The entrance to the Mountain Preserves and South Mountain Park
I wasn't going to ride this morning since I'll be spending six hours in the car today driving out to Los Angeles for Baby Dragon 180 training rides and AIDS LifeCycle Training Ride Leader certification... But I only got in one other morning ride this week and wanted to try to get in another.
So, I trucked myself out to South Mountain this morning, but when I got there I decided to do a different route today. Instead of riding the Summit Road, I split to the West and rode the San Juan Road. San Juan rolls through some of the foothills of South Mountain in the direction of Estrella Mountain, ending at a beautiful overlook of downtown Phoenix and Piestewa Peak.
Decisions, decisions... Summit or San Juan?
I hadn't done San Juan in awhile and sort of forgot what the terrain was like. It's about 6 or so miles one way... And when you set out on the San Juan stretch from the main road, it's a lot of downhill. So I was picking up like 30-35 mph without trying, rolling along sort of forgetting that I was turning around and riding back up all of this. That's why I call this the San Juan Sucker Punch. The scenery is SO beautiful on San Juan. You get a totally different view of things... The western end of South Mountain, the foothills, the flats of the Gila River Indian Community, and majestic Estrella Mountain to the West. The view is so pretty that you forget that you have to turn around and ride back up!
The view heading West along the San Juan Road
The ride back "up" isn't so bad, really... There's about 700-800 feet of climb over the final six miles. It's just not as fun as the ride out!
A view of the sun over the summit of South Mountain and the TV towers from San Juan Road
So, anyway... Great ride this morning. Looking forward to getting in some training rides in California this weekend and will be sure to post everything here! Happy Friday!
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