Day 9 The Finally Jan.3 '09
Started the day off nice and early with a short 30 minute run that included a few hill repeats. Now it was time for the real fun to start. After mounting our bikes at 10 a.m. we headed off to the Catalina Highway at a nice pace. We got to the base of Mt. Lemmon at 10:45. 24 miles of climbing followed. We climbed about 7000 feet. The temp was nice as we climbed. Soon we were at the snow level but the effert of the climb kept us warm (sweating). The road was pretty well clear with only a few icey spots. The higher we got the colder it got (go figure). We turned around just a few miles shy of Winterhaven. My legs were pretty well fried by then. I piled on my arm warmers, leg warmers, gloves, and vest and began the fast decent down the mountain. The first 5-6 miles was extremely cold. I could not feel my fingers. But then the sun began to warm my body and we cruised down the last 18 miles of twisty mountain road at close to 40 mph! Thats the fun part! All said the bike ride was 4 hours and 20 minutes! Now its nap time