Ride to the End of Pavement

This week's cycling has been exhilarating to say the least. I have been cycling with a group formed by a local bike shop. We ride on Saturday mornings at 6am and again on Monday mornings at 5:45am. Saturday rides are usually focused on endurance and thje Monday rides are training for the Tour of Tucson in November.

This last Monday we rode to the end of the pavement on the Apache Trail. This is the historic road that was built to ferry men and materials during the building of Roosevelt Dam.

After my ride on Monday this road is historic in my mind for other reasons. The ride was a 40+ mile round trip of steep grades, tricky switchbacks, sheer drop offs, narrow single lane bridges, a tarantula, a rattlesake and some suspicious characters with a handgun.

As the group entered the Tonto National Forest I had to dodge a large tarantula crossing the road. I was ahead of the group. I turned and warned those following but they couldn't hear me and they didn't see the critter either. Maybe they ran over it.

A mile or two up the road, I dodged a small rattlesnake. We were going too fast by then to determine if the snake was already roadkill or just paused in crossing the road.

The balance of the ride we encountered large yellow catepillars crossing the road in great numbers. We had to be careful going through turns at speed. This sounds gross but wet tires from squished catepillars could have been a problem maintaining traction.

The grades were punishing on the legs. Simple as that. I was able to keep up with the group through Tortilla Flats but the climb to the end of pavement put me in some hurt.

As I approached one of the last turns on the way up, I saw two guys sitting on a guardrail. One of them had his hand in his pocket. I didn't think anything about it until after I had made the turn. I realized that we had one lady riding behind me and the thought crossed my mind that she would be alone as she went through the turn. I started to think these guys were up to no good so I turned around and road past these guys and stopped about 30 yards below their position. I waited for our last rider. As I was waiting I looked back at these two guys. One of them had a hand gun out. It was probably in his pocket as I road past. A red pickup came up the road and pulled over at the turn. The two guys hopped in. The driver turned around and drove back toward Tortilla Flats. I have no idea what these guys were doing out in the middle of nowhere. I have to wonder if they were running drugs, illegally entering the country or maybe they were coyotes.

The thrill of the day came on the way back to Tortilla Flats. What goes up must come down. I clocked 52.5 mph at one point in the descent. Crazy fast! I wasn't even pedaling, just coasting. I can't imagine what speeds I could have reached if I pushed it.


My high speed descent enabled me to catch up to the front riders by the time they reached Tortilla Flat. The climb out from Tortilla Flat was a little easier than I expected but I still got behind again on the final grade.

Once we all regrouped, the fun was on as four of us jockied for position to see who could finish the ride first. For several miles our speed reached 28-30 mph with break away atempts at well over 30 mph. My legs were on fire by the time we finished. What a great training ride.


Overall this week I rode 125 miles with most of the riding focused on conditioning in the mountains. I can tell that I am getting stronger. I recover faster after hard climbs. I am riding faster that at any time in my life. I continue to lose weight. I am down to 168 lbs, a loss of 14 lbs so far this year. Cool!