Hills in the desert?!?

Not Bartlett-esk (nothing is) but Pecos from 40th Street west to the end of the road, 17th Ave from Pecos to Chandler Blvd, Chandler to Desert Foothills Rd or turn left at 5th Ave and follow it around back to Chandler Blvd (5th becomes Desert Foothills Rd) all have decent hills. 24th Street from Pecos to Chandler Blvd is a decent climb too. Hmm. I just described my "area of operations" on Sunday mornings. All on the south side of South Mountain.

Not as high and steep as the other routes you mentioned but a lot closer to you time wise. With all the time you save you can go up and down the hills multiple times. 

When I'm back in the saddle I'll give you a tour.

the last few sunday mornings i've been doing 24-28 mile rides up in the north scottsdale area, pretty much on the direction of where you would go for bartlett lake.  Theres a few decent climbs that stretch about 3-4 miles at a time which give me flashbacks of that dreaded bartlett course : /

here are a some of my workouts i recorded from endomondo:

http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/rfKTlEFa9z8

http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/oe15QVOQWGA

http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/jpWET6Paxgk

Come ride with me down here in Ajo, LOL... there's not a single flat point... it's always seems up with fast ending downs, grades from .5 to 7%... just one 10 mile loop gives me a 700 ft of elevation change.... 5 miles down, 5 miles up... go down at 25 to 30mph and go up and can't average but around 18mph.  I bet north Tucson is pretty hilly too, you think?

I did my long ride yesterday and the first 30 miles were up, then flat to down for about 9mi, turn around then about 15 miles uphill again, finally you get to go downhill, but by then you're beat up, all plateaus with some slight downhils thrown inbetween.

If I want to combine a long ride plus multiple hills, I'll usually head up towards Fountain Hills. That entire section is rolling hills, steady grades, steep grades, sometimes windy and a good way to get 60 miles in from ASU. I'm not exactly sure how that would fit into your schedule, but definitely pretty fun and beautiful. On the way back you can practice TTing on the Beeline too.

I heard Mt. Humboldt is pure hill, but I have yet to do that one...

This sounds about perfect. Plus, I believe this would be part of the IMAZ course ..You wouldn't happen this ride mapped out do you? Or can you give me a quick break down on where to start and the route? Thank you...

Here's my Garmin file on that ride before my fitness drop this winter The only changes I would make are to go further on Via Linda until you get to 136th. Then go down to Shea. Take the bike path on Shea until 142nd and then hunker down for a short distance until Palisades. This is the only really dangerous part of the entire route (no bike lane; 50+mph cars). Also, when you get to Palisades/Saguaro Blvd, just take the right and go down Saguaro Blvd unless "The Fountain" is on.

Good thing about this route, almost all uphill out, almost all downhill coming back.

Gotta love the Palisades/Sunridge/Golden Eagle loop!

Just got back from this ride:

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/70970192

First hill ride (only 2nd ride ever on my road bike lol) but it was a great ride and the views were pretty awesome too.  

Do you all have experience at Lake Havasu? I'm kind of nervous about the Havasu tri in 3 weeks and don't want to think, "It can't be worse than SoMo/Fountain Hills". How hilly would you rate it? What's the course like from actual experience?

And yeah, that itty bitty part at the end of SoMo to TV Towers is a killer! Ha.

I don't, but if you wanna make an early morning weekend trip up there to ride the course send me a PM...always looking for new terrain and new people to ride with. If not, I have to believe that Bartlett is a good training ground for any hills.