Bicycling Reports

Travel using a bicycle, whether on paved or gravel roads or trails.

Bicycling Mount Lemmon, Winter 2016

April 7, 2016 by Paul McClellan Leave a Comment

Our winter home in Tucson has a view of Mount Lemmon, the high point of the Santa Catalina Mountains to our north. Mount Lemmon has an elevation of 9157 feet, has 5157 feet of prominence, and rises about 6300 feet above our home. The General Hitchcock Highway (aka Catalina Highway) climbs from near its base in Tucson to Summerhaven. Near Summerhaven a side road climbs through Ski Valley and past a gate to the gated and fenced Sky Center. The General Hitchcock highway is a very popular bicycling route for local and visiting bicyclists. It is a great bicycling resource providing good workouts, fun descents, and excellent views of the Tucson Basin and surrounding mountains to the south.

Mount Lemmon from near home

Linda and I have bicycled up and down the highway to various destinations many times over recent years. We decided we should see how high we could ride this winter season as well and perhaps make it an annual winter project for us.

El Tour de Tucson 2015

November 28, 2015 by Paul McClellan Leave a Comment

On November 21st Linda and I rode in the El Tour de Tucson 2015 event. There were four event routes of 104, 75, 55, and 40 miles. We had last participated in El Tour de Tucson ten years earlier but this time we were spending the winter in Tucson and wanted to ride the longer 104-mile route. It had been 6.5 years since I last rode 100+ miles in a day, so I expected a challenging day. Of the 5365 riders finishing a route 2431 riders completed the 104-mile route, including Linda and me.

2015 El Tour de Tucson

The 104-mile ride started at 7:00 am. We had been advised to start lining up by 6:00 am so we got up at 4:00 am, fed the dogs, stopped for coffee and a scone, drove to downtown Tucson, and found parking. We found the “Silver” assembly area for those expecting to finish between 7 and 9 hours and joined the crowd. It was a cool morning so I wore most of my warm bicycling clothes.

Kitt Peak Bicycle, Arizona, March 2015

March 15, 2015 by Paul McClellan Leave a Comment

On Friday, March 13, Linda and I rode our bikes up Kitt Peak from the start of Highway 386 near its junction with Highway 86. We had been bicycling several days in Tucson so far and thought we were ready for a more ambitious ride. The grade averaged about 7% for 12 miles to the summit area. The traffic was not heavy and there was an adequate shoulder to enjoy the climb.

Linda on summit of Kitt Peak

We rode our bikes around the Mayall Telescope. Linda started down and I began scouting how to tag the summit when a security guard drove up and told me to leave. Apparently the short road off Highway 386 to the Mayall Telescope is now open to “authorized vehicles” only.

We visited the Visitor Center before enjoying the descent back to my jeep and the ride home. There was a Border Patrol checkpoint on the highway but they let us pass without comment.

Arizona Hikes and Bikes, March 2014

March 31, 2014 by Paul McClellan Leave a Comment

Linda and I spent several weeks in March of 2014 visiting Arizona for bicycling and hiking. This was our third Spring visiting Arizona and we were curious to see locations we had not previously visited. I enjoyed hiking several Arizona “prominence peaks”: Mount Ord, Pinal Peak, Mount Graham, and Chiricahua Peak. The only significant snow I encountered was on Mount Graham, and it was manageable. The weather was ideal for hiking and enjoying the scenery.

Our first camps in Arizona were near Sedona and at nearby Cottonwood State Park, where we first got on our bikes to explore around Cottonwood. After a few days we relocated March 13 to Payson which was our base for four days.

The next day we drove to a locked gate and hiked up Mount Ord just off Highway 87, a 2000 foot prominence peak in the Mazatzal Mountains. The weather on the summit was light and intermittent hail turning to drizzle with thunder in distance, but it was a pleasant hike with good views of the mountains and valleys south of Payson. We then visited Fountain Hills, near Mesa.

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