Riding the ‘backway’ to Mt. Lemmon via the Oracle Control Road was one of the things I had in mind as a must-do when I picked up my 700GS last year. It’s fun in a truck, it was fun on a motorcycle - great route.

Definitely the bumpiest stuff I’ve yet ridden. My technique sucks and I still struggle with feeling like I can’t get the handlebars high enough to stand in a comfortable position but overall I didn’t have any problems.

I still find changing biomes on a trail to be really interesting and compelling. Cactus give way to grassland, to a different grassland, then the sort of scraggly forest pictured below, before pine tree forests. Good times.