2019_04_08 Monday_Leon Matz Week in Arizona (Tuscon) - Mt. Lemmon Encore

Author: Leon Matz

The weather has been nice the first three days (70-80 degrees). Today the forecast is for low 90’s in Tucson.  Mike Smith is jumping for joy! He loves climbing in warm weather, and he was excited about going all the way to the ski resort at just over 9,000 feet. As you might guess, I was a lot less excited for this kind of heat.

We were up fairly early and drove to the cyclists meeting place Le Buzz. It is a restaurant and coffee place in a nice big parking lot! It is 4.5 miles from the start of the climb! We were on our bikes by 7:15 and headed out for Mt Lemmon! We thought that because it was a Monday that there would be a lot less riders than there were over the weekend! Both days there were about 150 riders!

Mike Smith on the road up Mt. Lemmon...

Mike had ridden real hard Sunday, so we talked about not riding to hard. The segment to the climb went quickly,

Leon on Mt. Lemmon...

and it was already warming into the low 70’s . Part way up the first mile, we caught up with a 40 year old gravel road rider from Minnesota who is here on vacation!  I asked him about what he did for work, and he kind of shocked us by saying he was retired and has been for 5 years! Wow, what did you do?, I asked!  He was a financial investment counselor!  He was a heck of a nice guy! He is trying to convince his wife to move here! The riding pace was not a TT but clearly harder than I or Mike had intended! The talking continued, and that helped the miles and climbing feet flow by! The conversation was terrific, and the views were even better! 

The saguaro cactus are so big and beautiful! They dominate the first 5-7 miles with mountain shrubs the taking over followed by the Hoodoos and then the pine forest!



It didn’t seem long and we were at the steepest section so far. It is a about a 3.5 mile segment to Windy Point. Not sure why but both Mike and I were feeling frisky, and we decided to see how we could do on this segment. We surged forward losing our new friend Rick!

"Hoodoos" and the road up Mt. Lemmon...

When we arrived at the Windy Point Rest Area, we stopped and had a break! We sat in the sun and enjoyed the 65 degree temperature and the incredible views!

Tuscon as seen from Mt. Lemmon...

After a wonderful rest at Windy Point, we headed up the road. The terrain changes some now with slight descents mixed in with longer climbing segments... beauty everywhere though! A few times I had to force myself to watch the road and not get carried away enjoying the views! 

Mike made a request that we stop for lunch at Summerland. It is a small town in the ski area. We had a wonderful lunch on their patio at 7,800 feet in 68 degrees! It was wonderful! Although getting back on the bike and climbing another 1,300 feet to the end of the road past the ski area was hard and painful... partially because of the extended rest and partially because the last two miles were at 10-13%. I was exhausted at the top!

After a quick rest we headed back! At Windy Point, we decided to make a quick stop! The quick stop turned into 15 min laying on the warm rocks soaking in wonderful weather. It felt so good to lay around at 6,800 feet in 75 degrees. I almost took a nap! 


The descent over the next 14 miles went quickly! I greatly enjoyed seeing the 125 or so cyclists ‍♀️ that we’re going up and down the Mt Lemmon climb. Even though we had already ridden 60 miles and climbed 7,580 feet, I was energized.  Mike and I raced back to our van keeping the speed above 20 miles an hour! When we finally arrived at the van we checked the temperature and it was 92 at 2:00.

An incredible day! Wish all of you could have been here with us!