Thursday, Feb 4th, 2010 Kitt Peak

Todays menu was Kitt Peak,  a world famous observatory that does  some great research in astronomy. It's placed on a mountain top in the middle of the desert, as far away from artificial light as possible. The hors d'hoeuvre was the long straight Ajo Road, spiced up with Gates Pass. Despite knowing that we were on a seven hour ride, the pace was solid. The mushroom-like observatories hovered high up over the valley floor and could be seen the whole way.
The climb itself is a 14 miles/20km rather steep ascent (~ 1200 vertical meters), that goes up to 7000 ft (2133m). We all did our own thing and enjoyed the breathtaking views to the West (California) and South (Mexico). After soaking up some sun at 7000 ft, we went in to the fascinating visitors center to look around, use the rest room and fill the water bottles. The descent was very cold and it felt so good to drop down to the warm desert floor. We had a nice tailwind going back to Tucson and only the bumpy stretches on Ajo could dampen the big smiles. After seven hours and approx. 215 km, we were home at 5.15 p.m., which left us with about 90 minutes before we had to meet for potluck at our house. Hats off to Allan, who did the long ride 12 hours he set foot on US soil.

It was a great potluck dinner, with guacamole, nachos, salad, lasagne, chili con carne, corn bread, braised vegetables, beers and a big fudge chocolate cake. It was a truly international turn out with four Danes, three Canadians and three Americans. Thanks to Jenny for gathering all the people, it was a great night.