After learning some lessons on our first trip and subsequently replacing some gear and riding a handful of long day rides, we finally managed to make some time for another overnight trip on the bikes.
Winter is a lovely time for outdoor pursuits in Southern Arizona, but the weather can range anywhere from below freezing to 80 degrees. Cold snaps move in and break up the warm weather for weeks at a time. This winter, the weather was less cold, but consistently chilly and rainy. Many of our weekends have been wet. While we have the gear for the conditions, we don’t always have the desire to deal with it.
We’d been trying to get out on the bikes since the beginning of the year, but every time the dates aligned for us, the weather did not. Or other obligations popped up. Finally we decided to force it and commit to early February. As we readied our gear, we watched the news warning of the atmospheric river about to slam California with historic rains. We had a brief window of about 2 days between storms, which would give us just enough time to ride the route before the rain arrived.
It was a gamble but ultimately one that paid off. We packed our rain gear of course, but we were lucky to never need it. Although the overcast skies threatened to rain on us a few times, it also provided shade on an exposed route, so in the end the weather for riding was near perfect. Only the headwind at the very end of the trip was worth complaining about, and even that wasn’t too terrible.
We followed the route published on Bikepacking.com, starting at the Titan II Missile Silo Interpretive site. During the Cold War, there were 18 of these missile silos surrounding Tucson, manned 24 hours a day for over 20 years, ready to launch ICBMs at the USSR, before being decommissioned in the early 1980s. A few remain intact and can be toured, but this site is merely an above-ground interpretive site, consisting of some informational signs badly damaged by the desert sun. Interesting nonetheless, we took a few moments to imagine what the site was like in its heyday.
Onto the ride. We started on the road we drove in on, passing a van camped out with a ham radio antenna mounted on the back. The route soon turned off the dirt road and onto a powerline road. These are always in rough shape, sometimes making for rugged travel even on foot. This road was rocky but easy to follow, and our mountain bikes handled the bumpy terrain just fine.
The route description recommended carrying all needed water or placing a water cache in advance, as the cow troughs are unreliable along the route. Because it had rained recently, we knew there was a fair chance of having some water available, but we also knew this would likely only be along the first third or so. We ended up encountering far more troughs than expected, and there appear to be some new troughs and tanks under construction now. These troughs were frequent and full along the first ten miles or so, and became less reliable as we moved on. We stopped at the last marked trough to refill water, gathering about 3 liters before continuing along the route.
The riding surface was frequently chunky and often sandy, but the gradients were not too steep and often mostly flat, which made the route less tiring but quite bumpy. We reached the halfway point, about 25 miles in, earlier than we would usually stop for the day, but our bums were decently sore from the bouncy ride and we were certainly in no rush, so we pulled off the trail and into the desert to set up camp for the night. Having learned our lesson with food last trip, we opted to skip the dehydrated meals and brought canned chili for dinner. Not only was it super easy to cook as it only needed to be warmed up, it was also much more satisfying than a backpacking meal.
We heard multiple packs of coyotes in the night, but none of them sounded too close. When we arose in the morning, we realized that my rear tire had deflated. My bike has tubeless compatible rims, but I decided to get some use out of the stock tires before paying for the full tubeless set. We swapped out the tube and continued without issue, but it was a good reminder that tubeless is just better out here in the desert where everything is prickly. I have since gone tubeless and I am loving it.
We were close to a suburban area in the morning, riding past a few properties and on a touch of pavement before looping back toward the monument. A local woman drove past and seemed quite concerned for our safety, as there is a rabies outbreak happening in the area. We assured her we were doing fine. Townies mean well but they tend to fear-monger, especially when they are not experienced in outdoor pursuits.
It threatened to rain for most of the day, but this also meant we had nice cloud cover so the weather was quite nice for riding. Unfortunately this weather also brought in a bit of wind. While it was not severe, and the grades not too steep, it meant that the final miles of our journey were riding uphill into a headwind. The road surfaces were similar to the day before – a little sandy, some gravel, and a lot of chunky rocks. The climbing was less steep and the sandy sections were short, so the entire day was pleasant riding.
We made it back to the car early in the afternoon. The ham radio van was still camped out near the interpretive center, but we never saw the person it belonged to. No sooner had we unpacked and gotten the car loaded that it started to rain. Perfect timing! This route was great – relaxed, scenic, mostly empty of people and yet quite accessible to Tucson. While it can easily be done as a day ride, it makes for a great overnighter that can fit into a weekend with minimal prep and planning. I think we’ll be back to ride this one again.