Impressed by mountains and men

Below are pictures from today’s ride up Mount Lemon in Tucson, Arizona. What an incredible day of riding, the views were spectacular! All told, today’s ride was 88kms with a 25km climb; 1,362m of elevation gain, taking me to a max. elevation of 2,037m and temperatures ranging from 24deg to 13deg.(Celcius) Here’s the link for the data. I even had the pleasure of chatting with Fabian, who had driven up the mountain to reminisce.

Though now retired, it turns out he was a Forest Ranger at Mt Lemon and elsewhere in the Santa Catalina Mountains for many years. Telling me much about the fires that have ravaged the mountainside, the use of penal and Japanese POW labour to build many of the roads, he gave me yet another view of what I was gazing upon. And what I saw, was yet another taste of the magnificence of this beautiful country, both it’s geography and its people.