Madera Canyon

November 11, 2016

Today is our travel day, driving back to Tucson from Silver City. We'll be taking the most direct, fastest route: back down NM90 to Lordsburg, then west on I-10. On the way, we'll stop off for a day ride up Madera Canyon at the base of Mount Wrightson.

This represents a slight step back on our original plan, which was to drive west to Safford and ride up Mount Graham. We decided against it partly because it makes the drive quite a bit longer, and partly because the climb itself looked less attractive the closer we got to it. It's a long, tough climb on a road described as pretty rough and a bit unpleasant on the descent. We've done a lot of rough-surfaced miles in the last two weeks and feel like we've done our time on them.

We got an early start, leaving the Murray Hotel just after 6, stoked with coffee and toting a few snacks from their breakfast bar to start us down the road.

The minimalist hallway in the historic Murray Hotel, Silver City

Southwest Arizona is pretty great country to drive through in a car, if you're into road trips - long, straight stretches across the basin on fast roads with spectacular country surrounding you. It all blows past you in an instant though and feels so superficial after biking through it. Oh, wow - look at that hawk! That range coming up is incredible! Zoom, zoom. In two hours we're in Benson, stopping at the Safeway/Starrbucks for a break from the road; and an hour later we're in Sahuarita, looking for a spot to leave the car while we vike up to Madera Canyon and back.

In Sahuarita we have a close brush with catastrophe but escape unscathed. We parked our car in the large, mostly vacant parking area of the high school. After we had assembled our bikes and were wheeling off, I noticed something I hadn't seen at first - the school grounds are protected by open but lockable gates. It wouldn't be much fun to return late in the day and stare wistfully at our car on the other side of a locked barricade.

The out-and-back ride to Madera Canon begins with a flattish nine miles south along the Nogales Highway, following the same route we rode two weeks ago on our first day out. Then, it was about 95 degrees and I was starting to suffer from heat exhaustion. It's about 20 degrees cooler today, and much more pleasant. Much of the way we bike past miles of lush pecan orchards.

At Green River we turn southeast and begin climbing toward Madera Canyon - the road has a parabolic shape, climbing gradually at first but steadily more steeply as we progress. By the time we reach the end of the pavement we're pushing into a steep, 13% grade. The climb is beatiful though - through cactus strewn desert terrain at first, followed by lush grassland that reminds me of the Chiracahuas, and finally into an oak forest.

We biked past about ten miles of pecan trees, south of Sahuarita.

At the top, we park our bikes and take a break for a bit, eating lunch and then lying around in the warm afternoon sun. From the next neighboring picnic spec we're entertained by a charming man and his poor significant other, as they fire up their barbecue pit and realize there's been a packing mishap. 'I only told you to do one thing - bring the foil!'. Pause, mutter, grumble. 'Just one thing!'. Mutter, mutter. 'Really, just the one thing!'. And so on.

Obvious Trump supporter.

We don't have a lot of free time in our day, but we do have enough to take a bit of a hike along one of the trails at the top of the canyon. It's' a beautiful walk, through live oak/juniper woods with intermittent breakout views of the mountains and basin. Along the trail are information boards, including one illustrating the seven varieties of live oak that grow here. With more time I'm sure I'd learn to disinguish them all, but today they all look the same.

Taking five at the rest stop atop the Madera Canyon Road. It felt great to lie there and soak in the sun.

Setting out on a short hike in Madera Canyon

Looking down into the basin below Madera Canyon. I think that's Tucson and Mount Lemmon in the distance.

The Santa Rita mountains, from Madera Canyon. Mount Wrightson, the rightmost peak, is the high point of the range.

It would have been nice to walk longer but we needed to head down the hill. It was 3:30, sundown was only two hours off, and we didn't want to be caught on the Nogales Highway after dusk. The ride back to the car went fast, but was slowed down by the desert - the cacti and grasses were radiant in the late day light and insisted on having their pictures taken.

Buckhorn cholla, I think. Or it could be staghorn - both look similar, both can turn purple in the autumn. My source says to distinguish them by the fruits - buckhorns are bumpy (begins with B), and staghorns are smooth (begins with S). These look pretty bumpy to me.

Common raven, south of Sahuarita. They're a common sighting, but somehow they're never close and still enough for a decent photo.

Eurasian collared dove, an invasive introduced species. Same tree, almost the same snag as the raven was on. As soon as the raven flew off, the dove swept in to take its place.

Today's ride: 44 miles (71 km)
Total: 736 miles (1,184 km)

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