Thursday watched Zags win. Late night, slept at sure spot of the overlook.

Getting good as trails are drying out during the day and not freezing at night.

Friday drove back to Cultural park to share a ride with Doug. Traildoc showed up. He wanted to see the new trail build and I wanted to ride that his guiding would make for navigation success. He gave his first but mine failed due to his time commit. Stay High then over to Focus loop, then a bush bash to rejoin Outer Limits.Doc left us while Doug and I finished Outer Limits turning on Cockscomb down pass where the picture on the front of Beartooth’s Sedona map of me. Scream down Rupp enjoying pull of gravity and stable bike. Learning to point the front wheel on chosen line and limber up sucking up dampened kicks. Bike is stable. Climbed up to Girdner then connected to new trails to eliminate the climb on Girdner which is way more fun to go down.

Doc complimented our riding ability and behavior to invite us on a ride the next day. 11 AM same place.

Sat several other locals joined us for a large area ride. Social trails. Rode into a wash where a metate had been ground into base rock.

Climbed up to shoulder of Scheurman traversing over to Pyramid, I bailed to avoid more serious riding to descend Scorpion to ride’s end. Shuttle pick upright at Chavez ranch road then driven back to start.

15.9 miles climbing 1093′, pedaling 2 hrs 28 mins but enjoying beautiful day of 4 hrs and change. Ride covered 5.28 sq miles which is pretty large Sedona area.

Drove back down to PJs at VOC to watch the Zags play BYU. Zags won. Spent the night at overlook again.

On a tight climbing turn I made full on contact with a stout spine of a prickly pear right into my left hand on the back side between my middle and ring finger. I stopped to pull the spine out. Today my left hand has difficulty closing. I didn’t ride today partially of concern of gripping the handlebar.

I just don’t feel well and so far health care providers have not been able to determine a cause and a recovery plan. I can force myself to be active. Today was to be a recovery day after 2 heavy exertion rides. I only hiked up 2 hills above the overlook.

Data from 2019:

205 rides covering 2,920 miles.

Drove 15740 miles spending $1891 for fuel.

Tomorrow is new suspension parts and maybe a ride at Dead Horse.

Today was the first trail build day of the new year out at western Gateway. This will be a new viewshed trail that is sketchy and very challenging. Today we built out to the start of the to be real difficult off the shoulder of western side of Cockscomb. I heard the number 30 builders. I continue to ply my brushing skills. We walked in from Aerie on Cockscomb to the start of the build.

Above are the 2 responsible for the trail design/ On the left is Forrest of the USFS, on the right is Phil, trail creating imagineer. Collaborative effort meeting FS approval.

At present there are plenty little challenges, some of which I will scramble over.

Back into town to make my clothes clean. Made an appointment to visit Fat Tire Dave the drove to uptown. Visited for awhile watching him custom tune up a fellow Canadian’s bike. No enlightening conversation.

Zags play tonight at 9. I am down at VOC writing this before the game starts.

Tuesday I lead Doug on a Turkey Creek ride today doing stuff that I like to not ride by myself. Still freeze thaw mud which is crazy is that every patch has its own degree of slipperiness. Hard to judge potential front tire wash out on a tight turn. The tip of “cupping” my feet on the pedals increased my efficiency as now my feet remain on the pedal resisting being bounced off the pedal.

On that ride the trail crossed a wash where another mtn biker was standing. He saw me then asked if I had been in the Pisgah like 18 months ago? He remembered seeing me and my van. It was me. Today was the first time to visit which is unfamiliar versus having met him previously and not remembering him. I have a Pisgah branded front mud guard. Mud guard is of great benefit because of all the mud on the trails.

Wed I sought expertise concerning my sore right TMJ, the dentist is the same one who made my mouth guard back in 2014. Problem is caused by trashed left side joint. Course of remediation is making 2 appliances which will alter the position of my lower jaw to per blueprint. BIG chunk of change to be able to chew.

Yesterday I was parked out at the Cultural park reading Gone with the Wind. Spoiler: I finished reading it later that night. Traildoc pulled up and engaged in lengthy visit. Local legend.

I know more people here than every other place I have visited. It is possible that the quantity here exceeded the total of all the other people I know everywhere else.

Short precip event Thurs night dumped .1″ of rain with a below freezing temp per forecast. I parked on paved overlook. I neglected to cover my bike, in the morning ice had formed where the water didn’t shed. I drove into VOC while noticing enough snowfall to change color from red to white. Shit, more days of freeze thaw. I spent the first park of day hanging inside the van while sucking up solar gain. Late afternoon I drove back to Beaverhead to check out MP4 dirt official road onto desert. Dirt was firm although there were serious slither tire tracks indicating that vehicle driving out had a real go to make hard surface. I drove in and parked at usual spot. Nice day for a walk out the road following the slither tracks then beyond. I climbed over 1 fence and opened a gate at another fence line. I turned around as I decided that I might be returning to van after sundown which happened. I stopped short of the Dry Beaver creek bed. Sometime during the night i was awakened by a full throated coyote serenade right outside my van. I fixed bfast, cleaned up, then drove back to town.

I have been studying my battery voltage observing that it drops after no solar gain. A conversation I had with a battery person was that because of low solar gain and driving short time that the batteries are loosing their deep charge. For a solution I decided to buy a battery charger to put that deep charge on. Drove up to W Sedona.

For propane management I record each refill in my calendar. Sat AM I looked at the propane fill data to see Sunday was last fill, at about 1 gallon a day burn I should be dead out. I stopped at Chevron in VOC for refill. Tank only took 2 gallons, something wrong with their pump and or my tank, the amount should have been around 5 gallons. I drove to ACE in W Sedona to have them fill the tank. Before the attendant attached the hose I looked at the gauge attached tot he tank: it registered full. Hmm. I looked again at my calendar to see that I bought propane on Thurs down in Cottonwood where I went to do laundry because local laundry was closed to replace driers. Thurs was a non normal day which threw my memory off. Chevron data was correct, I was off.

While in Cottonwood I stopped at bike shop to visit. While there I was taken by surprise by at first an unrecognizable woman who locked me in a tight bear hug. It was Jan from old VOC days. Some catching up and promise to connect.

Drove back to W Sedona to O’Reillys to talk batteries and chargers. I bought a charger. Later I drove to in town parking spot for an extension cord hook up. The easier house battery to get to is under the passenger seat requiring 6 bolts to be removed. I connected the cord and the terminals leaving the seat slightly ajar but still touching maybe the positive clip. Let it run all night long. Charger has light to indicate bad battery which never came on which by default said the batteries were good. In the AM a light said bad connection something. I offloaded the seat outside then reconnected the clamps. This time diode lit showing charging. I hung thru the morning letting the charger work while reading Gone with the Wind. Solar panel controller lit up showing full charge. Good enough for me. Disconnected and reinstalled the seat then drove back to VOC to watch football at PJs because trails are still freeze thaw muddy. The day was chilly, mid 40s, just a nice day except for chill and mud. OK, I can dress for chill to tolerate it and I could ride pavement for exercise and being outside.

My clothing was just a long sleeve wool jersey and knee warmers, I started with a wind shell and pedaled away towards Turkey Creek on Verde Valley School rd. I worked on full pedaling which is harder than riding on the dirt. i passed the first entry to dirt as the tread was white, not red. I pedaled more pavement to next entry to dirt. The tread at the entry was red and firm, enough enticement for me. I chose dirt. After being lured in I experienced a mix of firm and varying degrees of wetness, some firm, other slithery. I ran into Bonnie, a local from old B& B days. I wandered out to Turkey tank then turned around riding different trails.

I pedaled pavement back to van. Plan was to sit at the bar at PJs to watch the Seahawks which I did. Seahawks performance left me wanting and daylight was fading as I wanted to stay at MP4 that I want daylight to find a parking spot. I made same spot in twilight for the night. Slow internet speed showed Seahawks finished just short of winning. No coyote serenade last night.

This AM the battery charge was just about the same before the long time of charging.

Which brings me to current. Parked at VOC waiting for more warmth for a repeat ride out Turkey creek. 48 degrees. Forecast wants nights below freezing later in the week. More freeze thaw mud.

Last year I sought better van suspension shocks and struts. Chose local Cottonwood shop who offered me OEM parts as being suitable. $1,900 later the suspension was even worse and I put up with the ride till I returned locally. Conversation with the shop addressing my unhappiness is resulting in different units that the guy reported are better than OEM but were not offered to me last spring. Sweet compensation is no charge to me. Told to order then in and make an install appointment.

Next van project is replacing many of the coolant system parts. The present condition causes me concern about it failing on a big climb, going north or south is such which keeps me here.

Still very much engrossed in Gone with the Wind as I am learning from the author about southern living and how it was affected by losing the Civil War. I have greater insight to their distaste for Yankees and the social upheaval caused by emancipation and granting voting rights to the formerly oppressed slaves.