Quiet chilly night @ State park XG. Overslept so quiet.

Needed to be on road by 8:30 for ride. Rushed and made it. TH was just a few miles away. 2nd car in lot just b4  9:00 start. Riders kept pouring in, 21 in all. After the ride there is beer @ leader Hank’s house just up the road.

Congo line of riders snaked over the dry stirring up dust then dropped into a wide sandy wash. Need to keep pedaling and keep the front light while swimming over the sand. And then the trail, sometimes used cow trails as it wound up, around, over, between  cactuses w/ all kinds of sharpies arrayed. Prickly pear is knee height & below, Cholla is over head high & bushie, saguaro is just big. Prickly spines can be removed w/ tweezers. The cholla you just don’t w ant to think about falling into. Many riders bear cactus wounds and a few today earned some more. I took 2 long spines in the shin. My arms are scratched from ducking around or brushing against other sharpies.

Trail is over decomposed granite, some places it is below ground level  from rain runoff & traffic. To many riders. The technical challenges backed up someone else’s attempt. I walked my share & rode some others didn’t make. I am a midweight.

Baby Jesus is a map named ridge we rode down along over big rock.

Early in the ride I noticed a goodly sized thorn embedded in my front tire. My tubes are slime filled. My safest strategy was to leave the thorn in hoping it plugged the hole and I would remove it back at the van. On the last bit of downhill I rolled down onto a rock, a perfect storm flatted my tire. The rock must have speared the thorn. My tire went flat right now. Solution is to pump up the tube hoping the sealant will coagulate over the hole. No such happening, the harder i pumped the louder the hiss of escaping air. No choice but to replace tube w/ another slimed one in my pack. I held up the group waiting for me. All good natured. earlier a rider had a mechanical  which held the group even longer. Tough rugged riding in the desert.

Hank invited all to join him @ his house for a beer compliments of a brewery that I didn’t get. His road back to his house was just driven in. Rocky. Savored the beer & company of some riders.

I split back to XG hoping on sneaking back in on yesterday’s pass for a shower. Successful.

Drove up Oracle rd looking for laundromat i found on line. Clean clothes. Dirtbagging behind a doctors’ clinic off hwy.

Cult rider joined our group. He lives nearby and plays on the rocks etc. Skilled rider. Rides in Carharts, skate shoes, flats, & rides a Turner Spot. The bike is able to do more than I allow it after watching him.

Thinking about driving up 2 lanes to Phoenix tomorrow, maybe a day off after 5 days of riding.

Temp was in lower 70s, another sunburn to go w/ scratches. Blue skies, so blue, no moisture.

More Tucson.

Wed AM dan changed into new  tubeless tires. he needed an air compressor to seat the beads using the high pressure. I called Abegold whom invited me to look him up in Tucson to show me trails. We salvaged the ride day w/ a ride @ Starr Pass. Abe is mid fiftys rides an old turner Burner. He brought along his 2 dogs. Made a loop out into desert. Abe knows all the plants. There are 3 kinds of Cholla, one the branches break off real easy and are loaded w/ spines.

Apparently you use a comb between your body & the cactus and flick it away as 1 piece w/ the spines attached to plant & not you. Lots of it around Tuscon.

Abe left us, Dan drove his dually truck and I rode back to our slice of BLM land. Dan’s wife made plans to join Dan in Phoenix so he packed up yesterday and headed out. I planned on joining the bike club to ride another of their 8ish rides of christmas. The trail head was just down the road from my camp.

Thurs ride was at 4 foot culvert to ride the new trails @ Robles. Bunch of riders showed up. Gaggle headed out. Trails here are mostly broken up sharp, square sided that roll, packs well  rock. Lots of cholla. Group shrank, I stayed w/ last for longest ride. Rubble is what the tread is. 4 foot culvert went underneath Ajo drive, 4 lanes & a median long. Walked bikes in a duck to the light. Long route took us thru the 6 foot culvert that we could ride in. Brian is from Scranton, PA and is visiting his laws here. Left cold & snow.

Drove back to BLM camp & chose another place to camp. Hiked up Snyder hill just above camp spot and took sunset pics. Left before the colors turned on.

Watched Zags school Oklahoma, game went 52 mins long because of a broken back board replacement effort. Went to bed just b4 midnight. At 12 the sky was rent w/ explosions.

Today’s ride was @ Fantasy Island across town. My route took me by airplane storage areas. There are commercial jets stored. Most impressive was the military storage. maybe 50 c-130s taped for protection. Lots of other planes. And then there is the boneyard where the dead planes are stored. Massive, C-5s, c-141s, Mind boggling collection of spent materiel that we paid for.

8ish ride was a hangover ride @ 12:00 except the riders were in fine shape. What a ride on mostly smooth trails literally twisting around in the flat desert, cholla cactus forming turns. I was riding mid chain ring and higher gears when Jim, the organizer passed me that should have not happened. I rode his wheel and noticed he was running his big ring. Wow. I jumped up into mine and away i went. Most fun since I parted w/ my VW Golf GT car years ago. Slight bermed corners counter steer, ghost ride a turn, bring the bike back underneath while spinning out in big power gear. What fun and a great hammer. Made entire loop series for 22 miles. My fun tank started getting light towards the end. Loose rock like alluvial wash rock, rides best w/ power. I muscled up some short hills in a big gear. Kind of like FATS only in the dry desert.

Plan is to join the bike club tomorrow for the 50 year trail and the baby jesus trail. I drove around the E side of town on a gps plotted route. Decided to stay @ Catalina SP for a shower and found place to stay. $15 for a shower & legal quiet campspot.

Another upper 60 degree day w/ shorts. Sunburned my arms. Didn’t use heat last night, did light it for breakfast.

Desert in raw state is all kinds of cactus, creosote bush. Javelina eat the prickly pear. Called stink pig because of smelly  scent glands w/ a unique smell per animal.

2 days ago Dan let me shower in his 5th wheel camper. A first. Too many resources & work to deal w/ a shower. Because I do not have one aboard I just as soon as shower ashore. I didn’t size my van for a shower or head. Tanks are external which means freeze.

I need to plan what to do beyond tomorrow.

Yesterday i drove down to Tucson & met up w/ Dan, aka Prodigalson on mtbr, on a small patch of BLM land west of town. I met him after he responded to my mtbr thread. We finally hooked up.

Drove interstates down driving below 65 on 75mph hwy. No real hurry to get moving. Stopped @ Black Canyo City at a KOA I found last time thru for a $5.00 shower. I found Slippery Pig bike shop which was to grease my Chris King bottom bracket. Insurance benefit period ends 12/31. My abdomen still hurts and my growlers are still soft. I still feel there is something going on in my gut. Dr said that pain is still from Oct fall and that my abdomen has quite a bit of extra gurgling going on. She prescribed Ciprol & Flagyl to kill the bad guys, she is treating it like giardia in spite of the fact that 2 previous labs could not determine giardia. 10 days of flagyl means no alcohol. I bought the meds and will pick a 10 day window of being abstinent.

Camped on this small plot w/ maybe 12 other rigs scattered around. Dan has a 5 th wheel pulled by a dually. Comfortable accommodations.

Today we drove into town to pick up his bike from a bike repair shop. They really screwed up his repair needs, by the time his bike was repaired it was almost noon. We drove to trailhead of a piece of the Arizona trail out in the Sonorran desert treed w/ Saguaro cactus & creosote bush. Rocky trail, mostly like crushed rock w/ several technical sections mixed in. Dan lead. He botched a line over a rock drop. As he is almost saving a header we heard a sharp rattle that both of us said ” rattlesnake”. We couldn’t find one. He noticed that his front tire was leaking air thru a hole in the tire casing where he had ripped a knob off. The rattle was the initial burst of air from his tubeless tires. The hole was tool large for the Stan’s sealant to plug. He repaired it by installing a tube in a tubeless tire.

Ride was an out & back. Turned around. My pedal gleats are worn so much that upon serious up pulling of the pedal my foot pops free. My right foot pulled free at same spot where Dan fell going out, and I landed in the bush where we thought the snake was in. No snake but a gash on my calf from the bush. Dan’s front tire lost air on the way back. He rips the knobs off his Nevegals.

Back out @ BLM plot.

Ride around Tucson for several more days