Riding Fantasy Island - Shaft & Lone Cactus

Beautiful day today, just spectacular. We rode Fantasy Island with friends of ours, all of whom ride faster than I do. It was good to be pushed to ride faster than normal, from a training perspective, but unnerving from a bicycle fishtailing on the sandy trail perspective. The rubber side of the bike stayed down and I was happy about that.
This is along the trail somewhere. The piece of paper is a notification that giant holes will be dug in the desert to see if it drains well. Tucson used to survive on ground water, but the pace and degree of development have depleted the aquifer. If Fantasy Island is suitable, water from a treatment plant will be poured on to the desert (that's a gross simplification) and allowed to percolate down to the aquifer. The notice assures us that mountain biking will not be affected by this activity. In one sense it might be good, the area is State Trust Land and is for sale. If it becomes an aquifer recharging area, that might take it out of the for sale category. It's an absolute gem of a place to ride, it would be sad if condos sprouted there.

If you refer back to my post of last March, you can see the Shaft in its former gnarly glory. In the interim, someone has flattened out the ruts on the down hill section, installed concrete blocks and back filled with sand. One goes down much faster now, however I still did not clean the left turn. I tend to target fixate on that tree with the Ford tail gate in it.

I saw two cows today. She did not offer to charge us as we rode by, and we were happy about that.

In other news, a miracle occurred and our RV extended warranty company approved the claim for the melted multiplexer boards and associated labor. This is not the same thing as actually paying, we shall stand by to be amazed. I would like to go on record thanking the staff at Premier RV who have wrestled this issue into submission. Much of their time went into dealing with this.
We may go to the Tucson Convention Center Gem & Mineral Show tomorrow. Or we may be out looking for a new over the range microwave/convection oven. One activity will provide interesting pictures, the other will not.