Rice Peak Loop and the The Back way to Mount Lemon .

Background.

The Rice Peak loop is a side trail on the way to The Back way to Mount Lemon.

Mount Lemon is a 8000+ foot mountain east of Tucson, AZ.
There is a paved highway that goes up the south side and a dirt road that goes up the north side. Patti and I hade driven up the paved (front) way several years ago.
Since then we have tried going up the north (back) way twice. Each time was in the Spring and we were stopped by snow.
This time we are attempting it in the fall. No snow yet.

Rice Peak Loop.

We left the Hotel around 8:45, stopped at the Valero station to pick up Tom and Lillie. From there, we drove northeast on Highway 77 to the town of Oracle. Here we headed south on Mount Lemon Rd.

The pavement ends at the Arizona Adventures Zipline.

We stopped here to air down.

When we got to the Peppersauce Campground we turned right on Rice Peak Trail.

We headed up the trail through some primitive camp areas.

 

The trail is a little rough, not bad but very dusty. There is one very tight switch back. There is sign there that recommends that vehicles back up to the corner then drive straight up the switch back.

We decided that we could just drive up to the turn and with a little back and fill we made the turn easily.

Here is Dennis M going up above us.

Looking down behind us.

We made it to the top of the loop and after a break headed down the other side.

Here we are going through the valley where the campground is.

The Back Way to Mount Lemon.

Once back down from Rice Peak, we headed out the nice graded road to Mount lemon. The road is real easy until the last 6 Miles.

We found a good wide spot to have lunch.

We passed the place where the road is closed in winter and the road becomes a bid rougher.

Motorcycle Rescue.

We were coming to a particularly rough spot and found this guy with his motorcycle on the ground. Apparently the guy, who’s name is Gordy, was trying to get to the top but he hit this rocky area wrong and got dumped. His motorcycle was a 600 lb. BMW Touring bike with street tires.

When we arrived he was sitting on the ground as he couldn’t lift the bike on this steep hill because it kept rolling toward the edge of the canyon.

It took all of us to get him righted and headed in the right direction

Once he got the bike started we moved to the side so he could go passed us.

Oh No, Not Again.

We let the biker get ahead of us a little and started up the hill.

After about 2 miles we came upon him in trouble again. This time his bike was trying to take him straight down the mountain side.

Fortunately a tree stopped his decent. This was a scary situation. Here is a 600 lb. motorcycle heading down the mountain side.

We connected a tow strap to the bars on the uphill side of the bike.

We connected the other end to Dennis M’s jeep to keep the bike from getting away. Once the slack was taken up we managed to pull the bike back up the hill.

Once the bike was back on the road we let Gordy go ahead of us again.

After a little bit we continued up the trail.

We never saw Gordy again. I hope he made it. We didn’t see him in any of the canyons so I guess he’s okay.

Eventually we made it to the top where we stopped to air up.

Hikers.

We saw a couple of hikers when we were on the Rice Peak trail. They were going up when we were going down the trail.

While we were airing up the tires the same hikers came out a trail to the north of us.

They covered the distance from Rice Peak to Mount Lemon as fast as we did it. That must be a pretty easy trail or these two folks have super powers.

Down the Front Side of Mount Lemon.

Once the tires were aired up we headed down the front side of Mount Lemon.

Hoodoo's.

As you drive down the highway you go through an area of interesting hoodoo’s.

 

The Worst Part.

The worst part of the trip was about to begin.

What you see out there isn’t an ocean with white caps.

It is the urban sprawl of Tucson. Yuck.

Tom’s jeep breaks.

We stopped for a break at a Circle K and Tom said that he had a serious vibration. He and Dennis M checked it out and found that the rear universal joint on the rear drive shaft was real bad.
There was nothing we could do there so we continued the drive back to Oro Valley.

Supper.

We stopped for supper at the China Phoenix restaurant and had an excellent Chinese meal.

After supper Tom stopped at an auto parts store and bought a new universal joint.

The next morning he and Dennis M had the U joint replaced by 9:00.

Okay that’s all for now. Tomorrow we start for home.