Phoenix to Mesa thru Papago Park

Ride Stats
Courtesy of Cyclemeter 5.0 for IPhone4:
Ride Time: 1:22:05
Distance: 14.92 miles
Average: 10.89 miles/h
Fastest Speed: 20.82 miles/h

    Today, I wanted to try something other than the standard loop ride where it’s usually repeating part of the ride heading the other direction. My thought was to drive somewhere, leave my car, take a bus or train far enough away and travel back. What better way to ensure a nice ride, thank to leave my car in a place I HAVE to ride to in order to get back? Kind of a sick/dangerous training philosophy, I'm sure you will agree.
    I drove to the Mesa Park ‘n Ride and hit up the Valley Metro Light Rail. Arrived 10 minutes early as I was told to on their site, went to the vending machine to get my ticket only to realize they don't have a dollar  changer and took only coins and card. As I pull out my card, swipe for my ticket, I hear the Ding Ding....and watch my train pull off 10 minutes early... Weak!! At least Train number 2 was sitting there waiting and I was able to board and sit in the AC (it was already about 88 at 6:30am.) The ride was only about 15 minutes to Phoenix and in no time I was at 44th / Washington (also the airport entrance AND one of the stations I worked on back at TranSystems.) Swung by the old digs so I could shoot a few reflection shots prior to hitting the road.

    All geared up, I was ready to set out, and make my way back to my car about 14.5+- miles away in Mesa. Very excited, I cranked up my tunes and hit the Cyclemeter start button and was off. Instantly I noticed the humidity was much higher than usual (about 38%.) Those used to the humidity will agree that is not high, but for the desert and our "dry heat" that is not dry at all! As I was headed up 52st street towards McDowell I realized I hadn't heard anything from Cyclemeter which lets me know current speed, distance etc. [Definitely a recommended app for cycling] So I quickly pulled over to take a look. NO GPS?? WTF? Not a cloud in the sky and I can't get a GPS signal? Odd... so I rebooted the phone and GPS came back up. Off on the road again.

View of Camelback Mountain

    Next stop the top of Mcdowell Road at Papago Park, this turned out to be quite a challenge! I've driven over this countless times and never thought of it as much of a "hill" but about 3/4 the way up i could feel a serious burn in my legs! Bonus!! Felt great tho, most of the training I've been doing has been on fairly flat ground. This was quite an elevation change.

Looking Up McDowell Road

    I reached the Top! Whoop! I didn't even have to stop, simple played the gears and worked the bike all the way to the top. This was a nice achievement and looking back on downtown Phoenix really made the uphill "battle" feel worth it.

Downtown Phoenix behind me

    Of course the obvious benefit to the uphill battle is the awesome downhill coast which follows. This was sooo much fun. I flew down that hill, though only reached about 20 mph top speed, but its a fairly long slope so it was a nice relief to the burning legs.

Down towards Scottsdale

Cactus!

    Next up was Gavin Parkway which runs between McDowell and Van Buren. Its a nice slope too and goes by the Desert Botanical Gardens and the entrance to Papago Park. Its been a long time since I've hiked this park, but it was nice to ride thru it on my bike, I'd never done that before.

Papago Park

Papago Hole in the Rock

    Passed thru Papago Park and on my way into Tempe. This is a great ride because I get to ride across Tempe Town Lake which is a nice change of view when living in the middle of "dirt." Tempe  town lake also offers many different trails, Fishing, boating, Event venues and many other activities.

Welcome to Tempe

Tempe Town Lake

Mill Ave

Home of the ASU Sundevils "Go Devils!"

202 / 101 Transition

    Unfortunately, at this point, my phone/camera mount on my bike broke and my pictures of this adventure end. Phone had to go back in the bag. Fortunately, this was end of the scenic part of the adventure and there are no pictures for the final 3-4 miles but I assure you that you aren't missing out at all. It all ended well though, after about 1:20 minutes I was back at my car and ready to head home, shower and start the day.

    Today's trip was alot of fun, I'll have to plan some more trips like this in the near future as I really had a good time. I liked the one way approach to riding my bike and can't wait to  do it again. Hope you enjoyed the trip, stay tuned for future rides!