Last night I bailed and drove down into town for the night. There were just too many park closed @ 10:00PM signs. Slept in parking lot in front of business in small business park.
Drove back to Bootleg Canyon TH for breakfast. Made pancakes and then took off w/ a belly of undigested food to beat heat of day. Rode Girl Scout up and then down backside on Caldera. Trails are not well marked and map is too big & fragile to carry. Trails are a result of hard work, all done by hand in rocks, no soil. I rode the more tame trails, not the hellish downhill trails the canyon is known for. No shuttle which keeps the coaster geeks out. Rocks fracture in non uniform shapes like sharp edged crushed rock of various sizes and they move a bit. And there are many places where a fall would be downhill and very painful. I am just a conservative rider riding inside myself. I might, and probably am, be able to ride more trail but I do not trust my ability and don’t want to pay the price for incompetence. No shade, not even a raven in the wind.
Quite colorful rock and rugged terrain to hand build sketchy trail:
Mother trail climbs, dips, traverses, finally climbing up over a ridge to rejoin center of canyon. I rode to where I saw the trail climb to that ridge and bailed. I lacked the map and my memory recalled an out & back ride and I did not want to climb up to only turn around. On way back i chatted w/ a young woman trail runner and she told me the trail did indeed loop around and down into canyon. Too late, i was on m y way back. I am riding in 80+ degrees, cloudless skies, spit evaporates before hitting ground. Good time to find the barn.
I found my van dwarfed and blocked in by big RVs that were supporting a reality show shooting. Apparently the players were riding a zip line and throwing h2o balloons down on targets as they zipped by. Lame.
I hung @ the rest rooms deciding if I wanted to ride some more. Speaking w/ a young man who was sitting on the concrete in the shade lamenting about how hard it was to ride uphill. He just bought a mountain bike, a full on downhill rig. He was seeking a definition of a trail bike like mine and his was not a ride uphill bike.
And a rider rode up, looked @ me, and called my name. Who? It was Michael, the beer guy from the shop last night. He was looking for a shuttle ride but none showed. he lead me on a brief high intensity race pace arouind the lower trails. I stayed on his wheel until the trail turned steep and long. He is 43 yo. He was number 1 in BMX nationally 3 years ago. We rode under the zip line several times but no h2o balloons dropped on us.
Back @W the blocked in van we beered up. He had a return ride and I was done for the day.
At the restroom blockhouse there are (2) 3 sided open warm h2o free showers and I luxuriated in washing off sunscreen & dust.
At the parking lot I flagged down a support person who found a driver to move a van for my escape.
This reality show is fully supported w/ all the RVs for important people and lesser rides for lesser persons. Almost every RV had a generator running for the air conditioning. There was a bountiful tasty food cater, and the eaters were all overweight people. And I ate my P-butter & honey sandwich.
Drove back into town, about 8 blocks away to laundromat beside bike shop. I completed my wash and then hung inside shop. Played w/ Joey’s dog Maverick for pet fix.
Found a small parking lot in shade of 2 story wall for shade to write this.
I believe that i will ride here tomorrow again and then head West to Red Rock / Cottonwood. Michael gave me a name of another beer & bike shop.
Thermometer in van reads 100 degrees, Outside it is 86.
I have quite the biker tan, take my shirt off and can you say paste? Gnat bites are shrinking but not my distaste for mesa riding. I like the desert but I am maxing on my fill and am looking for higher elevation conifer forests.
Nevada makes the 46th state I have ridden in on this odyssey. I need CA & OR and the country has been ridden in.
Michael demo’d a Turner SPot DW and crashed breaking his wrist. the DR said on a scale of 1 to 10, it was a 9 1/2. He faulted himself and really liked the DW link. It remains active under braking and has great traction climbing.
Hot Scotch.