Last night I camped @ a different spot @ Beaverhead for variation. This site is not as level but is less exposed on the skyline. Today i am to deliver 2 breakfast burritos to BnB to pay for my fork switching. I made 9:04AM delivery. Next was laundry in west Sedona. Clean clothes restocked.

I parked @ the library on Dry Creek road for my ride out Dry Creek drainage. No h2o is flowing because because no rain has fallen to feed it. Interesting w/ the warm temps snow is melting in Flag and flowing down Dry Beaver and Oak Creeks. Plan is to ride Chuck Wagon over to Mescal then down Canyon of Fools then find way back to Dry Creek rd. Learning how fork behaves after service, not as plush as Pike. I rode several spots previously walked. Chuck Wagon has been rerouted in fall line places for sustainability and dumbed down. Property owner fenced off entrance to Gunslinger but I wandered onto it. Mescal is shelf ride. Drop off and wiggle and waggle up and down till I hit Canyon of Fools that is a steep sided narrow wash w/ wall rides. Several places the runoff cut down leaving a narrow track. Wash dropped into Dawa that i rode until Arizona Cypress a short distance to Anaconda to climb out of Dry Creek and drop down to Dry Creek rd. 19 miles in 2 hrs 45 mins. Saw a group of 3 riders and a solo rider.

I scraped myself against several cut end of branches along the trails and bled a nice red color drip stripes.

Back @ van cleaned up. Drove to grocery store then out to Deer Pass rd for the night. Excellent weather forecast portends invasion of the ballooners tomorrow AM.

Another blue bird day of 71 degrees. The ground seems to have given up its night time chill. Just gorgeous conditions. And I am sucking it up.

Tomorrow is a BnB shop ride followed by partying.

72 degrees, 18% humidity, cloudless skies, dry trails, deserted trails. What’s to hate? How much is too much of something great? Full moon days away. Desert camping @ Beaverhead. Sipping a beer and 6 hits in the wind.

So funny: I am a quasi local w/ friendships in the community. Tourons I know will visit Sedona where I will be the local. I need to grow my group bigger perhaps.

My repaired fork arrived today from PUSH and is now on my bike thanks to Scott @ Bike and Bean. Fee for fork remove and replace is 2 breakfast burritos for Scott and Jimmy tomorrow. Scott loaned me his Pike coil spring that was very supple but heavier and 10 cm less travel. The Revelation is an air sprung 150cm travel fork lighter by .5 pound. My repaired fork is less supple that the old Fox fork. I am back on what i know.

Today was a chiro appointment where she repositioned moved bones. Still no relief from eye pain and headache.

I am bored also.

The rest of today was a lazy rest day.  Diesel is $3.95 a gallon. I parked in a parking lot in west Sedona exposed to the sun to do computer tasks. Shortly the sun baked the van, I got cooked out. I hung @ BnB mid afternoon.

Yesterday was a BnB shop ride leaving @ 12:30 for a longer ride. 9 riders me bringing up the rear. We rode 21.29 miles in 3 hrs 7 min riding time and climbed 2326′. Our route was the following trails, I might have left out some:

Shades, Highline, Baldwin, road to cross Oak Creek on the bridge, Cakewalk, Old Post, Hurkinham, Special Ed, Witchdoctor, road back across the creek, Baldwin, Templeton, Sleezy Breezy, Shades. Find just a few on the official mapped trails. Ya gotta know where to turn where the locals steer their bikes. Our route took us past the collar bone break crash and manzanita flesh teared crash. Successfully negotiated each w/ no latent fears. We finished up just b4 5:00. Day started out chilly as I wore a light wool long underwear top. Others had their layers also. B4 Highline entrance we doffed layers. Darn hot. OK, 72 degrees. We sweated. Somehow 70 degree days consistently at this time of year doesn’t seem right. Back @ the Bean I drank just one beer. I invited myself to Danny’s for a shower and a city camp.

Anne and Jen from Fruita’s Hot Tomato are visiting. I visited Flat Tire and met a Canadian couple down for riding who had read the Bikemag article.

Men and their bikes

Solitary night @ Beaverhead. Tomorrow is laundry (already a week has passed), a ride, decide a dinner, drive to camp spot, fix dinner & cleanup, and sleep. My time.

I have no sense of urgency, only pleasure. Life is mine 7X24. I live among the urgent, ones who are serving others and grabbing a bit of personal time. Their time is short and packed w/ things to do. I just roll along getting caught up in their freedom. I resist saying no then ride along. I experienced this life in Hurricane when one ride offer after another presented itself that I accepted setting aside a rest day. In Sedona the game has amped up w/ after ride beer, a place to hang, and riders to hang with. Oh, and friends I have made here. Details of past days are murky hanging in time of what day. Life goes on in Sedona that I will attempt to capture.

Maybe work backwards into time.

New Years Eve ride was an easier 2:00PM shop ride from Bike and Bean w/ a few tourons and the rest regulars. Sedona easier ride means shorter time and a little less chunk. Simon brought his dog Annie that followed a different path home that resulted in her being taken in by a well meaner thinking that she was abandoned. Sleezy Breezy wash is a challenge w/ ice on the puddles and following John on a rigid single speed. I pulled up short 2x of knocking us both down onto cactus. We finished the ride back @ the Bean ejoying the open beer tap and fine tequila. Dinner was pushed back. I shared bagels and a cream cheese mix I made after I found my flat bread molded; no hummus. Main course was a bag full of wendy’s dollar meal “goodies”. I scored a chicken sandwich on nutritiously dead white bun w/ a piece of stout iceberg lettuce, I can’t speak for the chicken. Several women returned later w/ a bowl of hummus and vegetables. Great tasting anjo tequila. Jimmy lit a fore in a patio side firepit in front of the store right on the main Village of oak Creek drag.  revelry, I lasted till 10:30 then drove out to Beaverhead. My camp spot was taken. I went to bed just b4 12:00. I hearded cheering @ 12:00 as those campers cheered the significance.

Earlier that day a couple in an older VWWesty stopped @ my van to learn about my solution. Conversation about living on the road ensued. Aaron and Ruth are traveling nurses presently living in Yuma, AZ. Ruth is from NC, Aaron is from Wauna, WA. Later I learned they shopped @ a grocery store in west Sedona and met Danny. They created this ride schedule that I learned about later. I planned a rest day. Instead i rode Highline w/ them.

OK. So I am still celebrating the new year solitary. I enjoyed a shot of Scotch instead of tequila and am fixing my own dinner around nregular dinner time. More to follow… someday. Happy New Year.

66 degrees @ 2:30 in west Sedona. Forecast is for more of the same: Sunscreen and summer riding garb.