Yesterday i drove down to Tucson & met up w/ Dan, aka Prodigalson on mtbr, on a small patch of BLM land west of town. I met him after he responded to my mtbr thread. We finally hooked up.
Drove interstates down driving below 65 on 75mph hwy. No real hurry to get moving. Stopped @ Black Canyo City at a KOA I found last time thru for a $5.00 shower. I found Slippery Pig bike shop which was to grease my Chris King bottom bracket. Insurance benefit period ends 12/31. My abdomen still hurts and my growlers are still soft. I still feel there is something going on in my gut. Dr said that pain is still from Oct fall and that my abdomen has quite a bit of extra gurgling going on. She prescribed Ciprol & Flagyl to kill the bad guys, she is treating it like giardia in spite of the fact that 2 previous labs could not determine giardia. 10 days of flagyl means no alcohol. I bought the meds and will pick a 10 day window of being abstinent.
Camped on this small plot w/ maybe 12 other rigs scattered around. Dan has a 5 th wheel pulled by a dually. Comfortable accommodations.
Today we drove into town to pick up his bike from a bike repair shop. They really screwed up his repair needs, by the time his bike was repaired it was almost noon. We drove to trailhead of a piece of the Arizona trail out in the Sonorran desert treed w/ Saguaro cactus & creosote bush. Rocky trail, mostly like crushed rock w/ several technical sections mixed in. Dan lead. He botched a line over a rock drop. As he is almost saving a header we heard a sharp rattle that both of us said ” rattlesnake”. We couldn’t find one. He noticed that his front tire was leaking air thru a hole in the tire casing where he had ripped a knob off. The rattle was the initial burst of air from his tubeless tires. The hole was tool large for the Stan’s sealant to plug. He repaired it by installing a tube in a tubeless tire.
Ride was an out & back. Turned around. My pedal gleats are worn so much that upon serious up pulling of the pedal my foot pops free. My right foot pulled free at same spot where Dan fell going out, and I landed in the bush where we thought the snake was in. No snake but a gash on my calf from the bush. Dan’s front tire lost air on the way back. He rips the knobs off his Nevegals.
Back out @ BLM plot.
Ride around Tucson for several more days