. The main ride was Saturday so we wanted an easier ride for Friday.


Decided to hit up the 24 Hours Old Pueblo course for an easy day. Headed around the eastern loop first which took us around to the end of the 24H course which ends with this rock slab

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Then continued around the west loop, clockwise

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Gotta love the variety of cactus out here

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Until the cholla balls are getting flung up by your tires

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Joshua tree - cholla hybrid??

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Russ getting his game face on for Saturday

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For something different I took them on Painter Boy loop next. Most of the 24HOP course is buffed out desert singletrack. Painter Boy is raw, techy, and seldom ridden

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Cool cloud cover

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Ken enjoying fields of grass

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Trail gets hard to follow in places

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Cool off trail rock feature we had to check out

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Entrance gate with a cool view of Mt Lemmon. Snow up top means no big shuttle rides...

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24HOP course is always a fun time, easy casual miles. 25mi for us, just enough to wake up the legs. Then off for pizza and beers.


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avidtest, Big Clyde, Dirtrider, OldDogDan, tfitz
PostPosted: Wed Feb 06, 2019 11:41 pm 
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Tortolita 50

Saturday morning came bright and early. Quick breakfast and we were off to the start line. Actually got there early enough to get ready in orderly fashion and hang out for a few minutes. Schillingsworth was there as well along with a number of others I recognized from other events. Even Lael Wilcox showed up.

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Chad gives a speech to the crowd

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We had a 3-mile pavement ride over to Golder Ranch where we got right onto the 50-Year Trail

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I was already at the back of the pack and then found myself last when I had to stop and pick some cactus thorns out of my shoe

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Caught up to and then got passed by a few other riders

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We climbed the Cherry Tank trail which was marginally ridable, climbing in and out of a creek drainage and climbing over boulders numerous times. Things were green from recent rains and plenty of water flowed everywhere.

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A bit of nice singletrack as we approached Charouleau Gap Road

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Cherry Tank

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Tacky dirt made Charouleau Gap Road a fun descent, when it didn't turn uphill

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I caught up to Schillingsworth and another rider toward the end of the road

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Both of them bailed on the race on the Honeybee trails rather than climb into the Tortolita Mtns. I hadn't been feeling great either but the legs finally woke up a bit at this point, so I kept going

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I had heard of a new trail in the Torts called Ridgeline that is reportedly awesome, and we got to ride it

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Great scenery and a perfect climbing grade, with flowers emerging as well

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Its one of those trails that climbs and then stays up high on a ridgeline with awesome views off both sides

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It is hard to access from any direction, otherwise it would see a lot more traffic

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Thought I was last but Greg missed a turn and caught me while I stopped for lunch

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View down into Marana from the ridgeline

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View south-ish toward Tucson

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Cactus forest

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I rode with Greg for a while and caught up to another rider on a cross bike, who'd already used his tube and now had another flat. Greg gave him a 29er tube. And we were all off.

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The descent down Wild Mustang and Upper Javelina trails is burly, and I pulled away from the others. Did not see either of them again.

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After that it was a 14-mile pavement ride back to Catalina State Park, then 5 miles of trail and the same 3 miles of pavement back to the start. The grind to Catalina SP took just over an hour, and with a stop for pepsi and water I had an hour til sunset.

Golden light on the Santa Catalina Mtns in the state park.

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I was starting to get twinges of cramps if I pushed too hard so I hike a biked up any steeper pitches and gingerly got back on the bike. Fortunately once out of the park the 50 Yr trail mostly contoured along and I was able to make good time.

Finished just after 6pm sunset but didn't need the lights I carried all day, so I was stoked on that. And got my DFL as the others behind me took a shortcut to the start and DNF'd.

Great day on the bike, with a detour and couple wrong turns I had 59.5 mi and +/- 5,800ft in just over 10hrs. FWIW the fastest rider finished over 4 hrs before me. Usually its a 2:1 ratio :cheers:


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The following 5 users would like to thank evdog for his or her post:
avidtest, b5driver, Big Clyde, OldDogDan, tfitz
PostPosted: Wed Feb 06, 2019 11:59 pm 
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While sitting around having beers Saturday after the ride a couple others mentioned rain for Sunday. The last forecast we'd looked at was clear, but sure enough it had changed and everything around Phx and Tucson was showing morning rain. No bueno when we wanted to be home around dinnertime. Looking further away Yuma had a clear forecast, so we made that the plan for a Sunday ride.

We got to Yuma and were ready to ride around 1pm AZ time, and headed out on Front Yard trail taking a similar route as my last trip

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This time however I wanted to find a turnoff we missed before that would lead to some other trails on the south side of the system. This rock sign meant we made the right turn this time

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We rode below and on top of some ridge lines generally heading east and north for a while

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Then we dropped into a central valley which we rode to the end of and had to HAB up a steep jeep road to get out of. I'll remember that for next time for sure.

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Cactus shot from Champagne trail

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More Champagne, heading toward Picnic Table

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I wanted to check out Black Canyon trail. Had seen it from below last time and it looked very cool. The only disappointment was how short it was, just 150m or so for this descent

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Definitely a cool looking trail though. We had picked up a local rider who checked it out with us and rode with us back to the car

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Perfect little ride to spin out tired legs for a few hours. 13mi I think and maybe 1,200ft climbing, and home in time for dinner.

Fun trip, thanks for joining Russ and Ken!


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The following 4 users would like to thank evdog for his or her post:
avidtest, Big Clyde, Dirtrider, tfitz
PostPosted: Thu Feb 07, 2019 6:18 am 
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Thank you I will try to get a report out. Your work is amazing!

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We'll ride it till they pave it. -Clyde
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The following 4 users would like to thank tfitz for his or her post:
Big Clyde, Dirtrider, evdog, OldDogDan
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