Almost over

Whew!!! I have been a Gonzaga basketball fan for like 20 years. Sat night I watched the game for the ages at PJs in VOC. Suggs fired a half court shot with less than 3 seconds on the clock in a tied game after 1 overtime. Ball banked the backboard and dropped thru the net giving the Zags the win. Place erupted with jubilation. If you watched the game live you saw a fantastic game. Tonight Zags play Baylor for the championship. By 10 PM PDT their almost will be known.

Likewise for me almost. Sat afternoon I hiked form Jacks canyon TH up to top of Horse Mesa. Always good to mix in hiking  on rough climbing trails with pedaling, all kinds of muscular reflexes being played out where to place each foot and the rest of the body. Trail is like a climbers way trail in that it goes up. Top is a mesa.

Spent night at overlook as I can find an open spot late at night.

Almost done. Sunday I had one last ride out at Western Gateway trails. On road at 8 AM to stay away from forecast 84 degree temp. Geared up and riding before 9. Start down Stirrup is a coast. I ride this trail frequently. I don’t remember hitting anything abnormal no hearing anything. At some point I felt a liquid on my left calf and I started feeling a soft tire. I stopped and checked out tires. Without looking I heard spitting and saw white liquid emitting from a puncture on sidewall of  rear tire. I laid the bike down and spun the wheel in hopes of putting Stans right at the hole then attached the cool Lyzene pump to the valve stem and pumped…. and pumped. Hole was too large for Stans sealant. Shit. Less than a mile from van. I was going to need a new tire anyway so I pushed the bike out instead of installing a slime tube and continuing my ride. Definitely slower pushing a bike with a flat tire than pedaling. back at van made short drive down to Thunder mtn who had the replacement tire and shop air to bead it up. Drove back to Cultural Park where I started again 1 hour later. Same trail down unpunctured. Dunno what I hit. So I rode Stirrup to Girdner continued to junction with Rupp, turned left downhill on wheels created single track on loose rock wide corridor. Crossed Dry Creek then umphed the climb out. After several short climbs I turned off on a social trail then spent the next bunch of miles and time staying on faint social trails. I planned on riding Last Frontier so i needed to figure out where to exit the social to pick up a system trail out to Outer Limits. I hit Cockscomb turned left. I passed two hikers on an uphill, they let me pass as I was going faster than them. Cockscomb up and down over to junction with Outer Limits

turned left and pedaled to junction of Last Frontier, turned left riding down the original trail until a hairpin right turn around a ridge snout to the beginning of the reconstructed Last Frontier which is built on steep slope with lots of exposure, bench cut, with many opportunities for an outslope fall. Gotta pay attention to Ps and Qs. My goal was to ride all the features which I did. Trail rejoins Out Limits for descent down to Dry Creek then the hump up and back to Cultural park. 4 miles climbing 1276′ pedaling for 2 hrs 3 mins. Shared trails with maybe 5 people entire time out. Back at van the displayed temp was 84 degrees. I was heat affected. I was hot, I checked my temp which was only 98.4 slightly above my normal lower temp. Sure didn’t drink enough water to match my perspiration. Drove back down to Beaverhead for the night at open fav spot at MP4. The first right turn past the overlook was still crowded. On way out of VOC the LEO rig approached in the opposite direction. I lifted my left index finger off the steering wheel for greeting, he did the same.

Almost now done. Today I wanted to ride around Hogs following the same trails as 2 previous ride. Pedaled from outlet mall up to Bell rock TH. On the dirt Big Park loop connecting to Single track bypass where I made the grunter short steep climbs. On to main trails, single track around Baby Bell to Llama where I made all the climbs until the climb on armored piece that I have yet to make. Walked that one per frustration. Worked my way up to crowded Chicken Point picking up Broken Arrow over to junction with one of the Hogs. I walk that nasty downhill Turned right at start of Twin Buttes continuing to junction with Hog Wash

and climbed the 2 rock faces. Right at start of Pecari down to Mystic all the way out to its end at Chapel road. pavement ride thru neighborhood to a single track down to rejoin system trail, Little Horse and HT down to Breezy leaving the wash for Tempelton, climb hermit, cross Javapai parking lot onto to Coconino up to junction with Slim Shady, turn left for mostly downhill back to VOC.  15.2 miles climbing 1666′ pedaling for 2 hrs 13 mins. I shared trails with very few people.

Done: I completed the 2 rdies I wanted to do.

Yesterday I drove to the open water spigot where I had been heling myself to several gallons of city water. Yesterday I lifted the spigot handle and nothing came out. Been found out. Wonder when the owners will have the dumpster removed which is being filled with all kinds of trash.

So, I am now several hours from learning of the Zags performance that I will watch at PJs sitting at the bar right under a big screen TV. GO ZAGS.

Tomorrow I leave Sedona heading to Aztec, NM to ride Alien Run  and spend the night there. Wed I finish the drive to Durango where Diaz will tune my fork to match my anticipated new bike. I will be riding a fork not turned to my present RFX. I spoke with Soul Cycles in Prescott, where I ordered it from, told me it is to be on their doorstep on 5/28. I will pay them and they will ship to a Bend shop for build. I figure I will be in Bend area for month of June.

‘