Anyone who’s been to Tucson is familiar with Mt Lemmon, whose jagged peaks rise dramatically out of the desert floor and wall off the northern boundary of the city limits. A training camp favourite, Day 3 was a trip up Mt Lemmon’s 25-mile climb to the “hamlet” of Summerhaven (comprised of a post office, restaurant, visitors centre and handful of cabins).

It’s just over 2 hours of climbing, with a seemingly endless number of switchbacks. We began the ride on the desert floor with temps in the high 70’s, but it was in the 40s nearly 6,500 feet above in Summerhaven. Passing through several ecosystems, the cacti and desert flora prevalent at the lower elevations patiently give way to pines and snow drifts on the upper slopes. A fun ride and perennial highlight of Bandit Training camp.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 11th, 2008 at 10:59 pm and is filed under Pictures. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.