More desert riding

Yesterday Dolly met me here at the JEM for her drive out to Wire Mesa. She arrived on the meeting minute like I do. I loaded my stuff into her rig. She got in and turned the key: click clicka clickaa. Dead battery. Our batteries were located on opposite sides however my left was further away than the length of my jumper cables. I drove to within jumper length. Connected the cables and waited a minute maybe and her rig started. I park in the parking spaces that are spread w/ like red volcanic gravel, the road is mostly denuded of same leaving just the desert dirt that is thawing in its freeze thaw cycle. Just the travel into the slippery was cautious. We slithered out the road to the hard road on the way to Wire Mesa which is out the Gooseberry road. We drove maybe a mile before we came to teh big mud puddle. Discretion won and we turned around, the road was just going to be sloppy and the ride would prolly be the same.

We drove abck to my van, the road in is slipperier. Plan now is to drive out to Quail Creek area if my van makes it out. Inertia is my friend. We stopped at the shop where I picked up my replacement shoes and helmet. I switched back to flats. Quail creek is   outside of Hurricane out near the interstate. It’s a man made impoundment. New trails are being built here on each side of the lake. Plan is for a lake loop. We started on the new piece on the west side of the highway. Incredible amount of work to bench cut this trail into the eroded convoluted hill side. Twisty windy short steep climbs tight turning switchbacks. It is like 3 miles and it took us 30 mins. It starts out hard and stays that way: no warm up.

Presently the trail ends at the highway which we coasted back past Dolly’s rig to ride the other side of the lake. This piece of trail was also just finished. It faces west and lacked the rocks the other side has. We pedaled the new piece to a junction with the Boy Scout Trails. We rode the first trail of the system we came to Cub Scout to ride back. I followed Dolly, I pedaled better because I watched her make the moves. Here the tread uses rock blobs requiring lots of little tech moves. Pretty enjoyable trail.

She drove us back to town. I took a shower, bought groceries then drove back to the shop. I scored shop time today to work on my front brake. I spent the night again out at the JEM. The road dried out some. I ran the catalytic heater on medium and put the sleeping bag over. This AM it was just under freezing and I was toasty.

Last night I linked Kevin and Dolly thru me to plan for a ride today. Dolly wants to ride Zen down at ST George. Kevin lives down there and does not have a car. Dolly woke up feeling that a rest day was needed to let her body deal w/ issues. I drove down and picked Kevin up on a corner right on my stated arrival time of 10:30. Loaded him and his bike and drove to Santa Clara to ride the Barrelroll trails.

Because of housing construction destroying the parking places right at the start of the uphill we parked on the main highway then rode the short distance to another right off the bat steep long climb. The short road ride at least introduced the body to physical load. Kevin let me lead while he “loafed” behind me. Today we rode non stop all the way to the upper trail junction. Massive work effort. I pedaled up everything. I really impressed myself. Back on flats. Lots of little step ups. This bike and me are very nimble. A pedal stroke almost rockets forward. After the junction Kevin went first and left me way off his back. I am almost 20 years older than he.

from the junction the first part was an out and back. At the junction  we picked up the big Barrelroll loop. Nasty rock problems. some of the same old ones stymied me still. Big loop. I worked pretty hard. this ride was 11.99 miles climbing 1503′ pedaling 1 hr 35 mins. The trail uses ridges and gulleys, I would ride around a ridge snout and look into a gulley with the trail on the others side. GO around the next ridge snout to see the same. Just when I thought the end was nigh it was just another cycle. Kept after it. This bike is much more agile than the 5 Spot.

I dropped Kevin off and drove back to hurricane. I bought oranges fresh picked from AZ. While grocery shopping my phone rang. it was the Verizon store across the street telling me the screen saver was in. I drove across the street to the store where the guy replaced the scratched and chipped protector. The screen underneath was unharmed. What do I owe? nothing as my contract has free replacement of 2 years.

Back at OTE I picked up my delivered Catalyst pedals and Jordan bled my brake. Stopping power is restored. He put the pedals on.They are longer than the Spikes.

Back out and up to the JEM. Rain is 50% tonight, 80% tomorrow. I figure that the dirt can withstand the rain and not be slippery when i leave tomorrow. Friday is nice again but wet for the weekend.

The Zags won again tonight, 12-0.