The terrain south of Tucson—rugged dirt roads, old mines, Elephant Head butte, thorny cactus single track, canyons and sky and dry—has filled me for 30 years. The bikes have changed but they’re a distant second to the landscape and emotions and riding with friends.
Sarah Swallow hosted a four part series of winter rides and the finale was this past weekend. Fantastic time on a ride that had it all. The section from Patagonia to Elephant Head Butte was a rollercoaster of boney dirt roads—some demented, some fast and bucking—plus classic Arizona rocky cactus thorn singletrack. There was one babyhead-line chute that had us all just pinballing and holding on for hope.
The way back to Patagonia from Elephant Head through Box Canyon was Ronnie and Jordan’s very exquisite terrible idea to make a loop out of the day (most of the group did it as a point to point from Patagonia to the west side of the mountain.). It would have been unseemly for me to decline, obviously. So we rode back, half in the dark, heads down and spent, but grinning inside.
I was so stupidly wonderfully underbiked on this ride, a new word for it is probably in order. “Abyssbiking”?
