Just after 1:00 PM Jimmy, Jason, Scott, & I headed out from BnB to ride Highline to transcept. Night time temps are rising to almost freezing and day times are in 60s to today’s 70 something. however, there is still patches of snow ice on Highline. And there is freeze thaw slippery goo. And ,yes, desert red sand. I rode the same trail last Tues on snow and frozen dirt. Encountered several groups of riders on Highline pushing their bikes. Transcept leaves Highline and traverses up & down within a 200′ contour band per the gps’d ride. Its a doozy. The mountains have bands of sandstone, some harder and newer than lower one sometimes creating a bench of sorts, most places it is a narrow ledge, the trail running close to the rock wall above. Skillful riding some of which I lack still. We all wear leg armor for cactus protection. Jason botched a move and in correcting he stepped off down slope into a prickly pear. he sat down and pulled spines from his below the armor ankle.
We finished our ride @ Verde valley School road for a road ride back to BnB.
Another ride was coming together @ BnB w/ some additional riders. Jeff, Jason, & Scott led the line w/ me 4th, well ahead of the others. I am getting more confident. We rode up Easy Sleezey which is mostly a wash ride. Jimmy and I rode down it last Fri. Riding up overcomes gravity rather than zooming down.
Back @ shop @ sundown Jimmy was pouring beer. He has New Belgium 1554 dark ale beer that I like. Hung out till dark thirty. Zack let me in the Agave for a shower then out to Beaverhead for the night.
Last Wed i was driving to Cottonwood. Traffic stopped for a red light. Approaching after the light change was a white Sprinter. I pay attention to the plane Janes thinking they might be a conversion. This one had a roof ladder on the driver’s side that i thought strange. It was a camper. I think he was checking me out also. Last night I get an email from the owner of that Sprinter. He saw the article about me in MBA then it clicked that he passed me. It turns out that the owner is a guy I knew from the Mountaineers back in Tacoma back in the mid 80s. He is a mtn biker now and lives in Phoenix. Be an interesting ride. Connection w/ my way past and before I really became consumed by biking. I lived near Gig Harbor across the Narrows from Tacoma back in the 80s where I was a back country telemark skier almost year round the corn snow was that good. Did some mountaineering, climbing the 6 majors and skiing from the summit of all but Rainier. This guy knows me from then. Wow.
Bought a 5 lb bag of right from the orchard fresh oranges that make my van smell like citrus safe.
Bed time