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Brrrrp.
That was one yummy day.
Now we get to see how much "leg" I have left, in Sedona, tomorrow.
One nice gent from AZ (NMPhi767 from MTBR) was nice enough to meet me and show me the ropes, as it were. He was really nice riding company, and a nicely solid rider. Boy made rolling the Waterfall on National Trail look easy. Not that I convinced myself to do it though, such a friggin' weenie sometimes I am I am. Even with my bike (which was obviously impatient about that chickenhood and spent some time over the next couple miles trying to throw me, until she remembered we were having fun anyway).
For those that do not know what the Waterfall looks like, go check out the Pete Fagerlin Arizona Videos of National Trail - I suggest Amazing Grave.wmv - the Waterfall is the obstacle with the really cool spine on it (if you don't know what that means I can't help you).
The rest of the trail obstacles I didn't have the same fear of for some reason, and had a grand time bouncing down and up them during the day. I won't say I got them all, though. But danged few ended up escaping me my knobby clutches.
The general trail sequence that I hit today...
Pima Canyon start, Up the jeep road, to Mormon and up, to National up to Buena Vista (yeah, to the lot, thanks NMPhi767!), Flying down National, mostly tailing, some leading, to the National/Mormon/Ridgeline junction, over Ridgeline, to the Pima lot, bye to NMPhi767, Break, snack, some bike tuning, Up National (yes, I'm stupid), Turn in to Hidden Valley (I was not aware it was hiker-only, sorry), To National, To Buena Vista again, Down Geronimo (now *THAT* was a SPICEY Meeet-a-ball!), Up Geronimo (not intended, phark! Too much walking), Out Mormon to the west (was trying to go hit Telegraph Pass down, But missed it (duh, should have checked my map), Road out to the viewpoint across from the antenna pharm, Oh look, nice sunset. Shit, sunset! Flying down the road back to Buena Vista, Flying down National to Mormon, Flying down Mormon (because I had already gone down National), *phew* Made the jeep road just as light really fading, and moon clear in the sky, Back to the car, all safe and sound. Scha-weet!
I met a number of friendly bikers on the trail (MTBR eatdrinkride among them), a group of very pleasant hikers in Hidden Valley having their lunch snack, and nice people at the amphiteater that directed me effectively to a trail up, just not the one I wanted.
Yes, dirtbag (MTBR), it looked to be a lot better down than up, but I was heading up...
Total mileage for the day was ~30 (bike computer slightly over, gps slightly under), bagged over 6000 ft of climbing and more imporantly just under 6000 ft of excessive-grin descending.
Oh, the bike tweaking? For some reason it seems I was getting only about 1/2 the desired sag in either part of my suspension. The riding afterwards was noticably happier. Now, after posting this, I need to go outside and change my back tire to the spare ans the 2.5 Neve I have been riding for the last couple months has Officially Given Notice. ;^(
no, EvilP, I'm not putting on the semislick, I'm putting on the 2.4 Cortez spare that I have handy. Phbbt.
The GPS tracklog is available in both GPS Exchange and Google Earth KML formats.
We go, up and away...
So where DOES the trail go, again?
At Buena Vista, poseur shot for the homies
And now for the rockin' downward stuff
To the fun playground
Where Quasi finds a friend!
So we roll "down" Ridgeline, which has some good step climbs to get started with.
And I spot Yet Another Stupidly Crazy Balanced Rock
On the way back up National, I turn into Hidden Valley, where the Natural Tunnel is found (cool stuff)
Up and over so I can go cruise down Geronimo
Which features some fun stuff, like this neat rock chute (which is, in actuality, silly easy to roll)
Later, climbing back up, I make a little friend for a while
And, in the end, just barely make it back before dark.
That light bit behind the shrubn is the moon.
Tomorrow?
Tomorrow is Red X-Mas - a group ride hitting lots of stuff in Sedona.
This may, or may not, be more than I can handle but we will just have to see.
Far be it from me to pass up a chance for a fun group ride in a cool place (25d F forecast at start of ride and 50d F high for the day) that I've never ridden before.
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