Back in Fountain Hills at my parents place to visit for Easter, it was a good opportunity to go for a ride up there. I knew the route I did the last time I was up there continued to become something known as ’9-Mile Hill’ so Ithought I’d give that a shot. From the internet accounts I’d seen of it, the hill was a continuous 2-3% grade rising about 1,300 feet from bottom to top. For me, this should be a fairly massive challenge!

It really wasn’t that bad. The portion of the ride I’d done before went by very fast and soon I was at the hill. From the bottom, it was fairly intimidating – it just sort of went up until you couldn’t see it any longer. Once you’d ridden to that point, it still continued until you couldn’t see it any longer… and on and on. I found I was able to climb about 10mph and plugged away without much problem to the top! w00t.

Distance: 44.3 miles
Time: 3:16:02
Avg. Speed: 13.5 mph