The cheese was my brain, boiled from the heat by the finish. What in the hell convinced me to do this ride with an expected high of 113 is probably testimony to the fact that my brain was cheese before I even got on the bike. I was carrying a 2-day dehydration hangover, the result of a Wedneday NR where I got punished by my buddy Dustin, lost some tools when my pack’s zipper came open due to all the slack from the bladder being emptied, and subsequently went out again at 5am 2 mornings later looking for them. I found them 8 miles from home, still sitting in the trail where they fell. Hardly anyone else was stupid enough to venture out in this heat wave. Coming down the Mine Trail at 6:15am, the descent was all in shade and the evap effect from the river made it downright chilly for the most refreshing 2 minutes of the week, but that was a distant memory when I rolled out at 4:40am the next day to push onward in my preparations for the Crazy 88.
The ride was sluggish from the start, but a hard deadline of 8:55 so Beckie could take Kila and Turtle to the vet, and the gratuitous weight of a camera provided motivation. The last hour when you finally come out of the mountains and still have 20 miles til the end averaged about 23 mph over the gradual downhill, and left me with shakes as the temperature rose over 105.
historic church buttressed up against the Superstitions
thick desert fauna lines the route
century plants still in bloom at the top, looking back down into the basin
beginning of the descent off the mesa from the end of the pavement. lots of other riders out today
coming back down into Canyon Lake on the ride home
smiling cause the final climb out of the lake is almost over, 1.5 hrs to go
