Today Sandy from Calgary and I rode a loop around Hogs. Bright intense sunshine, temp in mid 70s, low humidity and dry dusty trails. How great is that?
We rode Llama to Little Horse up to Chicken point picking up Broken Arrow down to Hogwash taking Peccary down to Mystic into the neighborhood snaking our way down to Bell Rock easy way back to Jump trail down. Amazing how much fun that can be had on a slight downhill grade. The day went longer than our water supply that each deemed was enough for the ride. I shared half of the little I had. Mystic was hot. Mystic dead ends onto Chapel, the trail now is on paved neighborhood streets. I was looking for someone outside to whom we could ask for water. Right away we spotted a guy and asked if he could give us water from the spigot. He said sure but he doesn’t drink it. Huh? I spied a house w/ a spigot right out front and no body home. Perfect. I walked down the driveway and started to the spigot when I noticed only the screen door was closed. Someone at home. Moved on. At what did appear to our parched delight was an empty for sale house and a spigot right out front. You gotta know where your water sources are in the desert.
Hogwash uses benches of slick rock mixed in w/ moves and some walking. Just typical Sedona riding
Sandy enjoying her time spent on her bike
We took a bunch of mainstream wide trails back going downhill in places negotiating hikers in courteous manner. The Jump trail was all ours. Dusty. Last Friday I rode behind 3 other riders in their dust. We passed hikers off the edge of the trail to let us go by and being dusted. Today I swooped. Back to the parking lot and the Bean. Sandy negotiated a ride back uphill from her bank by buying ice cream. Mighty tasty ice cream added to cake that Carla made. I received requests for moonshine and I obliged, somewhere it was 5:00. Showered then out to Beaverhead while still light. Got the 2nd best spot.
Sunday’s old mans ride was just Jimmy, Ian, and I. Average age was in mid 50s. Trail choice was given to me sometimes. Along the way we dropped down the wash to the Easy wash. Ian chose an alternate line ahead of me. I heard a sound that a flat tire makes. Ian blew out his rear tire. The fun bolts holding the rear wheel on were over tight. Breaking them free was the first challenge. How to extend the reach of a tool on our minimalist tool kits. Broken free. Bead was broken. Tire was dry: no Stans. He put in a tube. He used my swell Lyzene quasi floor pump.
A challenging rock had been removed from the trail. It was replaced. It ain’t the FS dumbing the trail down. Riders who can’t make the move and are willing to expend the effort to mitigate the challenge rather than learn to ride it remove the challenge.
Sat was an all day USFS Red Rock ranger district trail meisters conducted an all day education session on how trails come to be then examples of 3 real examples of what was talked about. Sedona dirt is sand from decomposing sandstone. No clay to hold it together. It blows away, it erodes. It won’t compact. The FS material is same as IMBA’s design methods. Great compatibility. 11 people attended, most of them from previous volunteer work days.
I drove back down to VOC. Hung st the shop then took a shower finishing in time to catch the Zags playing BYU at home on big screen at PJ’s. Casey put on the big screen at the front wall and I scored a table right in pure straight line. Seesaw battle lead changing late in the game. Zags succeeded by 2 points. They are tied for first place in WCC w/ ST Marys who beat them both times they played. Zags are number 2 seed in the WCC tourney starting this weekend. PJs is like a worn in comfortable shoe. Drove out to populated Beaverhead where I chose the tankside site.
White males are by far the largest population of mtn bikers. Riding here is burly which attracts those kind of riders. Lot of big hit bikes, dropper posts, body armor. Doesn’t lend itself to the lycra clad crowd.
Yesterday I undertook a storage solution for my new down sleeping bag. I wanted to hang it against the wall between it and the raised bed. I rigged a right angle bracket at each end using existing screws then strung a cord between. I laid the bag over the wire dividing down the center line. I then hoisted the bed to its closed position. No way block stop not go. Amazing what puffed up down can displace. No go. The bag needs to be stored uncompressed and this failed solution won’t allow fluff. I pulled out the wiggys bag from the cabinet over my bed then gently stuffed the down bag in its place. Amazing light sleeping bag w/ a temp rating of 20 degrees. I bought the Coconino NF map to study for backpack trips.
Tomorrow is PT and a rest day.
Today was Leap Year day.
Latest delivery date info from Turner is end of March. Still no word from producing factory. The bike is real, I’ve seen maybe 3 and touched them.