Cruising the Sky

My trip to the track in Pahrump also included a trip to Tucson to visit family.

Since the trailer I borrowed had room for two bikes and I couldn't convince anyone to join me (Dave, Joe and Jason, this is where you should feel guilty and ashamed of yourselves) I decided to bring the Suzuki. That way I could enjoy the Tucson weather if the opportunity arose.

It turned out to be a good idea. (Insert Guinness-ad "Brilliant!" here.)

Just outside of Tucson is one of the best mountain roads anywhere. It covers about 25 miles from Tucson up to Mt Lemmon Ski Valley. The scenery ranges from the Sonoran Desert to pine forest as you climb from 3000' to about 9000' in elevation. ... Well, here's a good description. The road is Catalina Highway but it's less commonly called Sky Island Scenic Byway.

I hadn't been on Catalina Highway since I lived in Tucson in 2002. Back then they were in the midst of a long-term repaving project of the entire road. But, much to my delight, they've finished that project. That means gorgeous smooth wide asphalt for 25 miles.

In 2002 I would get up early and get in a few spirited mountain "laps" before the cars showed up in force on the weekends. (I'm not the sort of person that drags a knee on public roads, but if I were, Catalina highway was one of the best places for it. It wasn't hard to find times where there was zero other traffic on the mountain.) But for this trip I had the Suzuki. It's a much different ride on a cruiser. Not better, not worse, just different. You pay more attention to the scenery than on the sport bike. But it can still be a spirited ride.

If you're in Tucson with a bike it's a ride you won't regret.

I'm starting to think that moving back to Tucson might be worth the 20% pay cut. A couple hours each weekend on the mountain might save me enough in therapy costs to make it worthwhile.