Saturday, March 15, 2008

Flame Out

My legs are toast. Fried. Completely smoked. Especially after this afternoon's ride, which saw my brother and I explore more of the trails in the McDowell Sonoran Reserve. We started the fun by climbing up to Bell Pass which was a tough, rocky, steep climb that saw us walking the majority of the last mile. This was the high point of the ride at 3204 feet. Dropping down the backside we rode over to the Windgate Pass trail for what we assumed would be a quick descent back to the valley floor. Unfortunately we had to climb up to Windgate Pass and then climb again to the Gateway Saddle. Total elevation gain was 2000+ feet.

Bell Pass is in the center of this picture, just to the right of the middle peak:



On the way up:



At the top of Bell Pass:



Looking down the trail we just finished climbing:



Descending from Bell Pass on the way to Windgate Pass:





Descending from Windgate Pass:



4 comments:

KanyonKris said...

I'll take credit for getting you hooked on more epic rides (Timp Perimeter). ;-)

Looks fantastic down there.

Piotrek said...

That's nice and all, but other than enjoying the awesome weather, breathing fresh air, taking cool pictures while getting a workout, and generally loving life, what else do you do on your bike?

IamMatt said...

looks like fun.
jealous.

Anonymous said...

they sure do have funny looking trees down there