Going National

I received a text from one of my Tucson friends, Jonathan, mentioning that he'd be up in the big city for the weekend and wanted to hit some techy climbs. He was staying up near the McDowell Mountains, but I wasn't really in the mood for an assault of Windgate in the heat. I also knew he was up here a few months ago for the AES McD46 and may want to try something new. Q: Ever been on National? A: No. ok then. South Mountain's National Trail it would be. We worked out the details and Seron met us at the trailhead bright and early for our session up National proper (no taking a first timer the 'easy' way up Mormon Loop).

We only had a couple of hours, but made it up to the saddle near the top parking lot, turned around there for the super fun techy descent down. National is great fun, a super challenging trail with tons of alt. lines and techy features to spend multiple attempts trying to clean. Here are some pics from the day.

J-Bake cresting the major climb up National. Is that an overcast August morning? Thank you.

One of the many sessioning lines, this one will have to be conquered on another ride.

Seron was feeling mighty techy on this morning, cleaned some burly lines.

So many opportunities for Natty to bite you.

Those Tucson Techy Taco Tuesday rides are paying off!

Dropping into the Waterfall on the spine line.

Animated GIF of the entire run down the Waterfall, nice job!!

Lean baaaack.

I don't think the hikers were impressed.

Big move to get up there.

Nose wheelie for style points?!?!

Photo by Seron.

Riding into your living room. Photo by Seron.

Great shot by Seron, if I wasn't there in person I wouldn't believe there's a coyote in this picture!! Look real hard.