Spring Break

Dave says: Spring break was a nice departure from what has been a very busy academic semester. However, because I actually did some things that were not school related, I figured it was finally time to write a blog entry.

On the first Saturday of spring break, Alisha and I drove up to South Mountain in Phoenix to compete in a hill climb and circuit race. It was a fun venue despite the fact that South Mountain seems more like a hill with a cell phone tower on it than a legit mountain. The men's race was combined Cat 1/2 and the Landis boys brought some serious heat. In the women's race, Alisha won both events and wrapped up a 7 for 7 win streak in Arizona before heading to California for San Dimas on Wednesday.

However, before she left we spent some time together and even went to the mall (which is only tolerable on a weekday afternoon) and to dinner. She is always good at finding Groupons for new restaurants to try. On Tuesday, I helped my grandparents load some boxes in preparation for their move to Phoenix in the next few months.

On Wednesday, Sam, Alex, and I did what may be my favorite "hike" in Tucson. We took the tram up Sabino Canyon to stop 8 (near the top) and did the Sabino Canyon scramble. The route goes right up Sabino Canyon over giant boulders and small waterfalls. It is part hike, part rock climb and we had a great time. Eventually, we reached Miner's Pool which is a giant pool with a waterfall on the other side that looks unclimbable without ropes and cannot be scrambled around. We bushwacked up and out of the canyon which was crazy-steep and our only bad idea of the day. We then headed back into town for some well deserved Nico's.

The excitement continued on Thursday as I met up with other Aleks for an epic MTB ride on Lemmon. We rolled down Bug Springs to Molino Basin which was super fun. Then, we started the burly part of the ride down La Miligrosa which is the toughest trail I have ridden in Tucson. Despite the fact that our route was mostly downhill, it took 2.5 hours of ride time and 4 hours overall to go 14 miles. I sliced the sidewall of my front tire on some sharp rocks and put in a tube with some duct tape over the hole. Next, I flatted the tube on some of the spiny bushes that are all over the trail. Aleks gave me his slime-filled tube, but as we neared the last two miles of the trail, he ripped the sidewall of his tire and slime was spurting out. We did some exciting improvisation as I gave Aleks back his tube and dumped sealant into my tape-patched tire to try and run it tubeless again. Somehow, the tape managed to hold even soaked in sealant and we made it to the end of the trail with all our supplies used up. I went hope and bought some tougher new tires, new front brake pads (wore the others out) and several tubes filled with slime. It was an epic ride that we plan to do again later this year (although I will be more prepared for a ride of this caliber in the future).

Finally, it was time to return back to school and homework on Friday. However, on Saturday the Trisports team raced the Old Pueblo Grand Prix in downtown Tucson. It was a fun crit course that worked well for our team because we had the most riders there. We put Brian in a break and controlled the rest of the field. When I woke up on Sunday morning, it was 40 degrees and raining and I knew that spring break was over. The weather returned my focus to school and it is now only a little over a month before this busy semester comes to an end.