Today we rode from our dispersed campsite north of the Cascabel Community Center to the first campground (at 1400m). Weather same as previous days. The road surface not so much. This difficult and challenging conditions.

Riding statistics: on Sunday, May 12, 2024, day 12 on the route, it took 10:34h (06:58h moving time), between 06:02 and 16:36, to cover 80 km (50 miles), including 1454 m (4771 ft) elevation gain, with an average speed of 11 km/h (7 mph), while reaching a maximum speed of 44 km/h (27 mph). During this ride the average temperature was 30 °C (86 °F) with a minimum of 11 °C (52 °F) and a maximum of 42 °C (108 °F).

Totals: So far, it took 1 days, 7 hours, 58 minutes, and 23 seconds of cycling time to cover 503 km (313 miles), including 4063 m (13331 ft) elevation gain, with an average speed of 16.2 km/h (10.0 mph).

At sunrise we started our day, packed our stuff and got on the road. The first 15km were nice smooth gravel with some easy climbing. After taking a turn towards Redington Road, things changed immediately. Big rocks and minor washout in de road and a lot of difficult washboarding, the whole bike bounced. It was a Sunday and many people from Tuscon got outside in the weekend. Many on ATVs, but also a lot of people doing practice shooting. Park your truck, setup a party tent, open the cooler, setup some targets, and have fun. Sounded like fireworks in the Netherlands, especially with all shots having multiple echos.

In Tucson we had to leave the route for a while to get some refreshments (Cold Sprite, cold frappachino, 2 hot dogs, and water). Unfortunately we had to go a bit further into town to get cargo straps to see if Fons can repair his bags. Honestly, the setup is not suited for real off-road bikepacking. We’ll see how that works out. Now that we were close to a Subway, I decided to buy my first big wrap, which I could eat as dinner.

When leaving Tucson, we had to start. Climbing Mount Lemmon to at least the first campground, over 500m of elevation gain in less than 8km. It was really hot, so I needed some breaks. When we arrived at the campground it was closed. We decided to stay, and pay, anyway. The next campground was another 10km with 500m of elevation gain. And, no guarantees that that campground is open. So hopefully no check-up of the campground tonight.

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