Pass Mountain Loop, PHX

Here was a tasty little ride. We had a motley crew of Moabites, Crested Beauticians and Gunny-Sackers at the Yeti Camp out at McDowell, so we suited everyone up and headed out to ride the Pass Mountain Loop. Lovely weather and new (to me) trail.






Pilots take heed. If you are schlepping a load of sleepy honkies out to Phoenix in one of Frontiers finest Airbuses, and you had one too many gimlets for lunch, fret not about losing your way. The hills have signs.

And have a lookie at that. Desert? Water shortage? Phpah!. I repeat, Phpah!! This jaunty little desert community flies in the face of such kill-joy rationalism with a big honking fountain that shoots water hundreds of feet straight up into the air.



WW?







It is a lovely romp through the Saguaros. And depite the biological wonderment that the Mighty Saguaro represents, I found myself charmed by lichen that day.

Such an improbable life form. A symbiosis in fact. A little bit of alga, a little bit of fungus and off you go. Life. (Some biologists will argue that this is parasitism.) At any rate is is an elegant method of extending the ecological range of both species. And it sure does add some nice color to the landscape.

This is a sweetie of a ride because it dispenses with that nasty business of climbing through the aegis of fun, swoopy singletrack. Then all of a sudden you are at the top of a wickedly fun descent.







Copyright Estate of Anthony Vail Sloan 2009