Monday, June 9, 2008

escaped unscathed

Met up with my buddy T this morning and we headed out toward Tortollita preserve.

Directions-take Speedway west west west under freeway and keep going till you hit silver bell and head north( make a right) stay on silver bell-make a left on el camino del cerro, keep going turn onto north Tortollita road and follow it til it dead ends, park at or near gate.
THIS IS A SERIES OF INTERCONNECTING MOUNTAIN BIKE TRAILS.
Yes you can run them but watch out this is a fast set of trails on a bike.
NO MAPS OR TRAIL SIGNAGE.
Spaghetti string trails-lots of them-they all collapse into each other.
We meandered around for 2 hours and found where the trails merge into the other preserve further north west-ish (sweet water preserve)
Some memorable moments, a spur trail that heads further west and heads up some switch backs and gets a little techy/uphill/rocky, a pretty good little climb along a small ridge.

The area itself is mildly confusing, its built in such a way as to maximize the acreage and the trails collapse into each other.Basically pick a land mark on the horizon and try and stay oriented to it.

1 comment:

Pinkcorker (Renee) said...

Cool! Glad you checked the area out. That's how Tucson Mountain Park was to me for a long time. I just planned on being out for a while and if I ran longer than I had scheduled to (because I was lost - well, not lost, just not where I wanted to be - can't get too lost that close to the city) then it was all good. I think I have it down now, but it took quite a few runs. Disorienting is a good word for it; everything looks the same!
I had the same feeling about that area you went to, which is why I didn't attempt it on Saturday; had somewhere I had to be!