Danny and I prepared for the trip by buying a gallon of Slime and filling eight tubes. We were taking our cyclocross bikes since they were capable of both on and off road travel. We brought two sets of wheels per bike: Panaracer Pasela 35Cs for pavement/gravel and 38C cyclocross tires for gravel/dirt/singletrack. It was our first experience with Slime, and it was pretty comical, with fluorescent green slime stains to contrast with the wine stains in the garage. The Slime was apparently effective, we had zero flats despite large numbers of goatheads (vicious thorns) and lots of miles through the land of cactus.
After the family headed home on Friday 1/2/09, Danny and I drove to Tucson and a tour of the Pima Air Museum and Airplane Boneyard. Saturday we headed down to the Chiricahua National Monument. It’s a sky island; a set of mountains with unique environments separated from the other islands by desert. We camped at about 4000’ and rode the paved road up to Masai point at 6870’. Despite brilliant sunshine, there was ice on the road in spots. We picked our way around the ice spots and made it back to the campsite. As we were doing the dishes after dinner it abruptly got very dark and very cold. It was in the low 30s, so we were in the warmth of our sleeping bags by 7:30. The next day we killed time waiting for the sun to warm things up with a long hike to the Heart of the Rocks. The afternoon was warmer so we rode up the Pinery Canyon Road 20 miles until snow stopped us. The Paselas did great on the gravel and hardpacked dirt, but weren’t much use climbing in slushy snow. The park is only about thirty miles form the Mexican border and we literally saw more Border Patrol than local residents. We wanted warm showers and good food but cold rain and our own cooking were threatening so we drove back to find a motel in Tucson.
The next morning we took a fascinating tour of a (retired) Titan ballistic missile site. The 18
month project to design, build and deploy 54 missiles in hardened silos puts our current HP R&D projects in perspective. Of course, we don’t have unlimited money and the threat of nuclear destruction to accelerate us.In the afternoon we went to the East portion of the Saguaro National Park, just outside Tucson. It was a 10 mile circumference paved loop bisected by a singletrack. The pavement is laid on top of the hardpack desert floor, so there are whoop de doos and dips, curves and great pavement. The singletrack was hardpacked sand and the previos night’s rain made the surface perfect. It was a great ride and we did a lap and a half and finished just before sunset. The cyclocross bikes were ideal for this combination of pavement and smooth singletrack.
We were having fun in Tucson and enjoying not having to eat our own cooking, so we stayed another day for the Chiva Falls trail. Our guidebook rated it as “difficult” and it certainly was. There was quite a bit of ATV trail, but also plenty of loose rocks and steps. It was a beautiful site high in the mountains east of Tucson, and the altitude kept it pretty cool. We navigated around the trail and eventually got to the Chiva Falls, a 50’ waterfall in a pretty little rock canyon.
There was plenty of water to keep the streams going. We met some mountain bikers on the way in and they said we must be pretty strong to do this trail on cross bikes. We didn’t take the hint and ended up riding about 80% of the trail but walking the rest. A full suspension mountain bike would have made the trail 95% rideable. Overall it was a good training ride, 20 miles in 4 hours, and a little bit of an adventure.The next day we drove to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, right up against the border with Mexico.
It was lower altitude desert and we were finally able to do a ride without knee and arm warmers. It was a beautiful 20 mile gravel road loop into the foothills of the Ajo mountains. It was our last night camping and stayed relatively warm.The next day was a long driving day up to Sacramento. We decided to stay an extra day in Sacramento and did a long ride on the Sacramento River Trail up to Folsom Dam. It’s a beautiful paved bike path, river grade, and pretty quiet on a Friday. We did a couple of 20 minute intervals at time trial pace, and those plus the 70 mile distance and cumulative riding on the trip was plenty for this time in the season. We were whupped by the end of the ride. We had a great dinner at the Tower Café (recommended by a local as the best place to eat in Sacramento; certainly the best place I’ve eaten in Sacramento). The return to Corvallis the next day was an easy drive up I-5; easy for me because I slept through most of it.
Overall the trip was a blast, and I’m firmly converted to the concept of a winter or early spring training camp in the sunshine. The cross bikes did great in this terrain, the two sets of tires were nice but not really necessary.
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