Monthly Archives: September 2008

Sunday Morning Bike Ride

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After stocking up on Clif Bars the night before, I embarked on a bike ride of known length but unspecified difficulty. I’ve been doing my 10 mile round trip commuting to and from UA on a nearly daily basis, but I wasn’t too sure where my fitness beyond that stood. Also making me a little nervous was a gigantic hill that I’d ridden in the past which has always completely kicked my ass. That would be near the beginning of this days ride…

It went really well. On two occasions I stopped for about a 5 minute break, but I think that was a result of my trying to keep too great a pace. I was passing people on really cool bikes who were dressed like Lance Armstrong the whole time, maybe that should have been a signal I was riding an unsustainable clip. So, the last few miles of the uphill portion were pretty slow but overall I’m happy with how it went. Next time I’ll probably try something in the 30-mile range.

Time: 1:07:57
Distance: 17.2 miles
Avg. Speed: 15.2 mph

I was surfing the net for an easy way to make the above elevation profile and came across MapMyRide.com which looks really cool. I have tons of navigation tools for use in my truck, but that all revolves around having a GPS with you and making a log of the route. The MMR site has some typical tools, but you can use it without having any route data – you just click around on the map where you went (it even follows the contour of the roads automatically and such).

You can check out the map of the route there by clicking on the link below. A fun to do there is figure out how many calories you would have burned if you did this ride as, say, a 600-pound man in 15 minutes… the answer is shocking!

View Interactive Map on MapMyRide.com

Things I learned…

  • Can’t sustain pace of 5-ish mile daily commute ride for much longer than that…
  • Backpacks for any longer than that are a BAD idea.
  • No need to carry the huge amount of water I did around town. Must have ridden by 50 gas stations and stores. 2 cage bottles is probably more than enough in town where supply replenishment is everywhere.

Charouleau Gap Run (and Canadian Invasion of Tucson!)

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Waking up was difficult as the night could not have been more perfect. My tent was in a rocky cove that blocked all wind, the temperature was perfect for sleeping with no bag or covers, and there was nothing directly above me to block my view of the bright stars. It was one of the most satisfying nights of sleep I’ve had in a long time (and that speaks volumes since I am a lazy ass who frequently sleeps too much).

I’d been looking forward to this run for a few reasons. First, The Gap is epic and always a good time. Second, we were running it North to South which I have never done. Furthermore, we planned to wheel down the wash to the ‘Lost City,’ a rumored collection of buildings and homes that were abandon mysteriously (I was told the people left all their stuff behind). And lastly, we were being invaded by our FJC-Central friend Cameron who was visiting from Canada!

The wash to the Lost City was fun. It had that ‘raw’ feeling that washes sometimes do. Rocks were just sort of thrown everywhere and the path to take wasn’t always well defined as it typically is on a more established trail. (It’s worth noting that this wash is a marked trail – randomly blazing through washes is not cool!)

There was one major obstacle along the way. The best way down it was across a sort of bridge of rocks, very interesting stuff.

Sonic hits it and Jake follows…

I went for a different line because I thought it would be fun and it looked do-able. Plus Jake and Sonic are the spotting dream team, so there was nothing to worry about.


Image credit: TrAiLbUsTy1


Image credit: tmac


Image credit: TrAiLbUsTy1

The last part was the classic ‘flop and slide’ move… dirty gas tank kisser.


Image credit: tmac

Soon we arrived at the Lost City. It was exactly as it had been described to me – some really nice homes that appeared as though one day the residents vanished, leaving everything behind.

All the doors were left wide open…

No one has any explanation for this place – how it got there, what happened to the people, etc. There was evidence to suggest that families lived there until the mid or late 90′s, but the whole thing is a huge mystery to me.

Lots of these critters lurking around…

Out back was a strange vehicle whose frame appeared to be a bunch of huge air tanks. The wash had certainly gotten the best of it!

We stopped for lunch down in the wash and Sonic set up a shooting gallery for some raucous entertainment. I was impressed by the whole thing. He established areas and rules and strung a line of caution tape to mark the range which was surrounded by rock walls.

Then it was time to unveil the arsenal.

Jake’s manliness could hardly be contained… I wanted him to bayonet me for a cool picture opportunity, but then I decided that would probably hurt a lot and perhaps lead to my death.

Cameron abandon his Canadian virtues regarding guns and pretty well F’d up a bowling ball with the Bushmaster…

I went at one of those sheets of paper with the targets on them at 25 yards using the gangster-style MAC and actually did pretty well, considering I’d never before fired a firearm of any kind. It was a ton of fun.

On the way out of the wash I tried to take the same line I came down on the single obstacle, but it was clear that wasn’t going to work easily. Once up the obstacle with the front wheels, the bottom of the truck was just completely laid out on the rocks. Who knows if I could have done it, but it would have taken too long so I went up the other way.


Image credit: TrAiLbUsTy1

Tim, by chance, had some issues coming up… the dirty hitch licker he is…

By then it was well into the afternoon and we’d only cleared probably less than 10% of the Gap trail. So we pretty much blasted through that, largely skipping the most gruesome optionals.

TrAiLbUsTy1 did manage to get a voyeur upskirt of me, though…


Image credit: TrAiLbUsTy1

Nearing the end of the trail finally around 9PM, I decided to go off on a line and nearly flop my rig. It was pretty funny. My wheel is up pretty high in this pic, but it was still a relatively stable spot. What was bad was the four foot ledge just in front of my passenger front tire. It would have been over for me for sure if I hadn’t stopped here. Was able to back up no problem and go the normal way…


Image credit: TrAiLbUsTy1

Back at the gas station it was time for a staged group shot…


Image credit: TrAiLbUsTy1

…and some dancing with karate!


Image credit: TrAiLbUsTy1


Image credit: TrAiLbUsTy1

Salt River Cleanup / HAM Radio Convention / Willow Springs Road / Rice Peak!!!!

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Call this the mega-day! What an outstanding amount of action, planned and unplanned. The day consisted of:

- AZFJ and Disabled Explorers at the Tonto National Forest Salt River Cleanup
- Amateur radio convention in Pheonix
- Dirt route back to Tucson (Baja style!)
- Rice Peak solo night run and camping

I arrived at the cleanup to find Lance and Heidi ready to go. The national forest people had set up some tents and free lunch awaited us after picking up some trash!

The cleanup itself was an interesting affair. We were stunned by an amazing lack of garbage – quite the opposite of what we were expecting. We walked the banks of the Salt River a ways and picked up very little debris. In some way it was a let down that we weren’t able to really make a difference in the area, but despite this we agreed our not being able to pick up anything was a good thing.

Back at the parking area, we made the rounds at all the organizations tables to spread the word on Disabled Explorers.

I stated to set up my tripod so the three of us could get a group shot in front of our trucks, but in the distance we spotted something that would make for a muuuuch better group shot. And like any good friend, when I got home I immediately cropped Lance and Heidi out and made it my facebook profile pic.

Next stop was the HAM radio convention. It was very clear what sort of meeting we were at just looking around the parking lot… this guy gets all the ladies with this thing…

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But nobody’s coolness could compare to that of the Arizona Radio Truck of DOOM!

A few people had ridiculous amounts of antennas drilled into the body panels of fairly new and often nice cars. Like this GMC Envoy, for example…

Inside, I had to pose with the most expensive HF radio I could find… Does your radio have its own monitor and a knob the size of a baseball?

After the convention and a brief stop at Lance’s house for official Disabled Explorer’s business, I hit the road and blasted down Willow Springs Road with the sun setting over the mountains…

I’ve done this 50ish miles of dirt literally a couple dozen times on suspension including stock, spacer lifts, and OME but this was the first time since I’d installed the FOX 2.5 system from All Pro… wow. Airborne, no problem… Big whoops, no problem… it was a ton of fun.

After that I head through Oracle and up towards Rice Peak. I would be meeting some folks in Oracle to run The Gap N->S the next morning, so I decided to camp near Oracle rather than drive the 30-some miles home only to return after the night.

I thought I would try to camp literally on the summit of Rice Peak since there is a nice clearing there, thinking I would get up with the sun rise and do some photography. When I reached the summit, it took about a half a minute to discover this was not going to happen since the ground is a huge pile of little rocks… my memory had it a bit grassier.

Up on the summit, I found this guy checking out the welds on my BajaRack…

I head back down the summit and went the ‘wrong way’ at the T-intersection before the summit which leads to the dead end. There is a very small clearing there, only large enough for one vehicle which I thought would work. But, it was the same thing… rocks galore. So, I backtracked a few miles back down the trail into the lower elevations were there is camping everywhere and found a good spot for the night.

Box Canyon Solo Night Run

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It was Friday night and I was supposed to be in NE of Phoenix the next morning. It seemed like there were two options: get up early and drive up there, or spend the night wheeling and camp on a trail somewhere along the way. Hmmm…. which sounds like more fun…

I decided to camp along Box Canyon in Florence. It’s a pretty easy trail that I know very well and camping is plentiful. Running it at night alone was sort of, well scary I guess. My HID’s are still off the truck so I had only the headlights to show the way. The light reflecting off the tall, narrow canyon walls and fading off both in the distance and vertically was a spooky. Then there’s that whole monsoon season flash flood thing…. I never did see the Boogie Man, though.

Fun with Sushi in the Santa Rita Mountains

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The TrAiLbUs’s, SonicFJ and family, microbe, and I met for a day of fun in the Santa Rita Mountains south of Tucson. The day promised to be awesome with a few ‘firsts’ for me including bringing fresh sushi along for munching in the mountains, and having my girlfriend along for her first group 4×4 outing!

We head out and stopped to air down on the dirt road leading to the mountains.

A few minutes in we heard cries to come look at a pile of cow poop… Beetles! This guy was carrying around a huge ball of poop.

The first stop was at Gunsight Pass, the most popular point in the area. The pass is named so for a rock formation which looks like a gun sight, but which can also be confused for certain parts of the female anatomy. Alternate titles for the pass will be left out here…. Whatever it’s called, the scenery is excellent.

View from the parking spot…

Those are looking West towards Green Valley and the like. Back East is more of the Santa Ritas.

After a brief sushi snack, we pressed on into Sycamore Canyon. There is a very cool spot I know in that area, reached by ridiculous shelf roads and featuring a great spot to have lunch.

Getting there was great fun. The trail is hard to find and generally not used very much. This time of year with all the rain, it was extremely overgrown. It was genuine African-safari style out there.

There is a small clearing on a summit where we parked. A few yards north are some rocks on a cliff’s edge which make nice sets of natural tables and chairs. It was time to bust out the sushi!

Jake is the sushi king…

Gratuitous AZFJ.org address placement!

Susan and I after sushi on the summit. I like taking pictures with her because she looks good and next to her I look like an ape.

We continued back West toward the ruins at Helvetia. Truly the ruins there are ruined; the area has been raped by visitors and little remains of the old buildings. Still we wanted to visit hoping to see some mines and perhaps the infamous hill climb in the area.

On the way over, I stopped to conquer all of nature.

Behind where I was subduing the earth were some cool rocks, colored by the copper in the area. I still have no idea why the copper should make things green, but that’s what I’ve heard.

Stopped at the top of the big hill climb near Helvetia…

Near the ruins was a small obstacle that we looped around to tackle. Microbe crosses with style, check out the rear flex…

Up, up, and away!