It’s Monday Morning. Rain is forecast and is falling as are the temps.

Yesterday was a “social” ride that was planned to finish at Historic Brewery down at the Collective, its last day of operation. “Social” as the ride was populated by younger tough guns that left me as always way off the back. Ian is a few years younger than me who kept me on the group track by waiting for me at intersections. Previous rides were on the east side of rt179 using social trails going over lots of basalt babyheads. Jimmy didn’t ride with us. In the void another leader emerged causing the ride to be less social. I suppose if I were faster and better riding skills I would have joined the social. The ride was a loop around Hogs and was backwards to how I ride it. My rides favor less uphill challenges. This ride we rode up Shades, for me the first this year as I ride a less killer climb route. Rode up Little Horse to the bridge then thru the neighborhood bypass to Mystic over to Hog Wash to old Broken Arrow climb to Chicken Point, Little Horse again to Llama leaving on Bail trail to upper part of Breezy connecting to Single Track Bypass back to the Bean. The ride started out under threatening skies: we could see rain clouds upwind. We pedaled away in drizzle. I wore my rain coat. Mixed in were snow flakes. Later skies cleared to broken clouds sunshine then closed in again but no wet.

The social gathering at Historic always works well with rehydrating with craft beer and visiting, I get to visit with riders who were so far ahead of me during the ride plus others. Works well for me. I left just b4 dark driving out to same spot on Beaverhead. I drove by a truck displaying WA plates. They are from Bellingham. Forecast soured them on Sedona as they planned on heading further south. Someone has moved in  a big RV trailer to my favorite spot.

Sunday b4 the ride I tightened a pivot bolt on my bike. I pulled up on the wrench handle which tightened the bolt but sent a searing pain to my ribs. Painful deep breathing. Sore shoulder and bad ribs should have culled me from the ride. Nah. Deep breath for sneeze? hardly able to make happen.

Rain is forecast today. Good day to not exert.

Wed the van goes in for glow plug replacement. I will be allowed to sleep in the van should it be held overnight.

Zags were beaten by BYU Sat night. Today they are rated 4th.

My computer will not play all dvds as there is some kind of security mismatched. Reading in bed is favored anyway.

The stickie people are working on my stickie.

Sedona Mountain Bike festival is this weekend. Turner will be here. I will show Dave my almost 1 year old RFX with 3,000 miles on.

Tires rock on rock? I suppose. The real difference is during turning: Minnion DHF 2.5WT tires were designed for the wide Ibis rims which configured the side lugs profile to be square on the outside edges of the tire. This allows the side lugs to be fully engaged with terra firma. They turn like shaped skis: angulate the bike and body, the tires hook up, carve the turn. Big meat. There is a weight penalty and perhaps rolling resistance drag but they sure make the bike more fun.

On Tuesday I rode Old Post, Skywalker, Scorpion, Ramshead, Ridge, Sketch, Ridge back to pavement. Dirt is hero dirt still oin that the sand grains are still held together by moisture. On Scorpion I learned about paying attention and maybe tire affect when I botched a turn oversteering to the outslope and the front tire caught traction and stuffed forward progress. I landed pretty hard on my right side forearm down. Then my head, enclosed in my helmet, met earth finding a rock projection. Bamm. Head smack. No concussion protocol was evoked. The rock made 2 depressions in my helmet. Point contact, I accept the helmet is still safe. My right upper chest smarts from smack down. I finished my ride. My shoulder still works. Learning tire performance and how I take advantage of them.

The FS closed off all the little turnouts at Deer Pass camp spots. Advantage of these spots and the road is it is hard packed rock which remains firm when wet. Bummer. The TH is still open; however it is often crowded and populated by people that I perceive lifestyle differences,

The check engine control warning light acted up. I tuned my van over to a service garage to diagnose and fix and to repair the brake pad light. I rode from the garage. The bill for the service addressed the above concerns in addition to an oil change and check up. They deleted the bill for the oil change. I change the fuel filter at the same time as the oil. I need to re sequence the 2. The error codes pointed to the glow plug control module which receives info from the glow plugs. Gut told me these should have been replaced at 100,000 miles; however there is no mention in the service intervals. Said that removing the glow plugs is touchy and require lots of time to soak the plugs. I asked to have the work done next week. I might have to find different living arrangement.

A shower then drive back down to VOC. Spent the night out at Beaverhead.

Wed I rode what I call Llama loop. The tread here is either red hard or soft or black basalt. Sandstone provides great grip when clean. Because the sand is grippy some sticks to the tires which are carried then deposited on the rock. Traction is compromised.

Hung at the Bean. Kelly Emmett drove in. She retired from enduro racing last year. She remembered me. I remembered her as I caught a glimpse of a driver in a pickup truck as it drove by me. I retrieved a Bike Mag artiocle about her and asked for her autograph which she gave. Cool connection.

Thurs I drove up to west Sedona to do laundry. I learned about new trail construction happening out on Teacup. Dave from Fat Tire investigated and mapped out a sustainable build solution to the existing fall line problems. We started work at 3PM. Our work created the trail corridor as we lopped (me) and dug out manzanita bushes. A purpose built trail and it will be cool. Right now it will be a 2 directional multi use trail. recognized user conflict as the trail will be like a flow trail. Downhill gapping a tabletop encounters a hiker on the downslope or a rider pedaling up. Dave has plan B should the FS approve. We hiked out in alpine glow

Drove back down the PJs to watch the Zags cream Santa Clara by 58 points.

Friday bright and early I had a PT appointment w/ Eric back up in west Sedona. It took almost 30 mins to drive from Beaverhead camp spot to Dry Creek road which is on the far west end of west Sedona. And the Sedona film festival is underway drawing lots of non locals. knee pain is from tightened ilio tibial band. My right chest area is bruised. He helped my back pain realigning vertebrae. Temp was 25 degrees at wake up. Furnace ran all night.

I drove out Dry Creek road to parking spot right where Chuck Wagon crosses the road. Lots of non biker rigs crowded available parking spots. even a water puddle where I usually park. The trails were not over crowded but I shared the forest with others. Tires are fun. Dry Creek is back up. At the Chuck Wagon crossing was upstream stepping rocks were above the surface. Crossing on them required moves and a plan. I did well until I misjudged a stepping rock that when I stepped on it it rolled resulting in a wet right shoe. My route would cross the creek down lower.

I kept my ride short because of my tender chest. I crossed the creek again finding a stepping stone path. The the climb out of the drainage on Anaconda climbs above the Girdner junction meaning that more climbing than the more direct Snake. To hit Snake would require additional crossing of flowing Dry Creek. 10.78 miles climbing 1257′ needing 1 hr 35 mins of riding.

A shower at snap then the drive back down to VOC and the Bean for the Friday night happening. Cashion from The Bike Farm in Brevard was parked in the lot. Warm greeting. Just a small collection of local riders, a subset of the usual bunch. Don from Galena Lodge is visiting for a short spell. I ate dinner at the 2 doors down Thai restaurant. I drove out to Beaverhead after dark. I drove to the same spot which was empty. I count on this spot being unoccupied. Became more populated last night but nobody camped on my bumper.

Finally the Holter test results were shared with me: Heart performance is normal. I lived a typical 24 hours for data gathering. I vaped some Shatter which really elevates my pulse. Heart did not go off the rails.

Which brings me to Sat noon where I parked behind the sheriff office. I skipped trail work today to protect my chest muscles. Will watch the Zags game tonight against BYU at home. Senior night. Karnowski’s last home game. Talk about an empty hole caused by his graduation: 7 feet tall and 300 pounds of being; massive in the paint. Zags are now 29-0 ranked #1 in the country for 4 weeks in a row.

During my travels I have met may riders local to  the location. Because of less enjoyable local conditions many find their way to Sedona. Sometimes those travelers visit the bean when I am there. So cool. I catch up on their local happenings.

As of yesterday’s ride I have now ridden 1,705 rides totaling 25,007 miles. I have climbed in the 2,xxx,xxx. feet as data from Garmin has data from when I lived in Spokane. 2 million feet, data indicates almost a one calorie to one feet of elevation gained.

My Formula The One front brake lost its ability to lock the front wheel. I put Formula organic pads on replacing Formula sintered with no change in stopping performance. I then abraded the rotor and cleaned it with iso alcohol and installed a pair of CoolStop pads. I bedded them in which restored the brake to allow nose wheelies.

 

What I don’t understand: why some things are singular but are labeled plural. Why are pants plural when the legs are attached and a shirt is singular with attached arm sleeves. Why is a bra singular when there are 2 attached pockets? I buy a shirt, a pair of pants, and women  buy a bra?

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Going to make a stickie.

 

The ground is just tooo soaked from all the rain. Today was another day of just looking and wanting.

I drove up to west Sedona to buy coffee at Java Love and take a shower. Also perhaps the dirt up here would have allowed like Skywalker trail. I parked at the cultural park under cloudy skies. I stepped on nearby dirt while nothing stuck to my sandals, the ground settled a bit. No bright sun to effect rapid drying. I gave up accepting that tomorrow will be a bit drier. From what I could see from the highway Dry Creek is flowing more water.

I drove out to Deer Pass. The FS moved the boulders cutting off all the little feeders to park spots leaving a small open area that was already crowded. FS did it under the guise of protecting a water shed. They did it to cut off public access for camping. I parked right in front of the locked gate on the most level spot available using my leveling blocks to get closer to level. Too much slope. Parties that parked here must have been yesterday slithered in the mud to get out. Life here is not good for campers.

I bought a factory sealed DVD 2 disc set last week. I watched the first disc which played correctly. Last night I put in the second disc which generated an error message same as the one I received from 3 RedBox videos. I called the software help service I was pressured to buy. I spent almost an hour on the phone w/ a call center where english is not the first language. The tech concluded that the problem is with the disc. Defective disc? Find his solution to be unreal as how could RedBox rent those videos? I’m Phumoxed.

No word about the Holter test. One week. I have sore to the touch pectoral muscles near my heart. My resting pulse runs in low 50s upper 40s. Too low?

This week is the Sedona film festival which has turned 89A thru west Sedona into bumper to bumper choke. Hosting a major event in a community brings in tourons that plug the works for the locals.

Lee, I liked your comment. How does that work for you?