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My girlfriend is recovering from cracking her rib on her stem, so she offered to shuttle me on Mt. Lemmon today.
She always teases me about how I always do the opposite from what I am supposed to, and refers to me sometimes as "Contrary Boy". (I think she does not mean it to be flattering most times):devil:
So I had her drop me off at Snyder road and pick me up at the top of Milagrosa.
Actually, I did not totally intend it that way, but she took the dogs to the canyon to play, and I rode up Milagrosa from the bottom. Last time we climbed this a thunder storm ran us down the hill. Today I was up close to the Arizona trail, and called her and told her I would be heading down soon. Then I went on up to the Arizona trail junction, and suddenly got the urge to finish the climb. At this point I only had time to go to the top from there, or the bottom. I tried to call, but could not get reception, so it looked like I had no choice but to go back down, so I started down, and when I went about a half mile I broke into a clear area, and had reception, so called her to go up to the top, and I turned back around. Not sure yet if I made the sane choice!!
It was further from the Arizona trail junction to the top than I thought. It was 4pm. I started climbing, and wondered at first if I was going the right way, because I kept thinking I needed to go west up over the ridge. Finally I saw that it went up a ridge, and I began some real hard climbing. I thought this ridge was the last one, so I put out a lot of energy going up over all the wooden water bars. I top the ridge, and my heart sinks a little. There in front of me is another big ridge.
At this point my 48 year old legs are getting a little bit jelloed.
That last ridge was absolutely brutal!! I walked quite a bit on that one with the combo of it being so steep and rocky and my legs getting tired. I tried to climb the doable sections, and on one of these about a hundred yards from the top I felt my leg try to go into a cramp. I walked up over the last bit, and on the way down to Molina Basin met up with my girlfriend and the dogs.
Now that I got that under my belt, I guess I will have to try it as a downhill sometime. Leave it to me to turn a shuttle run into a climb! So much for getting smarter as we get older.:lol:
She always teases me about how I always do the opposite from what I am supposed to, and refers to me sometimes as "Contrary Boy". (I think she does not mean it to be flattering most times):devil:
So I had her drop me off at Snyder road and pick me up at the top of Milagrosa.
Actually, I did not totally intend it that way, but she took the dogs to the canyon to play, and I rode up Milagrosa from the bottom. Last time we climbed this a thunder storm ran us down the hill. Today I was up close to the Arizona trail, and called her and told her I would be heading down soon. Then I went on up to the Arizona trail junction, and suddenly got the urge to finish the climb. At this point I only had time to go to the top from there, or the bottom. I tried to call, but could not get reception, so it looked like I had no choice but to go back down, so I started down, and when I went about a half mile I broke into a clear area, and had reception, so called her to go up to the top, and I turned back around. Not sure yet if I made the sane choice!!
It was further from the Arizona trail junction to the top than I thought. It was 4pm. I started climbing, and wondered at first if I was going the right way, because I kept thinking I needed to go west up over the ridge. Finally I saw that it went up a ridge, and I began some real hard climbing. I thought this ridge was the last one, so I put out a lot of energy going up over all the wooden water bars. I top the ridge, and my heart sinks a little. There in front of me is another big ridge.
At this point my 48 year old legs are getting a little bit jelloed. That last ridge was absolutely brutal!! I walked quite a bit on that one with the combo of it being so steep and rocky and my legs getting tired. I tried to climb the doable sections, and on one of these about a hundred yards from the top I felt my leg try to go into a cramp. I walked up over the last bit, and on the way down to Molina Basin met up with my girlfriend and the dogs.
Now that I got that under my belt, I guess I will have to try it as a downhill sometime. Leave it to me to turn a shuttle run into a climb! So much for getting smarter as we get older.:lol:
