Escape from the Elements......

As you can tell, I focus on the weather a lot. How busy we are at work is factored by the weather and that has been very slow these past few weeks. That gave me a lot of free time to get ready for Christmas, which I was grateful for. Our favorite hobby, mountain biking, is also greatly affected by the weather. With all the rain and snow the bike trails are wet and freezing. They shouldn’t be ridden when in this condition so we take to the road and bike path; boring but better than nothing. Guy and I couldn’t be cooped up any longer. We normally take Guy IV and Grant on a backpacking adventure during the holiday but the below average weather temperatures and scheduling conflicts paralyzed our momentum. Taylor and Sadie went to their dad’s and we loaded up the truck and headed south.

Saturday, December 27, 2008
Drove to Boulder City, NV (just out of Las Vegas and close to Hoover Dam) and rode Bootleg Canyon. The trail was in great shape and the riding is always fun and challenging there. The temperature was only 37 degrees when we finished our ride at dusk. My appendages were frozen. This is why we left St. George. MUST GET FURTHER SOUTH. We drove to Kingman, AZ, where we found a cheap hole-in-the-wall motel to crash in.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

We arrived in Phoenix in the afternoon. Our first stop was McDowell Mountain Park just out of Fountain Hills. Guy and I both rode trails new to us. We rode the Pemberton loop (15 miles) till dusk. Guy actually rode it twice. I took my time and enjoyed the 66 degree weather. The trail was not extremely challenging but was a smooth groomed hiking, biking, equestrian access trail. The weather was amazing! We topped off the evening with fish tacos at Rubio’s and found a nice room in Apache Junction and watched a movie.Desert scenery on Pemberton Loop - Ahhhh, nice warm sunshine!

Monday, December 29, 2008
After a very restful night we found ourselves at another trail new to us. It was a short 7.5 mile loop trail at Red Mountain. It was fun, rolling, twisting single-track through the desert. We made a lunch in the parking lot and headed to the next riding area.

Our last ride of the day was at South Mountain. We rode the Desert Classic Trail to Telegraph Pass and back. It was an 18 mile ride twisting through the desert. The washes were steep g-outs which added more fun to the ride. We stayed in Chandler this night.

By now I probably have a few of my Phoenix friends a bit irritated with me for not making contact. I apologize but we were spontaneous the entire trip and couldn’t make plans because who knew where we would be by the end of the day. After riding each day we were so tired we just ate and went to our room to chill. I will catch up another time (Donnie and Marie here we come!) when I am not on a training regime. Guy and I are racing in February at the 24 Hours of Old Pueblo in Tucson, AZ. It is always much more fun to show up to these events somewhat prepared and in good shape. It really helps to ride your bike a lot before then. We only have six weeks left so we are riding all we can, especially while we have found some pleasant weather to do it in!

Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Today we planned on driving to Black Canyon City to ride and then drive home. We arrived at the lower Black Canyon trailhead around 11a.m. I was not going to ride hard today. I’m a bit blown.

Getting ready to ride Black Canyon from the lower trailhead.

We started out and I didn’t love the trail right away. It was rough, jumbly, baby-head boulder rocks that made the ride very slow on my hard-tail single-speed; or maybe I just used that excuse because I was a wee bit tired. This photo doesn't look as rugged as it really felt.We got to the river crossing and Guy waited for me so he could take my bike across for me. What a sweetie. Just for the record though, I carried it across on the way back. I didn't want any of you tough girls to think I am a wimp:)

We took our crocs to cross the river and then dried off with a towel and put our biking shoes back on.

This is some sharp, jagged, granite rock.

This is a plug for my friends at Over the Edge Sports in Hurricane, UT.
(notice the colorful jersey, I like it because it is long)

The pebbles in the earlier photo don’t look that bad but I have had it. I am not having fun. I call Guy and tell him I am turning around. It took me almost 2 hours to go 3.5 miles. My “tude” was bad and my Reba fork was chattering out of control. Did I mention that this area is basically a free-for-all shooting range. It sounded like I was in a warzone with semi-automatic weapons firing all around me. The closer I got back to the trailhead the deeper into the warzone I got.

On my way back it seemed like all the barrel and saguaro cactus were mannequin’s watching me around every corner. I was just waiting for one to move and actually be a person waiting to scare me.














There was cactus of every kind around each twist and bend in the trail.

The bright green grass on the hillside looked like a beautiful, brilliant, velvet carpet.

I took a lot of pictures (which is one reason it took me so long to get anywhere!) I was frustrated with my ride but the scenery was entertaining.














I was bummed that my vacation was going to end on this note.

Guy felt bad that I had not enjoyed my ride so he suggested we stay the night and I could ride the upper part of the trail the next day. He rode several miles ahead of me and found that the rock formation of the trail had changed and was much for fun and manageable. We found somewhere to shower then found a place to camp and cook our dinner of Beef Stroganoff. Yum,yum.

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 –

New Year’s Eve
Wow, what a difference a good night sleep (well kind of, if you call gunfire at midnight and people driving out in the middle of nowhere at 3am good!), a refreshed attitude, reworked Reba fork and a very well-built, well-groomed trail makes. The weather was awesome again too! I can’t complain about 72 degrees when it is barely reaching 45 degrees at home. So, the upper part of this Black Canyon trail is AWESOME!

It is very easy access right off the freeway and I will stop to ride it every time we pass by if the river isn’t too high. I rode 15 miles this day in less time than I rode the 7 miles the day before and I still took a lot of photos.

The river crossing is shorter from this end. Someone took a lot of time master-minding this trail and the effort is very obvious with the trail carved into the mountain side.... and the bridges carefully constructed.This trail is fun and it flows in both directions. The climbing is effortless and consistent and the downhill smooth and exciting. This is perfect trail for single-speeding too!

It is interesting how the rock formation changes part way through this trail from a round pebble to flakes. The flat, flaky formation makes trailbuilding and riding much more fun.


I WILL BE BACK!

work hard, play hard, rider harder.