Tues eve I rode w/ the Gila Hike and Bike shop ride on Gomez peak 4 miles n of town. Mostly older guys that got after it. Riding in P-pine, alligator juniper and some prickly pear mixed in. Tree cover higher than me. Short ride but intensity made up for shortness. I hung @ the back pushing myself harder than when i ride by myself. We rode part of the Continental Divide trail. The ride finished like it started: wham bam these guys were ready to ride and ready to drive back home. I drove up to where we crossed the CDT to spend the night.
Wed I drove back to town and bike shop to learn of other trails. I learned about Signal Peak trail that was GPSed and put up on their web site. I loaded the course onto my edge 305. No map to purchase forcing me to rely on the gps. Casual review of ride showed 3105′ climbing, just under 3 hours ride. I can do. The ride started @ 7165′ topping out @ 8990. First 8 miles climbed on logging roads. I was beat on the climb from the exertion and not eating. Elevation is a factor. Sedona riding is not about long slogs. Logging road up and CDT down then a mix of old trails and roads. Evening was getting close and I did not know where I was other than the icon on the edge screen. I was managing energy stores and time. i was becoming concerned. Finally i hit the paved road i drove in on. I decided that I would ride the road back instead of trying to follow the course. I misunderstood where I was relative to my van, I had 2 direction choices, I picked the wrong one and road 1 1/2 miles downhill in the wrong direction. I parked @ mp 14, I saw 16 up to 17 which told me I was headed away from rest and beer. I climbed back up the paved road, finally the course joined the road and I saw my van. Whew. I was beat to submission. I sat in my chair for minutes b4 i sipped a beer. remarkable that I did not cramp afterwards. My data was 24.46 miles, in 3 hrs 42 mins, climbing 3507′. Finally a calorie burn of 2042 cals.
I spent the night @ the TH.
Friend Jason from Sedona turned me onto these healthy supplements i have been eating. I noticed that the fat deposits on my body are shrinking. I hope my body is changing stripping fat from my body. Headaches are strangely occurring still, I have discovered no discernible pattern.
Today so far I have driven into town, filled fuel tank, bought shirt, and done my wash. Plan is to drive to Alamogordo and learn about riding in Cloudcraft and Ruidoso. Hi to 2 readers who volunteered riding around Albuquerque.
Mountain Flyer mag had an advertisement for 24 hours in the canyon, Palo Duro, near Amarillo, TX that I will check out on my way to the Ozarks.
Quite a refreshing experience to see h2o flowing in creeks and big tree cover indicating h20. yesterday i crossed the same flowing creek maybe 5 times, cold temp.
Hi Craig, If you ride Palo Duro, keep an eye out for big rattlesnakes. I spent a weekend camping and hiking here and was getting unnerved with the number of rattlers I ran into. The other memory from this area was when I was getting ready to take the fly off my tent. Must have been a sixth sense, but something told me to look under the fly before I reached under to undo it. Biggest baddest ugliest black widow spider had taken up residence there! Palo Duru is a nice reprieve from the otherwise pretty featureless landscape around Amarillo.
Hope you’re enjoying Ruidoso area. We were snowed out two years ago and didn’t get to ride, but I was impressed with the mountains and contrast with the desert. IMBA Trail Solutions has done some work around there in the last year.
We had some great riding in Palo Duro Canyon. It really is a nice reprieve from the flats of West Texas.
If you’re in Ozarks of NW Arkansas, check out Ozark Offroad Cyclists OORC (http://www.ozarkoffroadcyclists.com/contact-us). Phil and Steve are great guys and might be able to show you around. Also, the Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville is really neat.