Around the Mountain

After getting back from my Memorial Day trip to the Kaibab, Scott, Lee and I headed to Mt Graham to do the first epic of the summer. Scott put up his version of Around the Mountain here.

We woke up at 5:15am to Lee making the bacon. I told him if he woke up early to start cooking for me. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm....despite the smell, I just sat in my sleeping bag listening to the many birds singing. It was not until Lee came over with chocolate covered espresso beans that I really perked up. I woke up and finished the taters and eggs (in bacon fat) for our endurance-style breakfast.

The estimated time for the Around the Mountain ride was about 8-10 hours.



We rolled up the highway toward Swift Trail




stopping to enjoy the views. Scott is such a sucker for pointing. I am going to make a picture book with all his pointing pictures The Book of Scott Pointing the Route.







Despite the fire, life seems to be returning to the mountain. But the trail still was difficult at times due to the large number of downed trees, probably in the neighborhood of 250 trees on the trail.

We descended 2,000 feet on 2 miles of trail in over 2 hours. Very slow going at first.

Photo by Scott Morris

The downed trees only allowed us to take more pictures, for a time. I was quickly intent on destroying ever tree.....or at the minimum, moving it off the trail. A 100 yard ride was very uncommon. Most of the time we dodged some trees and then walked to the next section of downed trees.

Would there be any hope to Around the Mountain?



Some beta gave us hope, so we continued on. Eventually, the trail became nearly clear of downed trees.




Despite a sprained ankle, Scott was hitting nearly all of the switchbacks with his 20x36 gearing. I was floundering behind him hoping to keep up. If you look closely at this picture, you'll see an intent concentration. Therein lies the key to nailing a swtichback; and of course the correct gearing.

Methinks it is time to put those 20t and 36t rings on my bike instead of leaving them on my dresser.



The sounds of breaking branches was replaced with grunts as we began to try to ride this super, steep terrain, doubt turned into excitement, and the look of puzzlement....



....well, it turned to smiles :)

The crew....me, Scott and Lee (left to right). This may be our first group shot that we have ever taken. Show me your mountain biking friends and I will show you what kind of rider you are...I am blessed to have some pretty nutty mtb friends.



The ride from here on could be summed up like this: descend 2,000 feet on trail (amazingly well built given the terrain), cross a large creek, then begin to ride up the 800 feet of trail....repeat three times.



I have decided that Scott really is the master of switchbacks. There are times, on occasion, that he fails and I prevail. But these are moments are short lived. If you cannot ride, the best thing to do is push and we did that a lot on this 14.5 miles.




Lee probably had the best idea; he simply walked the majority of those steep, technical sections. Lee also blasted by Scott and I as we headed back to camp on the road.

12 hours later, we completed the loop. Mile f0r mile, that 14.5 miles on Around the Mountain Trail was possibly the hardest of my life; harder than climbing singletrack to Lemmon. I look forward to spending another weekend on Mt Graham soon.

Colorado Plateau

The Colorado Plateau is arguably one of the best places on Earth. After graduation on Friday, Kendall and I drove (she slept, I drove) to the Kaibab. The timing could not have been better.

We walked out to the East Rim Mesa during the sunrise



and began to enjoy the sunset from the Arizona Trail.





We headed to camp for about an hour of sleep (having drive all night) and headed down



below the rim.





It really made me think hard about a Rim2Rim2Rim. Tentative date is set for Labor Day. Anyone want in?


As in every Kaibab tradition, we headed to the lodge for views and beer. Thereafter, we drove down to Page to get kayaks and head down to Marble Canyon.



History in the rocks abound in this canyon



left.....right.......left.......right. It takes a little practice on a tandem.


A semi-late start into Marble Canyon meant a nice sunset from the kayak.


The next morning we drove to Lake Powell to kayak some more, this time with the dogs.


then hiked the short jaunt to see Marble Canyon from a different perspective.


Horseshoe Bend






In case you have not heard the flash flood story, remind me to tell it to you later. Lastly, we went canyoneering at Waterholes Canyon. The southern portion is closed to hikers per the Navajo Nation, while the northern section is open to hikers. A great option for those not wanting to pay the $32/person to see the often over-crowded Antelope Canyon.

Dixie

It looks like Dave has been busy working on his late June bikepacking event. Check out this link. It looks as though the route is going to become an instant classic. The forum for questions is up on bikepacking.net.

This route pieces together 311 miles of the of finest trails and remote terrain of Southern Utah. On June 25th, 8 AM riders will embark from Parowan, UT to begin this self-supported route challenge. The moon is full and the days are long.

See you there?

What: This is a multi-day self-supported mountain bike race.
When: Friday, June 25 8:00 AM
Where: Near Parowan, UT.

Casner

After a quick greasy spoon breakfast at 5am, we set off from Flagstaff to do the Casner Dirty Century Ride. Originally toted as a race for Flagstaffers, I halfheartedly decided to make this a ride. Curiosity prevailed as the date approached for this now rote ride, the new "group" factor could add some new flavor to the ride.

After meeting at Safeway, we drifted through Flagstaff to some forest roads and later, the main attraction: the telephone line to Casner Mountain. It borders wilderness on both sides; ergo as you can imagine the views are unique to northern Arizona.



The steep, rocky doubletrack squeezes through the Sycamore Wilderness (show on the left side of this picture) and the Red Rock Wilderness (right side).



~25 miles into the ride, the first sings of red rock appeared






As usual, pictures never really do justice for how steep the ride is. All 13 riders chugged along, some staying a bit longer to take some pictures.



We even fought off a few mechanicals...a broken spoke, seat post, and a flat tire.









The gang: Phil, Hobie, Jim, James, Max, Jeff, Nancy, Scott, Dave and Captain Irish




The only section that I had now ridden on this route was a brief 5-mile section between Casner and Dry Creek ST.




At first, the trail seemed to perfect for a group ride.



As Jeff called it, the ride quickly became a "death march" in some sections.







Even the singletrack was too sandy too ride. Here is a section that crossed Dry Creek.



Alas, singletrack in the form of Two Fences TH.

After a quick stint at Burger King (chicken sandwich, fries and Lemonade for me), we headed up to conquer Schnebly. Last year, I skipped the singletrack in favor of the road. I chose the harder, rockier singletrack this year.



The singletrack put me right behind the singlespeeders (Phil, Nancy, and Jeff). They were cranking up the mountain. Nancy was a climbing fool, I can't believe how fast she was motoring up that mountain.



A quick fill up in Woody's at Munds before taking Frog Trail to Iron Springs to Old Munds.



After Old Munds, we took the dirt option into Flagstaff, Fort Tuthill. This picture sums up the day. The chatting, smiles, and picturesque moments....these form a group ride that is truly a delight.

A few friends and I formed AES to promote endurance cycling, "races" being the objective....I never thought a group ride would be the vehicle that was possibly the most effective. Case in point...Phil, pictured above with his smile and thumbs up, wrote the following today:

You totally opened my eyes. Races are fun but, rides like that are awesome to be able to stop and take pictures and to chat a bit as you are rolling along. I had a great time riding with you, Jeff, Nancy, and Hobie. I am afraid you have ruined me, I can't stop thinking about the next big ride.


The first and last sentence life-changing; Phil is hooked on endurance riding now, having just finished one of his longest single-day rides. To the naysayers of group rides, this group ride was a near seamless ride. Check here for more pictures and positive comments.

Casner Dirty Century

This Saturday, May 15, the Casner Dirty Century group ride will be starting in Flagstaff. The past two years, this has been a race with ~5 riders in attendance. I decided to make it into a ride in order to increase the amount of participation. The weather seems to be cooperating, highs in the 70s for Sedona.



The views are amazing as you descend from Casner Mountain.







With nearly 11k of climbing, 100 miles, and about 30 miles of singletrack...



...I am guessing it will take about ~12-14 hours to finish. Anyone want to join us?

Tracks

The solo Tuesday Ride went as planned. The trail had no mtb tracks of any kind, just a few old footprints here and there. I decided to keep sessioning stuff until I cleaned each section. It made for some interesting moments, like re-ridng one section around 25 times. I even had a huge stan's burp while I was riding the what-I-thought-was-impossible section.

Alas, nearly two hours later, I cleaned all 1.5 miles and moved onto the bypass to Alamo.

I have been riding some slow, technical stuff in order this week in order to ease back into riding. This only after nearly 2 weeks of wheezing/coughing, blowing the nose, sinus pain, etc. It seems like this is an annual thing that really puts me out for 1-2 weeks. At the moment, I still have a light cough. Nonetheless, I can manage to ride 1-2 hours at a moderate pace with the aid of the inhaler.

For that reason, I have been riding to and fro work, adding in some quick sections of technical, like that less than 1 mile of Pima Canyon Trail before the Wilderness. If you ride it up and down and hop around some of those rocks, it makes for a quick treat on the ride home.

Next week, I will be heading up to do the Casner Dirty Century ride from Flagstaff to Sedona. I just finished uploading the GPX file to the AES website. There should be a good sized group in attendance for the 12-14 hour ride.