Butterflies and 7 Cats

Summer is here, which means rides and runs on Mt. Lemmon! Once again, this year we are doing the Easy Peasy Lemmon Squeezy Ride that I put together for the Tri Girls. Our first ride was last weekend, and we climbed up to Molino Basin. We had 14 riders attend the first EPLS ride of the season. The first ride is always the most popular. Perhaps because we climb to mile 5.7 and turn around? ;)

Most of the group at the bottom after finishing the ride up to Molino and back:

Yesterday, Zac and I decided to do a little trail run on the Butterfly Trail. I had heard reports that it had been cleaned up. Last summer I didn't get very far in my run before turning around because the bench of the trail was gone and had fallen off the side of the mountain. There were also a ton of logs down and a lot of deadfall. Zac joined me on the run, and this time the trail was in much better shape. The debris had been cleaned away, and a new bench had been cut in spots. There were a lot of hikers on the trail, so the traffic will probably help bed it in. I ran for 35 minutes before turning around. The thing that sucks about this trail is that it's all downhill on the way out and uphill on the way back. So going back up was pretty slow. Zac had turned around at the 30 minute mark, and on the way back narrowly missed stepping on a rattlesnake. He said that was the fastest 20 yard dash he had ever done! I had also saw a snake on the out portion of the run, as he was coiled up and sleeping on the trail. As soon as I stopped he turned around and flew into the bushes.

I caught up to Zac and we finished up with a cool-down walk. Both of us were drenched from the humidity, even though it was only 68 degrees out. I covered a little over 4 miles on my run in 1.5 hours. It's a very technical trail, so average speeds for me go way up. After the run we visited Fleet Feet to pick up Zac an official pair of trail running shoes. He seems to enjoy the trail running more, so we figured we should probably outfit him with the proper shoes.

Our feet after the ride. You'd think we had run in sandals with how dirty our toes got, but that's how much dirt ended up inside our shoes!

Today was the second Easy Peasy Lemmon Squeezy ride, with the destination being the 7 Cataracts Vista (7 Cats) at Mile 9. We rolled out at 6 AM and had a total of 11 riders show up. Not bad for the 2nd ride! It's a very social ride, so I climbed up most of the way with Johnny until he turned in at Molino Basin for a quick restroom and snack break. My goal was to see if I could get to Mile 9 before he caught me. As I hit the descent around a corner and started to climb out with a quarter of a mile left, I could see him coming down the hill. I pedaled hard, but he caught up just before the Mile 9 marker. Nevermind that he's on a singlespeed too!

The gang hung out at 7 Cats for a bit before heading back down the hill. Overall a great morning to be on a bike on the hill.

Most of the group at 7 Cats (photo courtesy of Johnny):