Today i meet Quentin & DJ from Over the Edge in Hurricane and their friend Bruce @ the OTE crash house in West Sedona @ 10:30. Met Ross Schnel, famous racer and owner of OTE in Fruita, CO. @ the house.
Our route would take us across oak creek 2x where I crossed yesterday to Highline and back. Our first leg was on Airport which elevation above the sandstone became volcanic ejecta and hurky jerky riding. Started cold on N face of the mesa. Rode down Windsurfer to Ridge out to secret slick rock then down to the creek. I carried a h2o crossing pair of wool socks to wear in the h2o. A small pool in the rocks was iced over. I call the crossing pink feet, not red rock. Made our way to Templeton climb and notorious switchback climb. Quentin rode a bunch of the climb but the sharp hairpin stopped him. Once above the 2 switchbacks i rode the rest all the way, a first for me. Templeton lead us to Made in the Shade which goes all the way to BnB. I had 2 nemisi (plural of nemesis) on the trail, places i had never ridden up. Quentin spotted me and I rode both. Whooohoo the courage rock and the Torch of Freedom are helping. Next was the junction w/ Highline going up a wash where I failed several moves because of lack of steam. Once on Highline we rode in frozen ridden in snow. I do not have pics to show the sharp end of the rope we rode. The trail is now a Sedona classic. Highline does a serious drop down to Baldwin. I don’t ride the upper switchbacks and Quentin nailed them. A quick fly down baldwin brought us back to Pink Feet crossing. Change into wet socks, ice my feet in the creek then change back to dry socks. A bit of road ride to Chavez road then up to Ridge trail that we came down on the way out. Short climb to junction w/ Sketch which is a difficult trail again hung on the side of the mtn. Desert riding means you get to see how far you are going to fall downhill. Sketch marked the last big climb and the start of mostly downhill trail. Except for the uphills coming out of the gulleys we crossed. Finally a short road ride back to the house. The ride was 18.8 miles in 3 hrs 26 min and climbed 2518′ Distance & time seem small but the trails extract much energy physically and mentally.
Bid Quentin & DJ till maybe next fall as they headed back to Hurricane.
Fixie Dave is bringing the Chris King bottom bracket grease tool from OTE to grease my bottom bracket as no one in town has the setup. My bike has some skretches that need addressing once I determine where they are. Riding here is hard on equipment. Compliments to manufactures because the stuff doesn’t fail on a ride, it just wears out. Compliments to riders also for not crashing leading to injury or mechanical situation.
Drove out to Deer Pass rd to score preferred spot there for the night.
I am a bit wrung out from 5 straight days of Sedona riding. Tomorrow is MBH shop ride that I will go on for day 6.
Highlight today was making the 2 moves and riding Highline covered w/ snow. Riding w/ Quentin & DJ.
Off to clean up, eat 2 vitamin I, then go to bed. Get up tomorrow and do it again.