Riding to Tucson

NOB HILL--Mike Moye and I are riding our bikes down to Tucson on the 30th. That's a little over one week from now. So I have been doing some training rides. Sometimes I ride the river trails with my buddy Bob Evans. End to end and back it comes to about 35 miles. Sometimes I ride a loop from the Flying Star-downtown-old town-river trail-Paseo-arroyo-Noreste trail-UNM-home. This great trail is about 25 miles. When I want to do hills I ride out Southern to Tramway and Central and then out into Tijeras Canyon. From my house out to the Tijeras ranger station and back is about 30 miles. Of course, on this route you can keep climbing as far as you want because it is, baring a headwind, an easy downhill ride home.

It really helps to have a goal...a great place to stop and eat near the middle of the ride. On the canyon rides I like to stop in Tijeras at the Village Coffee House. Great coffee, food, and you can sit outside if you want. It also has a scented, feminine restroom complete with a tabletop water feature that emits small, perfumed clouds...sigh. The owner, Anna, is very friendly and also has a lot of gifts and things to look at.

Mike and I carry one-wheel trailers on our long trips with all our camping stuff, tools, parts, clothes, etc. On these full-loaded touring excursions we average about 50 miles per day. Up steep hills we get down to about 4 miles per hour. We could walk our bikes up those steep hills, but we're too stubborn. The fastest we ever got going downhill was a little over 40 mph...pulling those trailers. Stupid, yes. Sorry, no...I still have that top speed recorded on my speedometer (Although I got going almost as fast in Tijeras Canyon with a tailwind a week ago). Riding on the shoulder is impossible at those speeds, so we become something of a streaking hazard.

At any rate, I am totally excited about going to Tucson! Our basic route will be as follows: Grants, El Morro, Zuni Pueblo, St. John's, Show Low, Salt River Canyon, Globe, Oracle, and Tucson. Mike's wife Carol and my gf MaryAnn will pick us up in Tucson. I figure it will take about 8 days, maybe camping half the time. We eat anytime we pass a restaurant, snacking in between.

Full-loaded touring is closer to backpacking than it is to recreational bike riding. It is exploratory, inventive, visually stimulating 100% of the time. And it can be difficult. Your comfort and safety sometimes depends on the quality of your decisions. It is better with 2 riders.