Quadruple Bypass: McDowell Mtns - Scottsdale, AZ

Last Sunday was the fourth annual Quadruple Bypass. Not a race, not a benefit, just good old fashioned social ride. :thumbsup: And beat down at that. Actually a handful of people upped the ante this year by doing the Gnardruple Bypass (the inclusion of Tom’s Thumb about 4 more miles and 1,200’ more than the tradition route done in the past).

I stuck with traditional route, and suffered plenty . Some would say 33 miles, ‘no big deal’, but you couple this with 6,900 vf of climbing and you’ve got some fatigue issues.
I’d say close to 50 riders hit the trail that beautiful Arizona morning, but the bulk of the people (say 30) split from the Basha’s Grocery Store parking lot (Scottsdale, AZ) lot at 8:45. It was pretty dang comfy out; prolly 55 degrees. I was in a t-shirt and shorts, cuz I knew the temps would get close to 70 in the afternoon. Which it did!

- Route: Up Windgate Pass (first Bypass), down the backside and over to Bell Pass(second), down Bell, over Paradise to Quartz/Lost Dog/Old Jeep Road to Sunrise, up and over Sunrise (third), up the jeep road to Promenade/Sonoran and Dixie Mine, Dixie Mine to Coachwhip, and up to Windgate again (fourth), down Windgate and back to the cars.

Some riders actually train for this punishment/enjoyment. I did not, and I paid the price. I hadn’t cramped in years, but about 5 hours into this 8.5 hour journey they started to kick in. Backcountry skiing the past couple of weekend, meant I had acquired a different type of fitness than required for this type of sadism. I also ran outta water about an hour earlier than expected. Luckily there was the refill spot at the midpoint of the ride. Once I got rehydrated I started to feel pretty good again.

The group I pretty much stuck with was 11 riders strong, most of which I had ridden with before. However, most of the group hadn’t done this ride before, and for some these were completely new trails.

More details of this ride can be found on this thread: [URL="http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=575769"]MTBR Quadruple Bypass[/URL]
Just like portraying how steep a hill is on film, it is also difficult to show what a pain in the butt this ride is.

Here is a little vid of the day: