I Rode My Bike Today...

Yesterday's short ride was a disaster – no groove at all, fumbling, stumbling, bumbling. I was glad it was short and not the big kahuna I've had in mind.

Today was the big kahuna – Coast to Coast to Coast on South Mountain, a 30-mi ride. 13 miles across Mormon/National trail from east to west, then reverse it on National. Rough black desert ST with failure penalties, HAB, views and positions. Plus dirt road miles. I started out feeling decent and ended up doing C2C without stopping. But as we know, these gigs get real in the second half...

On the way back, the fatigue I anticipated never showed up. Halfway back I stopped long enough to drain a little can of Coke, but otherwise motored through, rolling into and through the Waterfall. Sucking Tailwinds the whole time, most of my food still in my pack. Back at the car a short time later, I was nearly stunned to see 6:44 as my time. Mileage and el gain out here is never impressive, 30/3600, but the surface is physical and engaging. Not sure what happened today; I was expecting 8 hours or more.

It took me two days and two rides, but I did find that groove. :geek: High clouds and a breeze were nice. Many users out on the trails, nearly categorically polite.

This is a glorious endurance ride that I believe qualifies as a SoAz test piece, if not a western-US destination epic. Capping it with the run down east Natty is the coup de grace.



Hey, National Trail has a summit register. Right near the radio towers.

Nationalsummit.jpg



Barreling through...

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This was an eventful day. One of us got stung on the mouth by a bee. We lost a rider on Old San Juan. I bonked a little trying something new... One of us got steamrolled into the bushes by a downhill rider... We decided not to press our luck with Viejo Tie. Probably a good decision. :confused:

So it ended up being an excursion to Blue Jay and back down... Still lots of fun. Still chunky... :thumbsup: The trail is still overrun with shuttlers and e-bikes. :thumbsdown: The Hightower was quiet and smooth. All of the drivetrain gremlins from Utah have been exorcised. :inlove:

And one of us had the chance to practice his foreign language skills at Cocktail Rock... I didn't even have to go all the way to Utah this time. :p

20/4000+

Still need 11,000 before the end of the month...

Edit: And there are still some Death Star trenches on Upper San Juan... :D

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singlespeedrider said:
Today I ventured up and rode the Black Canyon Trail from the Bumble bee trail head. The ride was 13 miles of dirt road where we climbed about 2000 feet. Loved the long climb, it felt so good to just stand and grind for a long period. Next 10 miles were all single track and almost all downhill. Flowing with lots of exposure. Next 5 were maybe 97% singletrack with some tough rocky climbs and tech sections that kept you on your toes. Back at the car about 28 miles and 3000 feet total. The singletrack was nice and skinny almost the whole way. Kept you on your toes the whole ride down from the top. The trail head was only about 30 minutes from my house and now that I have a sense of what’s out there it will be one of my go to rides.
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Thanks for sharing the AZ stuff. Please keep it coming!
 
mike said:
Yesterday's short ride was a disaster – no groove at all, fumbling, stumbling, bumbling. I was glad it was short and not the big kahuna I've had in mind.

Today was the big kahuna – Coast to Coast to Coast on South Mountain, a 30-mi ride. 13 miles across Mormon/National trail from east to west, then reverse it on National. Rough black desert ST with failure penalties, HAB, views and positions. Plus dirt road miles. I started out feeling decent and ended up doing C2C without stopping. But as we know, these gigs get real in the second half...

On the way back, the fatigue I anticipated never showed up. Halfway back I stopped long enough to drain a little can of Coke, but otherwise motored through, rolling into and through the Waterfall. Sucking Tailwinds the whole time, most of my food still in my pack. Back at the car a short time later, I was nearly stunned to see 6:44 as my time. Mileage and el gain out here is never impressive, 30/3600, but the surface is physical and engaging. Not sure what happened today; I was expecting 8 hours or more.

It took me two days and two rides, but I did find that groove. :geek: High clouds and a breeze were nice. Many users out on the trails, nearly categorically polite.

This is a glorious endurance ride that I believe qualifies as a SoAz test piece, if not a western-US destination epic. Capping it with the run down east Natty is the coup de grace.



Hey, National Trail has a summit register. Right near the radio towers.

View attachment 60460


Barreling through...

View attachment 60461
Click to expand...
That bike tho:inlove:
 
singlespeedrider said:
I’ve been drinking some San tan but really enjoying the four peaks stuff
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Sweet, good to find your flavors. I never warmed up to Four Peaks, even went to their place in Tempe, and it seemed just okay. Working my way through the San Tan variety 12er. NorCal and CO has ruined it for me. The Phoenix area overall is kind of weak sauce on beer. Or it seems like it relatively.
 
Tom the Bomb said:
Yeeeeeeeeeeeees.......... Probably tomorrow I think.
Been swamped. But of course I did get to ride today!
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Yeah, we did a front range close air support bombing run today with @redwoods thrown in for good measure.
Heinous climb up LSM and the Lowe road led us to Middle Merrill and Sunset. Downhills just as hard as the ups but everyone made it back to base, no mechs, no crashes, no pics-from me. I was having to much fun banging my Ribbon coil into rocks!
Iron Man award to Pat, @redwoods. Dude did the ride on an old skool XC hardtail with a 100 mm fork. That's for a tough 15 miles and 3300 ft of climbing. Oh yeah, it was also a single speed!
Puebla tacos hit the spot for smack talking and gut bombing.
 
Day two of my San Diego adventure: Noble Canyon! The ride yesterday was very social, although a little bit of technical chunk on Black Mountain. Today was the real deal, though! I guess that's why it went from six riders to two! My host Dave and I drove up in separate cars, and he parked at the bottom trailhead in Pine Valley. I drove us up to the Wooded Hill trailhead, and we set loose! Some great singletrack up top, especially the Gatos Ravine playground. We rode there, cruised around the lake, then onto Noble proper. New, new, new dirt, and wow, what a trail! So much chunk. But really cool rideable features. The larger/tougher looking lines usually paid off by being the preferred line. I walked a bit, but held up for the whole ride. The trail is amazing as it has pine forests, oak groves, and desert cactus sections. A lot of fun. We sneaked in just before the storm, might not be rideable there for a while if it snows hard!

Weekend o' fun: https://www.flickr.com/photos/cyclotourist/sets/72157712325944907/

https://www.strava.com/activities/2950446844

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Way to bag the goods Mike. Sounds like you have the moves back!

mike said:
Yesterday's short ride was a disaster – no groove at all, fumbling, stumbling, bumbling. I was glad it was short and not the big kahuna I've had in mind.

Today was the big kahuna – Coast to Coast to Coast on South Mountain, a 30-mi ride. 13 miles across Mormon/National trail from east to west, then reverse it on National. Rough black desert ST with failure penalties, HAB, views and positions. Plus dirt road miles. I started out feeling decent and ended up doing C2C without stopping. But as we know, these gigs get real in the second half...

On the way back, the fatigue I anticipated never showed up. Halfway back I stopped long enough to drain a little can of Coke, but otherwise motored through, rolling into and through the Waterfall. Sucking Tailwinds the whole time, most of my food still in my pack. Back at the car a short time later, I was nearly stunned to see 6:44 as my time. Mileage and el gain out here is never impressive, 30/3600, but the surface is physical and engaging. Not sure what happened today; I was expecting 8 hours or more.

It took me two days and two rides, but I did find that groove. :geek: High clouds and a breeze were nice. Many users out on the trails, nearly categorically polite.

This is a glorious endurance ride that I believe qualifies as a SoAz test piece, if not a western-US destination epic. Capping it with the run down east Natty is the coup de grace.



Hey, National Trail has a summit register. Right near the radio towers.

View attachment 60460


Barreling through...

View attachment 60461
Click to expand...
 
mike said:
Sweet, good to find your flavors. I never warmed up to Four Peaks, even went to their place in Tempe, and it seemed just okay. Working my way through the San Tan variety 12er. NorCal and CO has ruined it for me. The Phoenix area overall is kind of weak sauce on beer. Or it seems like it relatively.
Click to expand...
Can't disagree. But check out Arizona Wilderness brewing if you get the chance. Not a huge distance from Somo. Good food and awesome beer. They didn't distribute in the past, maybe they do now.
 
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