We started the day with sleeping in :D
With us calling the shots today we get rolling much later, start time today was around 11:00 instead of 9:15. Our route to Gate's Pass again took us through the Univeristy of Arizona - the campus was a bit more hustle amd bustle than the last time we rolled through. It really is a pedestrian/bicycle friendly campus, bikes are litterally everywhere. Lots of students are out and about between the classrooms and just enjoying the sun. The temp is around 25 at this point which makes me laugh when I see people wearing hoodies. I swear people here complain about the "cold" whenever it's under 30 degrees. No joke I heard a woman say the other day that it "got chilly." It was 23 degrees with a slight wind. I am in awe
Once you turn onto University Avenue, the road smooths out and you come into no-car zones
I wasn't joking when I said bike friendly - this bike parking lot extends for an entire block and it's not the only one around. There are numerous tents set up today alongside the strip. Some are bike checkup tents and others are refreshment tents that offer drinks and hotdogs.
Once you get past all the academic buildings, you arrive at the party street. Restaurants galore along this strip with tvs aplenty. It's not even noon yet and some of them already have their patios packed. As much as I'd love to stay for beer and fried food, our journey to the Pass takes us outside the city
The road goes from super smooth to super suckage as we near the mountains. The good part is that we pretty much have the roads to ourselves. Since I've been here, I've seem numerous signs about "Watch For Ice" or "Bridge May Ice" and I can't help but wonder, when the hell are these things ever relevant? We're in mid February and it's still warm at the highest altitudes, not that there's ever any percipitation around here anyway. There are numerous dry river beds in Tucson.
The front side of Gate's Pass is a cinch to climb - maybe a couple of miles of easy grade and it certainly doesn't pose a threat after slaying Lemmon. Once over the pass we're greeted by some beautiful views...
The line of mountains drop away to the valley floor. The road to the right of this picture is the one that leads back up the pass. For our ride today, we're continuing to the left. It's a gentle down that winds through some more desert scenery. In the valley, we find "Old Tucson." I'm not sure if it's the actual, original settlement of Tucson or just a tourist village, but it's set up as an old western town so people can come in (for a fee of course) and explore the past. I just wanted to take a picture but the whole thing is walled off - I just held my camera up and snapped one off
More pictures of the valley...
The best part of his ride was just how abandonned the roads were. We seldom ran into anyone out here so we were pretty much given free reign over where to ride. After this last loop we headed for the pass once more. A word to anyone who comes here, the backside of this pass is WAY steeper than the front. It is really short and maybe because it's been seven days straight of riding, but it was tough climbing out of there. The relief for us was we knew that once we crested this climb, we were clear all the way home.
Total ride time for the day was aproximately 2:30. A lot more up and down than what we've done previously as well
For the rest of the day, we're packing. Ready for the haul back home
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