Wednesday I decided to ride up Mt. Lemmon. The weather forecast seemed reasonable enough. In the end I turned back at the ranger station around 8,000 feet. The temps were below 50, it was windy and the rain seemed determined to stay. I put on everything I had packed and headed down. After five minutes around 25mph I could no longer feel my fingers and the toes were heading the same way...numb. Hard to brake when you can't feel the levers. The roads, having been dry for 191 rainless days, were getting slick. I continued down for a few more minutes, my shivers caused the bike to shimmy. A quick calculation left me with the realization it was going to be another hour of this to reach the bottom. Hypothermia was within reach. I decided to see if I could hitch a ride to the canyon floor. Hard to pass up a 20 mile descent but better to ride another day. A super nice couple on vacation from NJ gave me a lift down.
The pic is from the way up just as the first sprinkles started.
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