Nogales to Tucson Mountain Biking

A few weeks ago we traveled all the way to Rio Rico AZ. to do 3 days of mountain biking. Why go to Rio Rico you ask? We had a free place to stay!  It was also near(ish) to all the southern segments of the Arizona Trail. The weather tried to keep us off the bikes with cold windy rainy and snowy blasts of nasty conditions but we laughed at it, continued on and suffered as a group.

The riding was fantastic. Each area we went to seemed to have its own personality. The second most southerly section of the AZ trail was like being in the savannahs of Africa (with small mountains). We saw Javelinas, Deer, Elk, and all sorts of Raptors.

Canelo Hills, One mile into the ride

About the same spot

One of the easier sections

Taking the rain gear off

The next day we rode the section of the Arizona Trail just to the North of the segment shown above. It had a totally different feel, and had a fairly developed set of connector and loop trails that gave a number of different options. Unfortunately I forgot my camera that day so I only have a few pics that my companions sent me.

The storm gets worse

Through the hole

A proper snow storm

The third day brought us better weather and a 45 min. drive to just north of Tucson to an area of trails in Catalina State Park. Again, this had a totally different feel, with massive granite slabs and boulders, and Saguaros and every other type of cactus littering the side of the trail. We did some weird loop the used part of a trail called the 50 year trail. It was like the Albuquerque foothills on steroids. It was awesome!

A beautiful start in Catalina

Closer to the mountain now

weaving through the boulders

looking back towards the start

Coming down the slab

Musing the awesome

Thanks Kip!

-Charlie

It's calender time

The Boys over at Bikeworks Albuquerque Blogged about their intended race schedule for the year and I thought I would do the same so some of my friends can plan to race at the same time- you know you want to. You could probably guess that  my race schedule will be similar to Bikeworks, but I have a couple more races on the schedule than they do. Here are the ones that I will do for sure:

Dawn Till Dusk - May 18
24hrs in the Enchanted Forest - June 15
SF Big Friggin Loop - June 22
Chama Red Neck Epic - July 13
Durango Enduro - August 31
Rico 100 - September 14
Dolores 100 - October 5th

It is unlikely, but I also would like to try:

12 hours in the Wild West - April 13
Watermelon Beat Down - August 10
24 hours in the Sage - August 17
Zuni 100 - October 19

There you have it friends- come ride with me. I have no plans to actually do well so it should be good old fun. Here is a picture of a ride in Chama:

Charlie

Riverside Blast

We all got out the other day for a fast and furious bosque ride. We were almost all on singlespeeds, but some people don't listen very well and then we make them cry (on the inside at least). It rained quite a bit the day before so I was worried that it might be too muddy, but that wasn't the case- it was good on the way out and perfect on the way back.

It doesn't look it, but some of these guys are actually quite fast

Thanks to Dr. Dave for the picture of these large juveniles. If you have never ridden the Corrales bosque, it really is a nice ride and can be quite the workout of you go fast (not advisable with weekend traffic on the trails though).

Out.

Charlie

Its been awhile

I didn't post for awhile because there wasn't that much awesomeness in the bike world, or my riding world, and I wasn't sure anybody I knew was reading the blog much, but Ive had a few requests to keep blogging so I will- but not too, too much. I don't want to wear the handful of followers out.

We had a great ride out in Placitas on new years eve day and although my silly phone camera doesn't do it justice, I had to post some picks-

The bottom of Meat Grinder

Yes, there were goggles involved

Flurries on the Sandias

The haze in this picture is steam from my back

In  the very important NM trail news dept., there is an official re-route of part of Cajun Pine over at the top of Otero. It's just a small change but it is a very nice little piece of trail with a descent technical challenge in the middle. It also ties the trails in that area together in a much clearer and cleaner manner.

The beginning on the NW end

I was too lazy to pull my camera out for the technical section. Also, this post is now too late for anyone else to enjoy this re-route this season since there is actual real snow on the ground. There should have been snow on the ground already as this picture was taken on Dec. 3rd.

Tootles for now.

-Charlie