Friday I rode out Verde Valley school road for pavement riding because I did not know how dry the Turkey Creek trails would be. On that ride I ducked off onto several dirt pieces and discovered dirt was firm. Yesterday I put my tires to the test as I again rode out Verde Valley road because that’s the access to the Turkey creek trails. How sweet it was as the dirt was reddish brown pow, all the sand pits were wetted binding the sand grains together.
I rode out to the tank then hike a biked up the nasty loose trail up to the ocotillo forest. This way I could ride down what I would have struggled to pedal up mixed in with blow up hike a bike. Like it better this way. My tires were the only tracks I rode over for the entire ride. Hikers were about but I and we encountered few. I rode around a knob, its name escapes me, where there were several steep outsloped sections of slick rock that had a black coloration and water was running over the rock. I was told to be aware of black color when wet as it could be slippery. I heeded their advise while vey carefully walking across those patches. I tested several patches for friction and came away with I do not know how really slippery they would be but I errored on the cautious side as the consequences would have been a slide downhill over the rocks. Nice mix of tech features I could master with others still escaping my proficiency. I sessioned several to some success.
Pleasant day.
Dallied in town waiting 6 PM start of Zags game televised on ESPN and a bar front seat at PJs to watch it. I ate a salad and a bunch of french fries that does not seem to be setting well in my digestive system even at this hour. Zags won. back out at dry overlook for the night. made scratch pancakes for bfast and ate the entire batch.
This AM I am joining Ian and Jimmy for a Black Canyon ride, riding down with Ian.
Walden is sure a snoot full of almost validation of my life choices.