Had a pretty cool ride Saturday morning (real early to avoid traffic). Thought I would share the pictures.

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a good at dawn has to be one of the best things in the world.

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Sunrise over canyon lake and my bicycle.

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Just a cactus near the summit of a climb.

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You know what they say about the journeybeing better than the destination. That building down there is basically the town of Tortilla flat, my destination (the store was closed at that time of the morning).

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Sunrising on the climb out of Tortilla Flat.

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Some cliffs above Tortilla Flat.

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Mountains above Tortilla Flat

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The town of Tortilla Flat (I am pretty sure this was the bank in "Raising Arizona" if you have seen that movie, They shot a lot of scenes in this area.)

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Descending back down to the lake.

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This is why they call it canyon lake.

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Probably one of the only steel decked bridges in the state of Arizona. It was definitely the first one I ever had to cross. Glad it wasn't wet.

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Had to pose by the sign as long as I was taking pictures. Good excuse to rest in the middle of a long hill anyway. OK, no comments about the socks, I got dressed at 3:00 AM to get an early start and the Fashion Concious section of my brain was slow in activating. :o

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The Flat Iron. This is the western edge of the Superstition Mountains.

Good ride, had a motorcyclist go down right behind me at one point and had to wait for the Highway patrol to get there. Remind me to never have a life threatening injury out here as it takes them awhile to get there. I am amazed at how many cyclists do this ride every weekend. Must be the scenery. I am definitely going back. With 4000 feet of climbing it is a pretty good workout over 54 miles. Next time though I will sleep in until 4 AM and not plan on being detained for half an hour by an accident :) . I also will toss in a first aid kit next time.

Cool pics. I drove that route a couple of years ago when in Apache Junction visiting my mom. Good burgers at Tortilla Flats! On the drive, I was wondering what a bike ride down there would be like, but I didn't like the narrowness of the road. Any problems with cars? I would guess it would be best to ride that route in a group.

nicer than any ride ive been on

same here. that is absolutely stunning, i'll get you some pics of sunny england if you like so you can see how lucky you are. there's hardly anywhere over here where you can just ride, it's all towns and villages and the few roads that are in the countryside are usually quite dangerous (at least where i live).

Great pictures, thanks for sharing. I'd love to get down and ride some of that country.

Paul..What's the bike..? Maybe a Jamis.? Just appears you have no wedge... Carry a patch kit somewhere... Do notice a pump...
One time I unknowingly commutted to work w/o such...
That on a work commute makes me nervous, just to think about.

One day I will be living in Arizona too. I have wanted to live there my whole life(I'm 19). It has to be the most beautiful area in the world. I love the desert and rocky terrian of Arizona. It is flat and hot over here in Texas(houston area).

Thanks for the pics! I love my morning rides through the farms and hills of middle Tennessee but it is great to see what other cyclists around this beautiful country of ours get to see on their morning rides.

Thanks again for the photos. BTW, that picture of Canyon Lake is beautiful. I am thinking of getting a camera to take on my rides. Any suggestions?

man thats wicked cool

This is only doable by bike early in the morning when no cars are out and even then you need to keep an eye in the rearview watching for cars towing boat trailers. Between 4 and 6 in the morning though traffic is very light (one or two cars per half hour). Coming back is fine until 8 or 9 since the only reason people travel up there is for the lake mostly. Groups help. The sharp turns help to keep speeds down as well but create a blind spot problem. The key is keeping the ears open for approaching vehicles and being careful around the blind curves.

The bike is a Mercier Corvus, same as the ones they sell at bikesdirect.com. The price of the bike was less than the components would cost so I figured even if the frame was cheap I could still replace the frame and have a good bike. So far the frame has been doing good though. Since no shops were open at that time of morning I decided to take my hydrapack in addition to the two bottles so I would have 4 hours of fluids with me (I finished the last of my water 2 miles from home so it was a pretty good estimate). I put the all in one tool and the patch kit in the hydraspack. I usually keep all that in a rack trunk but didn't want to mess with the trunk on a fifty miler with all that climbing.

I have done the tortilla flats ride only once so far, it was great. I loved the climbing and the fact that I wasn't in the city so much. I went on a weekday morning and had a few boats go by on the way down to the lake but coming back out I had only one or two cars pass me in the 45 minutes or whatever it took to climb out. This was in late may though so there is probably more traffic with people out of school. The climbing was so nice compared to south mountain that I am used to, smooth pavement, long climbing at good gradients. I will definetly be back...as soon as I get back to AZ! Where'd you ride from? I started at ASU which added about an hour to an hour and a half or so just to get out there. Made for a very pleasant, very rewarding ride. Great pics, makes me miss AZ! Just a few more weeks...

I have the Cannon powershot s400 (Digital ELPH). It has worked great and has and I haven't hadn't had any complaints.

I started from east Mesa so it is only about half an hour of city riding to get out to where the real riding starts. I ride past ASU from here twice a day so I am very familiar with that part of your ride.

Nice to see water in AZ paul, thanks. ill have to visit canyon lake this week.

you must have a very wonderful ride, out there

boy!...that shot of the lake makes a nice background on my desktop. Thank you!

nice ride paul . i toured that area with my grandparents when i went to see them in apache junction ,i was there in the month of feb. quite a few years ago .your so right on the cars its real touristy . we stopped at that little town went into the saloon where the bar stools are horse saddles . wow that brings back memories, thanks.when we went they said it was a wet month got to see a waterfall in the desert quite different to say the least . nice pics and thanks for sharing

awesome pics...looks like you had a lot of fun!

oh gosh, I've never ridden on the streets like that, they're perfect.

Great pictures. Just got back from Pedal to the Peaks, a 450 mile in southwestern Colorado. Looks like a lot of the scenery I rode in. It must be wonderful to live there.

Gorgeous.

Nice! Must be great to have rides like that right out your front door.

What's wrong with the socks?

Many roadies I know abhor the tall sock look, preferring the look of the below ankle cycling socks. I prefer the cycling socks as well but not necessarily for looks but rather the wicking properties. Unfortunately they were in the laundry.

Thanks for sharing the pics, Paul! Nice work!