Gila River Scramble, day 1

After missing Scott and Lee's adventure in the Gila River basin, I asked Scott to go again, only in the opposite direction. It did not take much convincing to get him to go again. If you saw his pictures, you will know why. The pictures seem to come alive this time of year.

The opposite direction meant climbing up the Ripsey Segment of the Arizona Trail.



Plenty of wildflowers to enjoy while painfully climbing up Ripsey.

Picture courtesy of Scott

We made a little "Switchback Attack Game" to make things even more interesting. The winner, we decided would receive an ice cream cone from La Casita. Who can clean the most switchbacks on Ripsey? The game began!

Scott was climbing like a champ at the beginning; he even managed to get a 4 point lead.



My only hope to catching him was the descending, but first...



...we had to enjoy one of my favorite places in southern Arizona, the top of Ripsey. Each tight switchback is worth every second on the top of this heavenly place. It was made even better by the fact that we were going in the opposite direction, thereby allowing even more time to see and enjoy every section.




The descent of the "big hill" would be the deciding factor in the switchback game.




2-0, Scott was ahead. If he nailed this one I would surely lose.





Uh oh!





He pulled it Scott was the winner.

We stopped at the bathtub spring for some more water. This would be the last place to refuel on water before Box Canyon.



The classic moment was when I yelled, "Snake, snake! What don't you understand about snake!" to Scott and he continued dumbfounded to ride toward the snake. He pulled up his wheel in a last ditch effort...the snake was not really happy that we had awoke his slumber in the sun.




Ready to strike.




Scott and I (mostly Scott) started to hit some B-lines as we headed over to the infamous Area 52.



We started off in the toilet tubes, Scott heading up the first steep tube that was "rideable." He nearly made it to the top of the steepest section.



I went up next nearly cleaning the steep section.

Photo courtesy of Scott Morris

Let me take a quote from Scott's blog here: Unfortunately, spanking the chutes would be the last impressive thing Chad’s bike would do.

At the bottom of the toilet tube, I realized my frame had cracked in two different places. A moment of sadness fell over me before I quickly started to think about what this meant for me. We were well in the middle of a bikepacking trip and I had plans for more bikepacking this week.



There was only one thing to really do, enjoy Area 52 on Scott's bike. One person rode...



...while the other person ran around taking pictures. Brillant idea since it led to a handful of pictures.



Area 52 is a special place, it takes an experienced mountain biker to really appreciate some of the lines here.

Picture courtesy of Scott Morris



Picture courtesy of Scott Morris

Despite the broken frame and the uncertainty of getting back to the car, I went to bed thinking of all the rides I had done on the orange Leviathan...it was a great frame, easily the greatest bike I have ever owned.

Photo by Scott Morris

At least one of its last moments was spent at Area 52, spanking the toilet tubes. More from Day 2 tomorrow.

230 miles and growing...

The Cave Creek-Bradshaw Bikepack for next week is still growing with more singletrack. It has 18,000 feet of climbing with ~230 miles and is connecting the following:
T100
McDowells
Seven Springs
Spur Trail
Maricopa Trail
New River
Black Canyon Trail
Bradshaw Trail
Lane Mountain Trail



A sweet loop in the Bradshaws might come out of this, one that would allow you to do all of Black Canyon Trail (BCT), head up to Crown King on "singletrack" (used loosely here) and go down the south side of the Bradshaws on a combo of single/double track, loop back around north of Lake Pleasant to your car.

Scott and I are leaving to go ride up (north to south) Ripsey today on a 2-day bikepacking trip.

More riding, warmer weather

Despite some rain clouds last Tuesday, Duncan and I met at Rubio's for the Tuesday ride. Having skipped the commute to work in the morning due to rain, I was a little under dressed for the ride. I was optimistic that the rain would begin to stop when we hit the trail.

Optimisim paid off, well, sort of. There was a slight drizzle throughout the ride. I am amazed at those dedicated riders that will continue to ride with me despite my stupid antics, riding in rain being one of them.

The rain only added to the difficulty of Lower Ram Canyon.



For those that have not ridden this newly found trail, it is like riding up Molino Basin with some random dashes of Green Mountain-type difficulty. It will test you and you will dab.





Lillies closed up....cold, wet technical riding. Most people would have just stayed home today.



This was our first descent of this trail. Brillant, simply brillant. I was nailing everything for quite some time, no rock garden or tricky move could stay in my way.

Although that did not last the entire ride.



Duncan was having a great day also.






We headed up to try to find another route from Ramstein (the downhill descent from Pusch Ridge Dr).



No such luck. After riding around a bit on the dirt road, we came back the same way. The camera stayed in the pocket the entire time (until the very end, see picture below); a true sign of a great descent.



So close to home, so many rocks.....I wish everyday was Tuesday.


I managed to make another ride in the same area today (Thursday). Dave, Aaron, Duncan and I did the Ram Canyon to Alamo Canyon Loop, with the new Skipping Bypass to add more singletrack.

Unlike on Tuesday, things were nice and dry. Wildflowers were in full bloom.






During a few moments of sessioning, I was able to take pictures. Things started off horribly for me at the beginning; opting for the photographer role was very fitting.

As the day progressed, things started looking up. I even cleaned some stuff I missed last Tuesday.



Views like this speak for themselves. Even if the trail was mediocre, the views would be enough to keep me coming back for more and more. In fact, I often think I could ride on such trails everyday, all day.




A great week of rocky riding and a near week of bikepacking on the horizon.

Sedona Big Friggin' Loop

by Sedona Dream Photos

More pictures are available here.

Oak Creek had a pretty moderate flow at the beginning of the race, although it quickly increased as the day began to get hotter thereby increasing snow melt. At the end, there were only 6 finishers that crossed the nearly 500 cfs Oak Creek River. Pretty epic. Surprisingly, each one of those finishers only had good things to say about the route. Look for an updated route next year, perhaps a different direction.

Redo

The Rubio's seemed to be having trouble when we first arrived to meet today. The power in the immediate 4 blocks surrounding Rubio's was completely out, a bad omen for the ride ahead...failure.

Scott seemed to have come prepared by bringing the "big bike." Others of us were not so lucky, failure mechanically.

This is the easy part of the descent.


Duncan, Dave and Scott in the relentless push to the top.



Duncan had some issues with the bike allowing Scott and I to look for some B lines...



Calling redo is always a sign of perseverance never a sign of failure. 4 people and about 15 attempts later, it was still left to continue. Left for another day, perhaps someone else.



Another mishap left a few of us waiting...in good company though. Check out that background.



The final, technical descent down Alamo Canyon is probably the hardest of the entire area. Shouts typically ring out as people are cleaning moves, narrowly scraping their derailleur on some rock, almost crashing.



Only one question remains...next week,when we go up Alamo Canyon, who will clean what and how long will it take to ride that steep, rocky 1.5 miles?

AZSF 2010 in pictures