Sunday, April 22, 2007

Silent Sunday @ SoMo

So yesterday was nothing more than a god damn train wreck. It doesn't even merit a tale. On to today, I decided to give myself a bit of a self imposed flogging to make up for yesterday. I headed over to the Pima lot at South Mountain at around seven and started up National. My original plan was to ride to Telegraph, drop down to Desert Classic, and ride that back to the car. When I got to the split for Hidden Valley I decided that I would check it out, it's supposed to be pretty cool and it's not a very big detour. Turned out to be really cool but mostly a hike a bike.

I was feeling really strong today and riding almost everything, much better than at the Squealer. As a result I had no second thoughts about continuing on past Buena Vista. Maybe a mile from Telegraph I had my only real "oh shit" moment of the day when I clipped a rock with my bars on the uphill side causing me to be pitched sideways toward the downhill side. I caught myself right on the edge and tiptoed the rest of the way to Telegraph. I had forgotten that today was the Silent Sunday when no cars are allowed up the road. Lots of roadies headed up and back down. Ever since we moved here I've wanted to rocket down the road and since Telegraph looked like a hiker conga line, what the hell. I got a few odd looks from the roadies on my way down. I'm sure I looked funny doing over thirty on the singlespeed in my crazy aero tuck.

Down to Spokes for a quick bite to eat and then on the roads in the direction of the car. Now I must stop here and say how much I absolutely hate riding on flat pavement at 47 gear inches, so when I remembered an offroad option I took it. Mormon trail starts at 24th St and heads straight up to meet with National, unfortunately it's more hike than bike for the mile up. I took Mormon loop back down to Pima, easy, fast, and plenty of flow. 19 miles on the day with 2800 feet of climbing all done in just under 5 hours(lunch included).

Some random pictures from the day and a map.







Happy Earth Day!

3 comments:

Enel said...

Sean:

I'm liking the paint job on the SS. Who makes it?

Unknown said...

The bike was made by Kona, '04 Unit. The copper powder was done by AZ Powder Coat here in the 'nix and I did the cream over the top.

Enel said...

You did a nice job. Thanks.