Lemmon Meringue

 I had found a good campsite up near Mt. Bigelow, Andrew & Zack met up with me later that evening. Our plan for the next morning was a ride around the upper trails on Mt. Lemmon. The next morning Zack asked if I heard the skunk that had wondered into camp. I had not in spite of cowboy camping. Come to find out Zack had a two hour ordeal with it around 2a trying to get it to leave camp!! Thankfully, he didn't get sprayed. I slept through the whole thing.

Zack opted to stay back at camp as he was recovering from a bit of dehydration from the AZT800. The record heat wasn't too kind to him in the Canelo Hills. Andrew and I set out from camp. Three of the trails we'd be riding were new to him: Secret, 1918 - both recently re-opened to bikes and Aspen Draw. I was excited to ride 1918 again, this time with some fall color.

We had a short bit of dirt road before reaching Secret trail. It's a relatively quick downhill rip, didn't bother stopping for photos. It dumps you right into 1918 trail.

We were greeted to splashes of color right away.

Then it got real good. Oranges, reds, yellows, similar to the east coast.

Overall, it's a nice trail with only a tricky spot or two.

We then joined Sunset trail, a bit more rideable after some recent trail work.

Great views not seen from the Catalina Hwy.

The pools were running low near the headwaters of Sabino Creek.

We rolled through Summerhaven and began the climb up to Aspen Draw. We made a quick out-n-back on the first bit of Red Ridge so Andrew could see the beginning of it and the view from the top.

Red Ridge trail. Singletrack to the edge of the Earth.

Next up: Mt. Lemmon Ski Valley.

Fall was definitely in the air here.

Huge valley views from the top. The desert floor looked hot from here and we wondered how the AZTR riders were faring in the heat of day 2.

There's a short dirt road connector to Aspen Draw, which begins near the top of the chair lift.

Andrew enjoying the dirt and roots.

It's such a fun trail with good flow most of the way down.

Red leaves are more rare here in AZ, but not on Mt. Lemmon.

My SSP posing for the fall calendar.

Such a beautiful time of year for this ride.

Aspen Draw brings you right back to Summerhaven. We made our way back towards Mt. Bigelow via the Catalina Hwy. On our way up the dirt road to camp we were riding through the 1918 trailhead right about the same time an AZTR rider was about to pass through. We decided to wait.

Alex Stephan, and ITT rider wraps up the Secret trail.

We asked him what he thought about the Lemmon Pusch route, his answer: Don't ask me now!! Ha! Other than that he seemed eager to get to Summerhaven and resupply. We made the short climb back to camp to finish out the ride.

I believe this route is known as the Lemmon Meringue route, could be wrong, but it sounds good. Give it a try when the desert temps are too high. There is plenty of riding up on Mt. Lemmon in cool temps.

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