Central AZ

[Warrior]

We military folk get a lot of holidays, so on our latest excuse, eh, reason not to work, we venture to Mt. Lemmon near Tucson one day. The next a little Mountain Loop around Central Arizona. A possible preview for the Winter Pashnit ride?

Sunday, Malina, myself, Moke, his riding partner Sheena, and our other co worker Yeo decided to head down to Mt Lemmon. The fastest way to get there from Phoenix is to take I-10, but looking for a little more fun we wandered out to Globe to take the sweepy Winkleman Pass down towards Tucson.

Weather was a little colder than we are used to, and the clouds were looking ominous, but we escaped unscathed. I think Arizonians melt in the rain.

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Winkleman Pass or HWY 77 is a high speed sweepy kind of road. Nothing challenging just nice sweepers.

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This eventually dumps you into Catalina and North Tucson. Really nice homes going up here, low $800,000's if your interested.

After making our way through traffic we start heading up Catalina HWY to reach the top of Lemmon. Where we run into.... more traffic!

(Rant) Don't worry about the signs saying slower traffic MUST use turnouts, that's just a suggestion. Just keep going 5 under the speed limit. Here's an idea let's try to make the longest car train going up the mountain, we pulled up when there was only 10 cars behind you! (Done)

Ok, say after a little spirited riding we were pass the traffic and got to breathe a little. The road was just repaved and the curves are delicious.

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Couple more pics, the ladies are adept at taking pictures from the backseat.

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The top of Mt Lemmon has a ski lodge and a little town called Summerhaven. Had lunch there and goofed around a little.

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The ride down was much better, less traffic. The ride from Tucson to Phoenix, well, straight roads suck.

Monday Malina had to work so I was able to get some more break in miles on the Hornet. 3000 miles is a good break in right?

Riders for today would be partner in crime Moke, and fellow cohart Flick on his Harley Road Glide.

Plan today was a loop of Central Arizona. 89A to Jerome through Prescott. Then onto 260 into Payson, with a high speed run down 87 back to the valley.

With a lack of pillion riders comes a lack of on road pics. So most pics are the bikes posing and local scenery. Sorry...

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Jerome is such a cool little town. Great views of the red rocks of Sedona, and twisty roads coming in and out of town.

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A few more from Jerome

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Not a lot of pics on 260. A real high speed sweeper road, good times. But here our a couple from our collection.

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Almost forgot these action shots!